The year 2020 brought upon unique challenges for us all.

But TED, the nonprofit devoted to spreading ideas usually in the form of short, powerful “TED talks,” wanted to continue “spreading ideas” without spreading COVID-19.

So, the challenge? Record high-quality audio and 1080p video TED Talks of speakers from the comfort of their own homes without a crew, and only a webcam.

Even though many of TED’s speakers are renowned experts in their respective fields, some of them are not tech-savvy, and were nervous recording from their residence.

The solution

Fortunately, TED discovered Riverside, which makes it easy for them to record really high-quality video and audio with speakers and participants located all over the world. Everything is recorded locally, meaning that WiFi quality does not impact the quality of the recording, whatsoever.

Riverside is ideal for TED’s wide array of speakers as the platform is easy to use, even for those who are not tech-savvy. Anyone can join a recording with just one click through a shareable link, so anyone with a computer is able to record in up to 4K quality in seconds.

Jamie Bentien, Senior Producer at TED, adds: “it's a few clicks of a button in their perspective in order to facilitate something that other programs will usually make you go through step by steps, tech by tech, and you're always constantly checking and creating documents to help people facilitate how to use a program.”

With Riverside, not only can TED speakers share their stories from their own homes, but producers and directors can also perform their job from their own homes, too.

See Riverside for Business in action.

Riverside has a feature dubbed “producer mode” that enables producers to join the show and be in control of its technical aspects, without being recorded or visible to the people being recorded. At the same time, they can make sure that all participants use the right equipment, and they can also perform sound checks.

Jamie Bentien says that these producer controls are especially helpful in the middle of interviews when you need to interject in the middle to make note of something but don’t want to worry about ruining the whole recording.  

Riverside offers a shared production workspace for teams where the entire organization’s content can be accessed in one, centralized place. This way, different members of TED’s production and editorial teams can access all the different videos whenever they need to.

In addition to recording production-quality audio and video, Riverside.fm helps companies like TED Talks as it simplifies the entire production workflow, and makes file management a breeze.

You can easily share recordings with everyone involved to keep everyone aligned, always.

Jamie Bentien explains how this has made TED’s file management smoother. He says, “Sometimes we'll download the file directly to our computers, review it personally, and then upload it to the editors once complete. But having that feature within the final footage window, allowing you to instantly share all of those clips with your editors has also been very beneficial. Being able to just click, share, and type your editor's email address, and then send it to them so that they can come in, grab the clips that they need.”

At Riverside.fm, we have customers from all over the world, as diverse as TED speakers, each having unique technological needs and preferences. As such, you can have advanced production settings at your fingertips, like being able to choose between several frame rates for each clip.

There’s a reason that organizations like TED have chosen Riverside.fm to help transition their content creation from in the studio, to social-distance-approved quarters like their team’s own living rooms. In addition to giving them all the professional capabilities they’ve grown accustomed to, Riverside.fm is user-friendly and intuitive, making it an excellent platform for qualified producers, directors, and technically challenged hobbyists alike.

See Riverside for Business in action.