Podcast Studio

With Podcast Studio you can record a podcast in your browser window without installing any additional software. It is recommended to use either the Google Chrome or Firefox web browsers.

Podcast Studio can be accessed here.

Recorded videos can be uploaded to the Podcast Video Portal and saved to your computer (details provided below).

Important points

Audio – you will need a microphone to record audio on your podcast. The in-built microphone in a laptop will work, although for better quality, you may wish to use an external mic/headset.

Please note that system audio is not recorded due to browser limitations – so if you play a video or audio clip on your machine whilst recording, the audio from it will not be recorded. We recommend either uploading such clips separately (if you produced them) or providing a link to them elsewhere.

Video – Podcast Studio can record the following sources:

  • Display only – which can be the entire screen, or a specific application window, for example a Powerpoint presentation
  • Camera only – if a webcam is connected, you can choose to include video of yourself
  • Both display and camera – both will be recorded and displayed side-by-side.

Note – it is not possible to change the sources once you begin recording – the selected options will be used for the entire duration of the recording.

Screen recording permissions – in most cases you will be required to grant the browser the ability to record the display (which is usually done via a popup box where you select ‘allow’. On Macs (version 10.15 onward) the browser will need to be granted screen recording permissions, details on how to do this can be found here.

Saving a recording to your computer – you may wish to save a podcast recorded in Podcast Studio so you can edit it yourself. When you save a podcast, the format will vary depending upon the operating system and browser used.

In most cases the file produced will be a .webm file which should be compatible with most editing software, however it may need to be converted to a different format, for example MP4, if there are any issues.

Using Podcast Studio

  1. Login to Podcast Studio in your browser
  2. We recommend opening the application you wish to record before choosing a source. For example, if you want to record a presentation as part of the podcast, ensure it is already open in another window.
  3. Choose the sources you want to record for the podcast (as detailed above).
  4. When choosing display, a popup will appear which allows you to select what you want to record (you may need to grant permissions to the browser to access your display/camera). The options for selecting what to record appear slightly differently depending on the browser you are using, but in general they are:
    • Your entire display: whatever you see will be recorded
    • Choose a specific application window: you can choose to share Powerpoint, for example, or a browser tab/window
  5. Your selected sources will be shown in Podcast Studio. You can hide the sharing bar which appears on the bottom of the screen by pressing hide, if you select stop sharing, you will need to pick a source again.
  6. Press next to continue.
  7. Choose whether to record audio or have no audio on the podcast. If you choose to record audio, the screen will show an option to pick a microphone to use. Press next to continue.
  8. To change any of the options you’ve already chosen, use the back button, otherwise you can press the record button (red circle) to begin the recording.
  9. Once you have finished, press the stop button and you will be shown a preview of the recording.
  10. In this simple preview editor you are only able to remove sections from the beginning and end of your recording.
    Trim the start: play the video or click on the green playback bar to get to the point you want the video to start at. Click the ‘set current time as start‘ button, which looks like this :podcast studio trim start button.
    Trim the end: find the point of the video where you want the recording to end, and click the ‘set current time as end‘ button, which looks like this: podcast studio trim end button.
  11. Choose to discard and record again if you wish, or press next to continue.
  12. Add a title, choose where the video should be uploaded to, its visibility setting and tick the option to edit before publishing if you wish. Choosing this option will put your recording into the Podcast Video Editor so you can remove additional sections (rather than just the start and end). If this option is selected, you will receive an email to the editor.
  13. Press upload to upload the video to the Video Portal. You can also choose to save the recording to your device – recordings for display and webcams are saved as individual files which can then be edited in your own editing software if you wish.
  14. Once the upload has been processed – you will receive an email with a link to view it.

If you experience any issues when uploading, please see the Podcast Studio issues page.