Portable Video and Podcast Setup for Travel and Conferences
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When we were away from our studio vacationing with my family in Cali, Colombia, we brought portable video podcasting equipment to record some content. If you don't know, I'm from Colombia.
One piece of content Stephen and I created is a behind-the-scenes video in 2 different locations where we tested all the portable video podcasting gear we packed for our trip.
PORTABLE VIDEO PODCASTING GEAR TEST SITES:
DURING THESE TESTS, WE SHARE:
the gear we packed for podcasting on the go
how to record a video podcast interview with your smartphone
But before we start, if this is your first time here, welcome to the Pod Sound School! I’m Veronica, the marketing director and instructor in our programs.
My job is to help you make a podcast that attracts the right audience so you can hit your personal or business goals.
If you’re a business owner, this is a great time to:
start a podcast to educate prospects about what you do
become a trusted authority in your industry
connect with your customers
To learn more about how podcasting can help you grow your business, get our top video podcasting hacks and gear picks, and stay up to date on the latest news, click here to subscribe to Pod Sound School’s FREE Creator Hub Newsletter.
Okay, now let’s show you what we packed to record our video podcast at a coffee shop!
PACKING THE GEAR AND HITTING THE ROAD
Okay, so before we hit the streets with our portable video podcast escapade, let's take a look at what we packed in our bag.
PORTABLE VIDEO PODCAST GEAR
$57.50 // It’s battery-powered too — you can get about 1.5 hours of light when fully charged.
$24.99 // This allows us to attach the light to a camera or a tripod.
$39.99 // A premium camera desk clamp stand. Alternatively, you can clamp this to a chair.
4. RODE WIRELESS ME DUAL (with 2 transmitters) or RODE WIRELESS ME (with 1 transmitter)
$199.90 or $149 // Easily hold this wireless mic close to your mouth or clip onto your top.
$367 // You can also go with the Rode Wireless Pro which includes 2 lavalier microphones and a smart charge case.
$19.99 // I like traveling with this one because they're cheap.
6. SONY CINEMA LINE FX30 SUPER 35 CAMERA
$1,998 // The travel camera we recommend.
$398
$156.86 // A must-have tripod when you're on the go.
9. EXTRA BATTERIES, POWER ADAPTERS, EXTENSION CABLE
What you want to make sure to remember are extra batteries, all of your power adapters, and a nice thin extension cable.
LOCAL CHALLENGES & MISCONCEPTIONS
As we were getting ready to leave for our content creation escapade, we realized that it was Pico y Placa day or Peak and Plate day. It's a law implemented in 1998 here in Colombia to reduce pollution and traffic congestion. Depending on your license plate number, you’re not allowed to drive on that day of the week. For us, it's Fridays.
The infrastructure, highways, and streets couldn’t handle the growth Colombia experienced in the last few years. This is a desirable place to live, believe it or not. I love my country, but some people think that the only thing that you can find here is drugs. No.
TAKING AN UBER TO CAFÉ VALPARAÍSO
Veronica: I brought my cameraman, a tall, guapo gringo. He's the tallest in Colombia.
Stephen: I'm average in the States but muy alto in Colombia.
Veronica: To get to our filming location at Café Valparaíso, our favorite coffee shop, we used an Uber.
FRIDAY MORNING AT CAFÉ VALPARAÍSO
Café Valparaíso is a five-minute drive from our apartment in Cali. This place is full of colors, art, culture, and history, and the food is a-m-a-z-i-n-g.
We came here on a Friday morning to have breakfast and asked them if they would allow us to record content. And they said yes.
They have a room designed especially for artists, influencers, celebrations, and tourists so if you want to take photos or record content, this room is available.
As you can see, there are many places where I can sit down and record my content.
Our first challenge was finding the right place to sit down and record our video podcast with our portable equipment.
SETTING UP PORTABLE PODCAST EQUIPMENT AND RECORDING IN A COFFEE SHOP
FINDING A RECORDING SPACE WHILE TRAVELING
One of the things we did here in Cali was rent a space in our apartment complex. It was a room, but it was empty — it didn't have any furniture.
When you are trying to find a place to record your content, let's say that you are away from your studio, make sure that you find a place that is already furnished and has a little bit of a personality.
If you are at a conference, talk to people there so they can make a room available for you that’s already furnished. That way you can sit down comfortably, record your video podcast, and do your interviews.
WATCH OUT FOR NOISE
Another thing to watch out for is noise. We have a client right now who is in the middle of an agricultural event in Canada. And he's out in the field recording his video podcast. There's a lot of noise, there's a lot of wind.
If you are outside, make sure you have your microphone close to your mouth so it picks up your voice instead of the wind or any other kind of noise. Doing that will help your editor in post-production.
Here at Café Valparaíso, we don't seem to have a lot of noise but you may be able to hear a little of the amazing music they are playing. However, this room is separate from the restaurant so the music isn’t too loud.
Another thing that we have to pay attention to is the air conditioning that is blowing on us right now, but it doesn't seem to be making a lot of noise.
RULE OF THUMB: Pay attention to the nasty noises and position your microphone closer to your mouth. It can be clipped onto your top, but holding or placing it right next to your mouth would be better in a noisy environment.
SETTING UP THE PORTABLE VIDEO PODCAST GEAR IN CAFÉ VALPARAÍSO
Below we have the Elgato light. This is battery-powered too — you can get about an hour and a half off this light when it's fully charged.
And it’s mounted on this nifty Elgato stand which is amazing because it clamps onto things. So here we clamped it onto this chair to move the light closer to us instead of attaching it to the top of the camera with a shoe mount.
Having the light positioned closer to us, gave us a more flattering complexion, softened shadows on our faces, and made us look as good as possible.
This is a really great, completely portable, battery-operated podcast setup.
And yeah, we held our wireless microphones close to our mouths while recording an episode for our Content Jefe podcast but it's very common to see content creators do that on YouTube.
While holding a wireless microphone is not as aesthetically pleasing as a podcast microphone attached to a stand, you wind up getting really good audio quality on-the-go and it records directly to your camera.
Of course, with the RODE Wireless ME Dual, you can choose to split instead of merge the signal, which means one of these TX (transmitter) units will go to the left side and the other will go to the right side. This is amazing because, during editing, we can isolate the two voices and apply the noise reduction, compression, EQ, and all of that separately for each speaker.
SETTING UP PORTABLE PODCAST EQUIPMENT AND RECORDING AT CONFERENCES AND OUTDOORS
After recording a podcast episode at the coffee shop, we ate lunch and then headed back to our apartment in Cali.
RECORDING A VIDEO PODCAST OUTDOORS
For our last test, we stood on the balcony overlooking the community pool at our apartment. It’s a beautiful setup with a lot of greenery. And you can't see or hear it, but kids are playing in the pool, and music is playing in the background.
You're not going to have the perfect recording conditions every time you are at an event or out and about so it was the perfect scenario for us to test our portable video podcast gear…aside from being eaten alive by mosquitoes 🦟 and moscas 🪰 trying to get in my mouth.
GEAR FOR AN INTERVIEW ON THE GO
Hand your guest a wireless microphone
Put your smartphone on a tripod
Compact light (if needed)
Record your interview
For shooting outdoors, we had our Elgato panel light underneath the phone shining on us because it was 5:45 PM close to 6 PM and was starting to get dark. However, we had to wait because there was too much sun earlier and the shot didn't look good. So that's something that you may run into when filming outside.
RECORDING USING THE RIVERSIDE.FM APP WITHOUT WI-FI
We recorded our video podcast using the Riverside.fm App on my phone and I pretended to interview Stephen.
At a conference, you may run into a situation where you run into your favorite person of influence in your industry and want to interview that person on the spot. But the only thing that you have is your wireless microphone and your smartphone.
What's pretty cool about recording into the Riverside FM app is we are not connected to WI-FI. We were just using the data in Cali, Colombia, I don't think we were on 4G or 5G, it’s a 3G connection, more like a minus 3G connection. Just kidding, we have some technology in Colombia.
When you watch our YouTube video, you can hear and see the audio and video quality we got from recording into the Riverside app on our iPhone and be the judge of how Riverside does when it’s not connected to Wi-Fi.
RECORDING A PODCAST INTERVIEW AT A CONFERENCE
Using wireless microphones, a smartphone on a tripod, and recording with Riverside is such a convenient setup for shooting a podcast interview on the fly at a conference.
If an industry big wig stops by, you can say, “Hey, can I talk to you for a few minutes?” And then you can capture some good-quality audio and your editor can zoom in on the speakers when editing the video.
And if you’re feeling extra ambitious, you can record a whole podcast episode like this just using your smartphone and these RODE Wireless ME microphones.
DEALING WITH UNWANTED BACKGROUND NOISE
As we were recording, we could hear the laughing and screaming of the teenagers in the pool behind us. We love teenagers, we have teenagers.
But this is a good example of what you would hear at an event like a business conference in a city: you're going to have people making a lot of noise, laughing, sometimes uproarious claps, trucks driving by, and traffic.
In all of those situations, it's really important to hold the microphone close to your mouth to eliminate some of that sound.
MANAGING VIDEO FILES RECORDED WITH YOUR SMARTPHONE
Why didn’t we record directly into my smartphone?
The reason for this is that the files are going to be too big and it will be a nightmare for you to transfer those files…if you're even able to do so.
I tried to transfer a large video file from my iPhone onto my computer in the past. I recorded a 45-minute to 1-hour clip of myself during a coaching call with one of my clients, and I could NOT get that video file out of my phone. So that's why we recommend you to record in Riverside.
Recording in Riverside will help with:
file management
organization
ease of use
sharing with your team or editor
So if you're on the road and you work with an editor who already has your Riverside login credentials, then you're good to go because it will already be uploaded online in your Riverside account.
Okay, and that is a wrap. We had a lot of fun recording all this content on the road.
WATCH OUR YOUTUBE VIDEO:
We Tested this portable video and podcast setup for travel and conferences
CONCLUSION
Our trip to Cali, Colombia, with our portable video podcasting gear, has been an eye-opening experience. From the vibrant ambiance of Café Valparaíso to the serene balcony overlooking the pool, we've tested our equipment in diverse settings, proving that creating quality content on the go is entirely possible.
Whether you're recording in a coffee shop, amidst the sights and sounds of the city, or away at a conference, the right gear and a few practical tips can ensure your podcast's success.
The challenges we faced, like finding suitable recording spaces and dealing with background noise, are common for any content creator on the move.
However, with portable gear like the Elgato Key Light Mini and RODE Wireless ME microphones, and tools like the Riverside.fm App, you can achieve professional-quality results even in less-than-ideal conditions.
Preparation and flexibility are key when podcasting outside of a controlled studio environment.
But don't let the fear of imperfect conditions hold you back.
With this budget-friendly, totally doable, 100 percent battery-operated, completely portable video podcast setup, you can easily create engaging and impactful content wherever you are.
Let us know if you’ve tried this setup with recording into Riverside. I want to know your experience and how everything went.
MORE PODCASTING RESOURCES
NEW TO VIDEO PODCASTING AND CONTENT CREATION?
If you are thinking to yourself, “Oh, I want to get into that and I want to get on it right now!” we work with clients one-on-one to help them:
set up their studios
choose the right equipment for their needs and budgets
help them launch their shows
If you're interested in this, make sure you go HERE to get all the information you need and learn more about how we can help you.
LEARN HOW TO BUILD YOUR OWN VIDEO PODCAST STUDIO
Are you new to video podcasting and content creation and want to build a studio in your home or business office but you don’t know where to start?
I created this guide and video to show you how I turned my home office Into a multi-purpose content creation and video podcasting studio.
In this guide, I show you…
all the pieces of equipment I purchased for my studio
how you can set up the equipment
the different tests that we did
It's super fun and super informative so check it out right now.
SUBSCRIBE TO OUR FREE CREATOR HUB NEWSLETTER
To learn more about how podcasting can help you grow your business, get our top video podcasting hacks and gear picks, and stay up to date on the latest news, click here to subscribe to Pod Sound School’s FREE Creator Hub Newsletter.
