Upgrading your podcast with video doesn’t have to be hard. With just an iPhone, microphone and your MacBook you can start recording professional looking video for your podcast in minutes with . Let’s dive in…

Grow your podcast with video

Video is getting more important for podcasts. Podcast platforms like Spotify, Apple Podcasts, Podimo, and YouTube support video episodes. The audience for podcasts is growing, and much of that growth comes from a video first audience on platforms like YouTube and Spotify.

Investing in video is critical to promote your podcast on social media and grow your audience. The good news is that you can record full video episodes and highlight clips to share on Instagram, YouTube Shorts, LinkedIN, TikTok, or Twitter in minutes - without investing much in new equipment or juggling multiple tools.

Detail for iOS

You don't need a complex setup to start video podcasting. With the free app Detail for iOS you can shoot a video podcast with a single iPhone. This simple iOS app lets you record video from your front and rear facing cameras at the same time so you can set the iPhone up between you and your guest and capture the whole conversation in one take.

Then you can adjust the layout and colors of your video and share your videos straight to social media. If you just want a lightweight way to start recording your video podcast, this is the quickest way to get started.

Detail for iOS

Single camera setup

One of the simplest ways to start with video is using a single camera setup to record your guest and yourself in a single shot. You can record using the webcam on your Mac, but the quality of most webcams is very mediocre. If you install USB Camera for Detail Studio on your iPhone, you can use your iPhone camera as a camera on your Mac. The quality of your iPhone camera is great and much better than most webcams.

Gear list

• Mac (M1/M2) with Detail Studio

• iPhone or iPad (optional) with USB Camera for Detail Studio

• USB (lightning) cable

• Microphone (one or two)

Getting started in two minutes

1. Install Detail Studio on your Mac

2. Install USB Camera for Detail Studio on your iPhone

3. Connect your microphone or RodeCaster to your Mac (USB or audio cable)

4. Connect your iPhone with a USB lightning cable to your Mac

5. Create a Scene and select your iPhone camera in Detail

6. Select your microphone in Detail

7. Hit record 🔴

If your Mac and iPhone run the latest versions of macOS and iOS, you can use Continuity Camera to connect your iPhone wired or wirelessly to your Mac. This will give you a great quality 1080p camera to record your podcast. You can also install our camera app Detail for iOS on your iPhone. If you use Detail for iOS to connect your camera to Mac, you can select which lens you want to use and connect multiple iPhones or iPads to record different camera angles at the same time.

Two camera setup (or more)

Detail for Mac makes it super simple to record multiple camera angles and audio simultaneously, and makes it just as easy to edit your video podcast. You can record, edit, and share video episodes without having to juggle different tools, manually syncing audio and video recordings, and spending hours in complicated video editors.

Gear list

• Mac (M1/M2) with Detail Studio

• Two iPhones or iPads with USB Camera for Detail Studio

• USB cables for iPhones or iPads

• Microphone (one or two)

• USB or Thunderbolt hub (optional)

If you have two iPhones or an iPhone and iPad, you can easily add a second or even third camera angle to your podcast. This way you can record yourself and your guest, and capture your conversation in a much more engaging way.

Capturing your podcast with different camera angles gives you great footage to really capture the story and draw your audience into the conversation. It makes a full length episode much more interesting to watch, and gives you everything you need to create captivating short clips

Getting started in two minutes

1. Install Detail Studio on your Mac

2. Install USB Camera for Detail Studio on your iPhone

3. Connect your microphone or RodeCaster to your Mac (USB or audio cable)

4. Connect your iPhones or iPads with a USB lightning cable to your Mac

5. Create a Scene with each camera in Detail Studio

6. Select your microphone in Detail Studio

7. Hit record 🔴

If you have another spare iPhone or iPad (or the guests iPhone), you can mix in a third camera angle. A great camera setup is two close-ups, one for yourself and one for your guest, and a wide angle that captures both of you.

Continuity Camera and the USB Camera for Detail iOS app support wireless connections, but connecting over USB gives you a more stable connection and better picture quality. Some MacBook models have a limited number of USB ports, but with a simple powered USB-C or Thunderbolt hub you can connect more devices. If you use a hub, it is best to connect a single camera and your microphone to the hub, and connect the other iPhone or iPad to the second USB-c port on your Mac. Your camera will use more bandwidth than an audio device – so it’s typically best to connect the cameras to different USB-C ports of your Mac instead of a single hub.

Connecting other cameras

Detail works with any camera connected to your Mac. You can use a webcam, iPhone, iPad, GoPro, or connect a DSLR or mirrorless camera using USB or a capture card. Most recent DSLR, pocket, or mirrorless cameras have some sort of webcam functionality, but most of the devices output low resolution and quality video when you connect them to your Mac. To get great quality video output from your camera, you can use a HDMI capture card that takes the HDMI output from your camera and connects to USB on your Mac.

Gear list

• Mac (M1/M2) with Detail Studio

• DSLR, mirrorless, or pocket camera with HDMI output

• HDMI capture card (CamLink or generic brand)

• HDMI cable to connect camera to capture card

• USB charger or dummy battery to keep your camera charged

• iPhone or iPad with USB Camera for Detail Studio (optional)

• USB cables for iPhones or iPads (optional)

• Microphone (one or two)

• USB or Thunderbolt hub (optional)

You can connect one or more mirrorless or DSLR cameras in Detail and mix in an iPhone, iPad or webcam for another angle. Ideally, you use the best camera for your most important angle. That can be either an overview shot for you and your guest, or the close up of your guest.

If you connect your camera with a HDMI capture card to your Mac, you can record high-quality video on your Mac directly and easily record professional multi-cam video and multi-channel audio without investing in an expensive video switcher like the ATEM Mini Pro. When you record with Detail, you record all video and audio tracks separately, and can easily switch between camera angles after you recorded. If you connect your camera, be sure to set the HDMI output to NTSC and 30 FPS for the best quality.

Watch this video for some tips on how to connect different camera’s to your Mac, to record, edit, and share your podcasts in one seamless flow:

Record, edit, and share with Detail Studio

When you record with Detail Studio, we record the audio tracks of your select microphone or podcast device. When you hit record, we automatically record the video and audio on your Mac in sync.

If you connect a device like the RodeCaster, VideoMic Wireless Go II, or AI Micro with USB, Detail will record multi-channel audio for your podcast. No need to fiddle with SD cards or trying to sync up your audio and video tracks after recording in complicated editors.

Every camera that you connect to Detail Studio and use a in a Scene will be recorded. You set up different scenes for each camera and just hit record. You can just focus on your conversation and don’t need to switch between camera angles while you’re recording. After you stop recording, you can easily replay the entire episode and switch between your camera angles.

If you have help during the recording, they can switch live between the camera angles during the conversation – which gives you an edited timeline that you can continue to edit afterwards or instantly publish.

After you recorded and edited your video podcast, you can export the entire episode as a video to publish on YouTube, Spotify, Apple Podcast, or other platforms. Seamlessly switch between vertical and horizontal video and create combo scenes for interesting side-by-side shots for short clips and your long form video. You can also export just the audio track as a WAV file.

Promote your podcast with zero effort

Detail can automatically generate highlights, suggested titles, tags, and a full transcript of your podcast episode. You can generate the content to promote your video for any exported video in your Detail Library.

Just click the “Create Highlights” button for your video and a few minutes later you’ll have everything you need to promote your podcast episode on Instagram, Twitter, LinkedIN, or other platforms.

Read about this powerful feature in this post.

Need help?

We’d love to help you upgrade your podcast with video and grow your audience. Send us a note if you have any questions about recording and editing with Detail, recommendations for gear, or need help to get started with video content.

Looking for more tips for your video podcast? Check out these tips and tricks on how to get started, find your space, lighting, and gear.