GenZation Sentiments
genzation.senti@gmail.com
GenZation Sentiments
Usually, podcasters require only a computer, microphone, and recording software to create audio content for listeners to enjoy. In our case where we stream our podcasts in both video and audio, we need a high-quality camera as well. We aren’t the types of podcasters who have intentions of becoming audio engineers, we’re part of those aspiring podcasters who just want to get our message out there.
For the types of equipment we chose to utilise, there are only two factors our group has taken into consideration—availability and quality. It has to be available for us to use, it must not be something that we need to purchase or spend money on, it must be something we own. Accordingly, it shall produce high-quality. The following equipment has all undergone quality testing and has passed our standards with flying colours! Well, without further do, here is the list of all the equipment we will use in starting our podcast :
A computer is essential to podcasting because you’ll want to use a digital audio workstation (DAW) to produce your show. To achieve a better, more polished, and more professional audio quality in the final episode, recording and editing software must be used. Any computer bought in the last few years has the adequate processing power to do the kind of podcast recording we wish to undertake. You don't need to go out and buy something right soon! We will thus use one of our group members' computers to work (Charles Gonzales).
We’ve decided that in the making of the content, we’ll simply come over to their house and film the whole podcast due to reason that he has the PC we need in order to make the whole stream happen. Subsequently, he is the only member who has a good-quality personal computer that’s compatible with OBS Studio.
The purpose of a computer is to serve as the medium for uploading our streams on both of our chosen platforms—YouTube and Spotify. With this equipment, we will edit the videos, enhance the audio, decorate our Spotify podcast cover, create our very own logo, add music to our podcast episodes, and all of that to greatly intensify the quality of our output by ensuring that all video and audio clips are at their best before publishing it to our respective streaming applications. Charles’ computer is where all the magic begins to occur—from compiling all of the recordings and exporting them!
Some creators like to produce a video podcast. Similar to a typical podcast, but with the added bonus of host videos. If you want video content as well, you’ll need a camera, some lighting equipment, and a recording space that looks decent on camera of course! The group’s facilitator has previously purchased a 1080p webcam for her online classes, however, she decided to just stick with her laptop’s camera whenever opening her cam in online meetings, therefore we decided to use the webcam with a built-in sound-absorbing microphone instead of the inbuilt cameras on our laptops or cellphones since the webcam offers higher quality and better frame rate compared to those built-in cameras.
We recently put the camera through a test to see how well it performs, and it did not disappoint! We’ve reached the decision to utilise this camera to record the episodes of our podcast because the videos we took in the test stage are in fact clear and aesthetically nice.
We firmly believe that for the majority of podcasts, a resolution of 1920 x 1080 (1080p) and a frame rate of 24 fps or 30 fps would suffice. Higher resolutions and frame rates have larger file sizes, which may not be ideal for podcasts if your upload Internet speed is slow or streaming to a platform that does not support higher frame rates.
The camera we're discussing is regarded as an external webcam, which is highly suggested for podcasting! External webcams are already popular with live-streaming communities. External webcams come with dedicated video recording components and usually provide decent good-quality videos. It is mentioned that if you’re going to use a webcam, these are the best cams for podcasting since external webcams suitable for podcasting are known as USB webcams. In other words, you can simply plug them into your computer and start using them right away! They make excellent cameras for live streaming, too. Need proof? Take a look at the number of gamers who stream on Twitch using external webcams. A plethora of content creators makes use of web cameras.
Additionally, this webcam already comes with an integrated microphone that creates films with decent audio quality! We, therefore, thought of using this microphone as our primary sound system. If ever we need audio backup, the equipment below will do the job!
To get your voice into your computer for recording, you need a microphone. Certainly, one does not have to spend a lot of money on one if they aren't concerned with high quality. However, we are aware that the better the quality, the more professional our audio would sound. If the audio quality of a podcast is poor, nobody will listen to it! As a result, we tried a variety of microphones we had on hand and decided to use a phone microphone as a backup or in some other way function as a b-roll but in audio! The bottom line is that a microphone is simply the tech needed to “hear” your voice and send it onward to be recorded somewhere.
We chose this kind of microphone since not only does it offer excellent sound quality in its recording application, it is what’s available to us. Though we desire to go out and purchase a high-end microphone which streamers truly use in their professional streams, as motivated podcasters, we can only make use of what’s on our hands right now.
Besides, recording into a phone can be really convenient! Even though it lacks the flexibility and options of a dedicated digital recorder. Nevertheless, it’s often a great starting point for many, and we can always upgrade our equipment further down the line!
Since we are doing podcasts with our cameras on, uploading video streams on YouTube, we need to have good lighting in our podcast! Even a vlog on YouTube which has horrible lighting would make me exit the video real quick, I would not like that to happen to our video podcasts, would I? That’s the use of the ring light! Although shooting in natural light is highly encouraged, we can’t just film our videos under sunlight since some circumstances may not allow it, it is truly best to have a ring light to stand by on set.
With a ring light, we’d guarantee a video that’s visually appealing to our viewers! Especially when our target audience is generation Z who looks for nothing except how “aesthetic” a video is! According to the group’s facilitator, “The ring light is a year old and has been with me in every film I've made for school. Though it’s not as bright as the first time I used it, it is still working and it does give off great lighting still! So I reasoned, why not use it for the videos we’re about to launch for our podcast, right?”
Not just because we’re doing podcasts means we’re not going to pay attention to the quality of our video. In our case, audio is not the only crucial thing to take into account, also the video because what our group, Genzation, is offering is not limited to Spotify audio podcasts—for more exposure and to reach out to more Gen Zs, we’ll be making use of YouTube to upload videos and that’s where the ring light would play its part.
Most individuals don't start podcasting to assemble a sizable collection of ostentatious and expensive audio equipment. Of course, some people do wind up doing that, but you most certainly don't have to. In order to concentrate on our actual content rather than whether or not our complex system of gears is functioning well, we believe it is preferable to start out simply. Undoubtedly, as one advance, one can make minor adjustments to and occasionally improve their equipment.