How to live stream a podcast with remote guests

What a good remote recording needs

Three things separate a remote episode that sounds like a studio from one that sounds like a call.

• A track for every voice. When each guest is recorded apart, you can lift one person’s level, cut a cough or tidy crosstalk without touching anyone else.
• A recording made close to the guest. A connection that stutters for a second should not stutter in the recording, so the best recordings are made in each guest’s own browser and uploaded after the show.
• Headphones for everyone. Without them, a guest’s speakers play the others’ voices back into their microphone, and the echo is recorded with them.

Invite guests without making them install anything

In Lumbus each guest gets a link to a seat in your studio. They open it in a browser on a computer or a phone, pick their camera and microphone, share their screen if you want it, and wait off screen until you bring them on. There is no app to install and no account to make. A link works for 24 hours, so send it the day before, not the week before.

Studio takes four guests on screen at once, Studio Plus six, Studio Pro and Studio Max eight; Free takes two. On Studio Pro and Studio Max a guest can also add their own platform, so a co-host’s channel carries the episode too.

Get every voice right

Ask each guest for a quiet room, a USB or wired microphone if they have one, and headphones. A laptop’s own microphone in a quiet room beats an expensive one in a kitchen.

Every guest and every source has its own volume, mute, noise suppression and a live meter. Bring each guest on before the show starts, watch their meter while they talk at their normal volume, and set the levels so nobody has to be turned up later.

Speak one at a time when you can. Separate tracks make crosstalk fixable, but the edit is quicker when people leave a breath between turns.

Run the episode

Set up scenes for the shapes the show takes: the host alone for the opening, two or three people side by side for the conversation, a shared screen when someone shows something. Lower thirds carry each guest’s name in your brand kit’s colours.

Comments from YouTube, Twitch and Kick arrive in one panel, and one tap puts a listener’s question on screen for the guests to answer. Put a Starting soon scene up while the audience gathers and an Ending scene when you close.

If your own connection drops, the studio keeps every platform connected with Be right back and goes live again when your signal returns.

Go live and record at the same time

The studio records the programme, the mix your viewers see, and a separate video and audio track for every guest and every feed, on every plan. From Studio Plus it also records a clean feed beside the programme, without the overlays, and records landscape and vertical at once.

From Studio Plus, each guest can also record their own camera in full quality in their browser, up to 4K, while the episode goes out; it uploads after the show. That is the recording a connection hiccup never touches.

Send the episode to YouTube and the other platforms your audience uses, 5 at once on Studio and up to 20 on Studio Max, and to your own watch page, one link anyone can open without an account.

After the episode: the edit, the audio feed and clips

Every recording downloads as standard MP4 files that open in Premiere Pro, Final Cut Pro, DaVinci Resolve or CapCut: the programme, each guest’s own video, or the sound alone. Trim it in the library first if all it needs is a clean start and end.

For the audio feed, make an audio file from the recording and publish it wherever your podcast is listed.

Lumbus finds the moments worth posting and cuts them as clips, landscape or vertical, with subtitles: 10 exports a month on Studio, 40 on Studio Plus, 100 on Studio Pro and 250 on Studio Max. You can also clip a moment yourself while you are live.

Which plan suits a podcast

Free fits a first episode: two guests, 2 platforms and 2 hours live a month, with the Lumbus logo and our websites on the picture. Studio fits a regular show with up to four guests and unlimited live hours.

Studio Plus is the podcaster’s plan: six guests, each guest’s own full-quality recording, the clean feed, landscape and vertical at once, and a second seat for a producer. Studio Pro and Studio Max take eight guests, let guests add their own platform, and add priority support.

Studio Pro is free for three days with eight hours on air and no card, enough to record a pilot with everything switched on.