Key takeaways:
Outsourced video shoots can cost up to $25K
Socialive makes it easy to record high-quality video from anywhere
Remote recordings are immediately available to edit or publish
Video teams know all too well how difficult it is to execute projects that include widely distributed talent. We’ve covered the costly logistics of either sending a camera crew or bringing people to a centralized location — which can cost businesses as much as $25,000 per video.
Remote recording sessions cut out all the travel costs and make it easier to include everyone in videos. But how else are remote recording sessions beneficial to enterprise video teams?
Using an end-to-end video creation platform — purpose-built to remotely record video, edit it, and then publish — allows video teams to create professional-grade videos in a flexible environment.
So much of what happens behind the scenes also adds to the cost of each video. Just ask VMware, their team saved around $1000 per video by streamlining the back-end process.
Here’s how video teams can create crisp and clear recordings that won’t run up the budget while ensuring talent always crafts the perfect take.
Flexible, professional video recordings in Socialive
Quality always comes first. It’s non-negotiable, and cost-saving solutions can’t sacrifice high quality.
When we say “professional quality,” we mean both pristine picture quality and branded assets within the video. It’s the combination of these two factors that create a professional look and feel.
This is where the end-to-end functionality of Socialive — one platform to record, add that extra bit of polish, and then publish — guarantees quality at every step.
With recordings in up to 4K, cloud-to-cloud file transfers that maintain full resolution, and the ability to add previously created graphics and overlays in a drag-and-drop editor, teams can add professional quality in an instant.
Cost-cutting video recording workflows
The most consistent cost-reduction video teams see is in the amount of time the platform saves.
Executives and leaders over large creative teams will be happy to know that you don’t need to overhaul the operation to reduce the cost of each video created. It comes down to tweaks to what teams are already doing.
Much of what video teams do to create content will remain the same — it’s the how and the where that shifts.
Taking VMware as an example, the creative team for the aforementioned global technology company simply changed some of the back-end logistics without a rip-and-replace approach. Socialive built on top of their existing infrastructure and connected a previously disjointed process.
Maintain quality with producer-led sessions
The conundrum many video teams face is the thought of losing control by giving talent complete autonomy.
This may sound like a quality issue, but don’t forget that most video teams are already at capacity — there’s no time for reshoots. Each additional hour the final video is pushed out costs your team in productivity and makes the entire project more expensive.
Think of who you want to feature — busy executives, salespeople in the field, internal thought leaders, or other individual contributors. They might all be great in front of the camera, but they lack the experienced eye of a video expert.
Socialive makes it easy to set up a guided recording session and then invite talent to join. Producers manage from behind the scenes, give tips on lighting and framing, and can help guide talent to deliver the perfect take.
The ultimate goal is to strike a balance where your talent is given enough guidance on the front end so that they can get after it on their own in a guided format.
An HD camera and screen recorder like Socialive’s Recording Booth works well to let talent record on their own schedule but still provide guardrails.
Crowdsourcing content in this way is an efficient process, but it doesn’t come at the cost of quality.
Record anywhere with any device
The biggest benefit of remote video recording is that it’s … remote. Any place, any time, with any device, you’ll get great picture quality.
The ideal state is that everyone in your organization would have their own professional camera and audio equipment and record from a sound-proof, well-lit room.
But expensive equipment isn’t always necessary. Most mobile devices record in 4K, even up to 8K, and it’s fairly straightforward to hook up a high-quality external microphone.
No matter what device you want to use — from a webcam to a DSLR or even professional studio cameras — Socialive uses these cameras as sources in your recording session. Same goes for self-guided content creation.
This flexibility means that video teams can get similar studio-quality results without the logistics of traveling to a studio.
Even if you’ve already invested in your own in-house studio, have your own equipment, and talent lives nearby, Socialive seamlessly connects every disjointed part of the video creation process.
Everything saved in one place
Who’s ever had to ask an executive to hunt down a video file from a self-guided recording? How long does it take for files to download and upload files from one place to another — or worse, manually transfer media from hard drives or memory cards?
With Socialive, there’s no need to wait for files to transfer. The instant they are recorded, everything is transferred to a centralized recording library. No need to ship equipment or any hardware back and forth.
Plus, the platform always keeps the recording at its original resolution, up to 4K. It’s immediately ready to edit or publish, further accelerating the creation process.
For VMware, this created the bulk of their $1000 savings per video. They eliminated the need for any physical hardware for storage and transfer, plus each video project is now completed quicker. Just the ability to instantly transfer video from recording to editing to review and the final destination — all through Socialive — produced a massive ROI for VMware.
Remote recording vs. studio recording: a cost breakdown
In addition to the time saved in the creation process, there are fixed costs associated with studio-bound recording sessions.
We go further in-depth on this cost comparison in another post on the ROI of changing from a studio-first model, but here’s a quick breakdown.
Travel costs
Studio recording: Approximately $470 per day per person for anyone traveling from out of town.
Remote recording: Nothing. There is no need for travel.
Freelance video personnel
Studio recording: The range is anywhere from $25 per hour to $400 per hour per person. So this could cost between $200 and $3000 per person per day for an 8-hour shoot.
Remote recording: Again, this figure could be cut to $0. Unless you outsource script writing or editing, you likely won’t need extra hands for remote recording sessions.
Studio space and equipment rentals
Studio recording: The conservative estimate is $50 per hour to rent studio space. For an 8-hour shoot, the daily cost is $400. If you need to rent equipment, that’s at least an additional $25 per hour, another daily cost of $200.
Remote recording: Well, unless you have the burning desire to use a location you need to rent, the studio cost is guaranteed $0. The equipment cost is up to you, but as we’ve stated, Socialive enables you to get crisp picture quality without budgeting for the most expensive hardware on the market. But if you have top-end equipment, you can still use it to record.
Your team’s time
Studio recording: Taking Akamai as an example, the studio-bound approach doubled the time it took to create each video.
Remote recording: With Socialive, Akamai cut the time it takes to create a video in half. They’ve saved 12–24 hours in editing time and file transfers and create about 30% more content each month without spending more money.
Final tally
Heading to a studio adds around $1000 to the cost of each video and massively reduces the productivity of each video team. Creating professional-quality recordings with an end-to-end video creation platform is the clear winner.
Of course, these are just approximations, but they should give you an idea of what’s possible. The remote video recording workflow might not be perfect for each and every video, but for projects that don’t warrant a $25,000 spend for the final video, remote recording is the perfect solution.
This is where Socialive powers the growing middle of video creation. Teams are able to create more video content with the same resources in place without sacrificing quality.
Cost-effective video creation with Socialive
Remote recording isn’t just for “in a pinch” scenarios, it’s the first step to an efficient, cost-effective way to create videos. A platform like Socialive guarantees high quality every step of the way.
With Socialive’s end-to-end video creation platform, teams can record what they want, how they want. Let your team use any device, and our platform instantly moves the video to the next phase. When using an automated video editor, the ROI then truly takes off.
This all saves enterprise teams like VMware’s events team thousands of dollars per project and enabled them to create more video content without spending more money.
See how much your team could save in video creation. Get a true estimate of your video ROI from remote recordings and schedule time with one of our video experts.
