Skip to Content
GuidesRemote Recording

Remote Recording Guide

This guide covers the complete workflow for recording interviews and discussions with remote guests.

Requirement: Hosting needs a Pro plan (4 participants) or Team plan (8 participants). Guests need nothing — no account, no plan, no download.

Overview

Remote recording is perfect for:

  • Interview podcasts
  • Co-hosted shows
  • Panel discussions
  • Collaborative content

Each participant records locally at full quality while everyone talks in real time. When the session ends, guest tracks upload to you automatically.

Before the Session

Host Preparation

Technical setup:

  1. Verify your plan is active
  2. Test your microphone and camera
  3. Ensure a stable internet connection
  4. Decide how you’ll send the invite link

Communication:

  1. Schedule the recording time
  2. Send guests the setup note below
  3. Have a backup channel (phone, text) in case someone can’t get in

Guest Preparation

What guests need:

  • The invite link from you
  • A microphone (and optionally a camera)
  • An internet connection
  • Chrome, Edge, or Safari 16.4+ — or the Capturly desktop or mobile app

Instructions to send guests:

I’ll send you a link shortly before we record. To join:

  1. Open the link in Chrome, Edge, or Safari — nothing to install, no account needed
  2. Allow camera and microphone access when your browser asks
  3. Enter your name and wait for me to let you in
  4. Confirm you’re ready when prompted

If you’d like to check your setup in advance, the free Capturly Check  extension scores your mic and camera.

Please use headphones — it stops your speakers bleeding into the recording.

Starting the Session

Host: create the session

  1. Start a session from the desktop app, the web app, or mobile
  2. Copy the invite link
  3. Share it with your guests
  4. Admit each guest from the green room as they arrive

The link contains a 6-character room code (e.g. A7B3C9). Desktop and web guests can type that code by hand instead. Mobile guests need the full link — the code alone won’t work there.

Guest: join

  1. Open the invite link
  2. Allow camera and microphone access
  3. Enter a display name
  4. Wait to be admitted
  5. Confirm ready

Verifying Connection

Before recording, check:

  • All participants admitted and visible
  • Audio levels moving for everyone
  • Video feeds displaying correctly
  • Everyone can hear each other
  • Everyone has confirmed ready

Quick audio check:

  • “Can everyone hear me clearly?”
  • “Say something so I can see your level move”

Recording

Starting (host only)

  1. Confirm everyone is ready
  2. Give a verbal countdown: “Starting in 3, 2, 1…”
  3. Click Start Recording
  4. Pre-flight checks run for all participants
  5. The sync beep is placed at the head of each take
  6. Recording indicators turn red

During Recording

Everyone sees:

  • Recording indicator
  • Timer showing elapsed time
  • Other participants’ video feeds
  • Audio levels for each person

As host, you also see per-participant recording state on each tile — so if someone’s recorder stops, you find out during the session rather than after it. You’ll get an alert if a recorder stops mid-take or a participant’s cloud backup fails.

What’s being recorded:

  • Each person records their OWN audio and video, locally
  • You do NOT record other participants’ streams — the call is a preview
  • Session quality follows your plan: participants default to 1080p, and your plan’s audio and watermark settings govern every track

Communication Tips

For natural conversation:

  • Speak one at a time when possible
  • Use visual cues (nodding, hand gestures)
  • Don’t interrupt — overlapping speech is harder to edit
  • Keep questions clear and open-ended

Technical awareness:

  • Watch audio levels throughout
  • Note if anyone’s connection looks unstable
  • Keep an eye on the REC state of each tile

Handling Disconnections

Local recording continues on every device throughout — a dropped connection never stops anyone’s capture.

Who droppedWindow
A guest2 minutes to reconnect
The host30 seconds before the room closes

A guest who rejoins mid-take has their recorder restarted automatically, and a guest who was already admitted doesn’t need approving twice.

If the host is gone longer than the window, guests should stop their own recordings — their local files and any cloud backup are safe.

Stopping (host only)

  1. Finish your conversation
  2. Leave a brief pause for editing
  3. Click Stop Recording
  4. Recording stops for ALL participants
  5. Each participant’s track uploads automatically

Ask guests to stay until their upload finishes. Closing the tab mid-upload leaves the take unfinished — recoverable, but it’s extra work.

After Recording

Collecting the recordings

There’s nothing to collect. When the session ends, every participant’s track uploads over signed, single-purpose URLs and appears in your cloud library, attributed to whoever recorded it. No emails, no shared drives, no WeTransfer links.

What to do:

  1. Open your library
  2. Confirm a track is present for every participant
  3. Download what you need — the library keeps recordings for 30 days

If a track is missing

An upload that never completed shows up in the library’s Unfinished uploads panel. From there you can recover it, save it to the library, or discard it. On a Team plan, org admins can do this for any member’s stranded take.

Only if a guest never connected at all do you need to ask them for the file directly — their local copy is still on their machine.

Organizing for post

Once downloaded, a session folder might look like:

Session_2026-01-21/
├── A7B3C9_John_2026-01-21_143022_audio.wav
├── A7B3C9_John_2026-01-21_143022_video.mp4
├── A7B3C9_Sarah_2026-01-21_143022_video.mp4
└── A7B3C9_Mike_2026-01-21_143022_video.mp4

The session ID is the same across every participant’s files. Guests recording in the browser produce a single MP4; desktop guests also produce a WAV.

Session Planning

Pre-Session Checklist

One week before:

  • Confirm date/time with guests
  • Send the joining instructions
  • Schedule a tech check if anyone’s unsure

One day before:

  • Remind guests of the time
  • Prepare your questions or outline
  • Test your own setup
  • Verify your plan is active

One hour before:

  • Set up your recording environment
  • Launch Capturly and test devices
  • Check you have disk space
  • Have your backup channel ready

During-Session Checklist

  • Create the session and share the link
  • Admit each guest
  • Verify everyone’s audio and video
  • Confirm ready checks are green
  • Start recording
  • Monitor REC state throughout
  • Stop recording when complete
  • Wait for uploads to finish

Post-Session Checklist

  • Confirm a track per participant in your library
  • Check the Unfinished uploads panel if one’s missing
  • Download everything
  • Back up the raw files
  • Begin post-production

Best Practices

For Hosts

Before: run a test session before the real thing; prepare a run sheet; send clear joining instructions.

During: be the director — manage timing and flow; note key moments for editing; watch for technical trouble on the tiles.

After: verify every track landed; thank participants; follow up on anything unfinished.

For Guests

Before: open the link a few minutes early; test your setup; use a wired connection if you can.

During: wear headphones; watch your audio level; speak one at a time.

After: stay until the upload finishes; keep your local copy until the host confirms.

For Everyone

  • Quiet space with minimal echo
  • Good, front-facing lighting for video
  • Stable internet
  • Headphones to prevent feedback

Common Scenarios

Interview (1 host + 1 guest)

Host creates the session and shares the link; guest joins; two tracks land in the library.

Co-hosted show (2 hosts + guests)

Decide who creates the session — that person’s plan governs quality and capacity, and their library collects the tracks.

Panel discussion

Pro sessions hold 4 people, Team sessions hold 8. More participants means more crosstalk to edit, so consider a stricter one-at-a-time convention.

Recurring show

Use a Studio instead of a fresh link each week — guests bookmark one URL and reuse it. Team plan.

Someone can’t make it

Send them a Campaign and collect their contribution asynchronously. Team plan.

Troubleshooting

Guest can’t join

  1. Confirm they opened the full invite link — especially on mobile
  2. Check they’re on Chrome, Edge, or Safari (Firefox is not supported)
  3. Verify they allowed camera and microphone access
  4. Check their internet connection
  5. Confirm you admitted them from the green room

Poor call quality

  1. Check internet speeds at both ends
  2. Close bandwidth-heavy apps
  3. Switch to wired ethernet
  4. Reduce preview quality — it doesn’t affect the recording

Recording doesn’t start

  1. Only the host can start recording
  2. Check everyone has completed the ready check
  3. Check disk space on all devices
  4. Look for pre-flight error messages

Next Steps

Last updated on
Solo RecordingPost-Production