SquadCaster Roundtable: v5, The Hunt, Safari Browsers, and More

00:00:00:20 – 00:00:20:12
Arun
Hello, everyone. This is Arun. I know what you’re thinking. I tune into Between Two Mics and thought of listening to Zach and Rock of SquadCast. But you’re thinking, Who is this guy? Before we get to Zach and Rock, I want to tell you a bit about our podcast that has been produced and recorded via SquadCast

00:00:20:12 – 00:00:41:13
Arun
through and through. It’s called SKRAPS. Scraps with a k and the word sparks spelled backwards. We explore the stories of sparks of scientific brilliance. For example, why does a mother rub the back of a child for pain relief if the child had stubbed its toe on the playground?

00:00:41:26 – 00:00:57:04
Arun
Or what did cuttlefish fashion barbecue have to do with the Iraq War and cardiac bioengineering? So check out all of the fascinating episodes on our podcast channel SKRAPS. Now, let’s get back to Zach and Rock.

00:00:57:10 – 00:00:58:18
Arun
And the Between Two Mics Team.

00:01:10:10 – 00:01:14:18
Zach
Welcome to Between Two Mics, the remote recording podcast from SquadCast FM. I’m Zach.

00:01:14:28 – 00:01:18:15
Rock
And I’m Rock, and we’re the co-founders of SquadCast.

00:01:19:05 – 00:01:30:24
Zach
And on this show we bring you conversations with leaders in the content space, specifically the audio landscape. We bring you podcast recommendations, we share product updates and so much more.

00:01:31:13 – 00:01:39:29
Rock
All of this is recorded on SquadCast.FM. The best place to record remote content in studio quality. Head to SquadCast.FM for a free trial.

00:01:40:26 – 00:01:42:06
Zach
And now onto the show.

00:01:45:00 – 00:01:59:11
Arielle
Welcome to Between Two Mics, the remote recording podcast, my name’s Arielle Nissenblatt, and I am the community manager of SquadCast. Very excited to be sort of hosting this episode. Zach, Rock and Alex are here. Zach, of course, is our CEO and CTO and co-founder.

00:01:59:17 – 00:02:16:00
Arielle
Rock is our CFO and co-founder, and Alex is our CDO Chief Design Officer. And we’ve got so much talent here behind the mic today, and I am here hosting this episode because a lot of cool things have happened for SquadCast in the past month and a half or so.

00:02:16:00 – 00:02:23:22
Arielle
We’re recording this in mid-January, and I want to talk to these beautiful boys about what went on. Sorry to call you that. Is that an H.R. violation?

00:02:23:22 – 00:02:27:23
Rock
That paperwork is getting lost, any complaints got.

00:02:27:23 – 00:02:27:28
Zach
Weird. (Everyone Laughs)

00:02:28:08 – 00:02:45:00
Arielle
So we are going to talk all about the SquadCast scavenger hunt. We’re going to talk all about SquadCast now being available on Safari browsers and in beta on iPhone and iPad. We’re going to talk a little bit about V5 and what’s to come for SquadCast in the year 2022.

00:02:45:05 – 00:02:57:20
Arielle
But before we do, a quick check in would love to hear from the roundtable in front of me in the SquadCast session. What are you all listening to lately? What is in your earbuds? Podcast recommendations, music otherwise?

00:02:57:20 – 00:03:00:20
Arielle
Alex, what are you listening to this week?

00:03:00:20 – 00:03:07:10
Alex
I’ve been actually mainly listening to music, to be honest. I haven’t really listened to many podcasts the start of the year.

00:03:07:28 – 00:03:10:11
Arielle
So what is it? What’s what’s on tap? What’s in the earbuds?

00:03:11:11 – 00:03:32:15
Alex
Random mixes on Apple Music, everything from a replay of 2021 to just go into my my actual library and listening to everything from country to Taylor Swift to dubstep to Kane Brown, yeah. Anything that that makes sound.

00:03:32:27 – 00:03:37:16
Arielle
Love it. Love it. Thank you, Alex. Zach, what about you? What are you listening to podcasts or otherwise?

00:03:37:29 – 00:03:57:00
Zach
Yeah, podcasts. I am listening to a couple of different shows on the Theranos trial and kind of how that story’s been playing out. And then and then I’ve also been listening to some music like Kid Cudi. And yeah, I been listening to a few different things, mostly musical.

00:03:57:00 – 00:04:00:16
Zach
I drive. I like to. I like bass. I like beats while I drive.

00:04:01:06 – 00:04:06:11
Arielle
You’ve been Rocking out lately. Yes. Awesome. Thank you, Zach. What about you, Rock?

00:04:06:11 – 00:04:22:07
Rock
Yeah, So for me, the usuals, as always, are like Robin Hood snacks. Stay up on the business stuff. There’s another one called all in with like Chamath Palihapitiya, Jason Calacanis. Get on a show. Some other rich dudes you talk about, like the tech scene, economic stuff like that.

00:04:22:07 – 00:04:39:23
Rock
So that’s always interesting, especially with how crazy 2022 is already starting off to be from, you know, financial market perspective, but one that’s like a little bit more fun, a little bit creative. It’s one of the ones that I included in our like year wrap up episode that we recently released is called Turning the Tables.

00:04:39:23 – 00:04:50:16
Rock
It’s actually a YouTube show. So sorry Arielle, you asked for a podcast and I gave you something that didn’t have a podcast feed. I didn’t know that, but I discovered it on YouTube, and it’s a father and son listening to music.

00:04:50:16 – 00:05:00:08
Rock
So you’ll love this Zach, because, like a lot of the albums they listen to are Kid Cudi, Kendrick, Kanye. I love it because it’s like, of course, like there’s a listening experience to it, but there’s like this visual element.

00:05:00:08 – 00:05:11:11
Rock
You’re watching the the son and father like, they’re like riffing on it and they’re like, oooh, I like this. I don’t know. It’s just like a good visual experience as much as it is audio. And then it’s like this Father-Son connection that I think is super dope.

00:05:11:11 – 00:05:13:23
Rock
So they need to get a podcast feed.

00:05:14:22 – 00:05:32:25
Arielle
Thank you, Rock, and then I’ll share my recommendation for the week. I just started listening to a podcast from the Stanford Longevity Center, I think it’s called called Century Lives, and it’s about now that the average life expectancy for people born after the year 2000 is definitely into the hundreds.

00:05:33:01 – 00:05:48:20
Arielle
How do we live our lives? Like what is retirement age and what do you do after you retire because you’re probably still going to be healthy? So the first episode is cool because it went into a family from the grandkid all the way up to the grandfather who is who just turned 100, and how they’re all living

00:05:48:20 – 00:06:03:18
Arielle
their lives. And what this this grandchild, who’s now 23, can expect when he hits 100 years old because he probably can expect to live to 100. So those are some recommendations we will link to all of them in the show notes of this episode.

00:06:03:28 – 00:06:17:04
Arielle
Let’s get started talking about what the past month and a half two months have been like at SquadCast. I want to do another roundtable question if you had to put one word to describe the last month and a half two months of SquadCast.

00:06:17:12 – 00:06:20:23
Arielle
What word would that be? Let’s go in the opposite direction. Rock?

00:06:20:23 – 00:06:22:03
Rock
Safari.

00:06:23:04 – 00:06:24:21
Arielle
You have ten seconds to elaborate.

00:06:25:15 – 00:06:39:01
Rock
Yeah, so we just recently launched support on Safari, on iOS, so iPhone, iPads, that’s in beta and then regular, generally available, stable for normal desktops. So that’s been a huge, huge thing for us. Thank you.

00:06:40:13 – 00:06:43:16
Arielle
Time! (Everyone laughs) We’ll get more into it, I promise. Zach, what’s your one word?

00:06:43:27 – 00:06:58:15
Zach
I’ll go with Kamal. We have. We have a new software engineer, Kamal, joining our team in a few days here. So super stoked about working with working with them and all the things that we have planned to build this year that I’m sure we’ll talk about and a little bit here.

00:06:59:21 – 00:07:01:14
Arielle
Love it. And, Alex.

00:07:02:06 – 00:07:16:18
Alex
I’m going to go with hunting. Oh, you know, we’ve been doing the hunt, a scavenger hunt all month and every day it was it was constantly checking in on that, adding more tasks, seeing how everybody’s doing. Yeah, hunting.

00:07:17:18 – 00:07:26:21
Arielle
My word is shipping because we have shipped a lot of things and we will continue to ship a lot of things. And that is a word that if you asked me a year and a half ago, I would have said it has to do with boats.

00:07:26:21 – 00:07:41:28
Arielle
But now I’ve learned that it has to do with engineering and shipping products and updates. I’ve learned so much. Thank you. Let’s get into let’s go first to the scavenger hunt. So, Alex, I know a few episodes ago we had you on to talk about the idea behind the scavenger hunt.

00:07:42:07 – 00:07:49:08
Arielle
Now it is mid-January. The scavenger hunt ran from December first to December 31st. What was the scavenger hunt and why do we do it?

00:07:49:20 – 00:08:16:06
Alex
So we held us online scavenger hunt to get all of the podcasters connected to the community that SquadCast offers, along with all of the sponsors. That helped us put it together. Just kind of see what everything is available online, whether it be newsletters following different podcasting tools, getting familiar with the SquadCast platform as well.

00:08:16:18 – 00:08:18:04
Alex
So it’s just getting everybody connected.

00:08:18:10 – 00:08:21:16
Arielle
Yeah, Zach and Rock anything you want to add about the scavenger hunt?

00:08:21:16 – 00:08:36:21
Zach
Yeah, is how fun it was and how engaged people in our community and new members of our community were having with exploring, yeah, the podcast Metaverse. I don’t know, like the the SquadCast community and and the whole podcast community.

00:08:36:29 – 00:08:55:04
Zach
And really, you know, we have a unique perspective in that. And kind of I feel like we kind of open that up to our community to explore, you know, where where we have the privilege of working and operating and helping people every day and kind of get more plugged in to that community while having this like really

00:08:55:04 – 00:09:06:13
Zach
awesome list of prizes that are curated by thanks to thanks to you all and really great partner companies and like lots of people, won lots of things. And I think that’s awesome.

00:09:06:24 – 00:09:25:15
Arielle
Yeah, we earlier this week sent out the emails to the winners, and a lot of our winners replied and are so happy that they won some of these amazing prizes. And I’m just going to quickly shout out the amazing companies that donated their time and some material products and some just straight up cash.

00:09:25:24 – 00:09:51:19
Arielle
So Podcast Movement, Tink Media, Sounds Profitable, Resonate Recordings, Good Pods, Podchaser, Air, Podspike, Samson, Focus Right, Captivate Podcasters Directory, Simpler Media and Studio Pod S.F. The list is a mouthful because the prizes are incredible and we’re really, really grateful to all of our prized donors prize sponsors for sharing with us and for letting all of

00:09:51:19 – 00:09:59:14
Arielle
the scavenger hunters discover you on the internet and what you have to offer. So thank you. Thank you. Thank you to all of our prize sponsors.

00:10:01:01 – 00:10:01:26
Rock
I got something for you.

00:10:02:13 – 00:10:03:04
Arielle
OK, go ahead.

00:10:03:08 – 00:10:18:14
Rock
So my thoughts on the scavenger hunt are it’s a great example of teamwork on so many levels to me. So of course, I’m familiar with the scavenger hunt in in real life, but didn’t understand how we would do it in this current environment digitally.

00:10:18:15 – 00:10:31:23
Rock
You know, we’re a remote company software company like how does one do that online? How does one do a scavenger hunt online? So my lack of imagination just shows how great it is to have a team that is more imaginative to come up with this type of idea.

00:10:32:03 – 00:10:48:07
Rock
And then, Alex, you know, you had the idea, but then Arielle, you ran with it as if it was almost your own. So it was a great example of teamwork of us supporting each other. And then the teamwork that we established with our various partners and within our community, it’s just been a that’s been the made it

00:10:48:07 – 00:11:03:29
Rock
special to me is just seeing everybody work together and collaborate together. And I don’t want to sound. I hope I don’t come across like lazy here or whatever, but I didn’t have to do anything. (everyone laughs)That’s also what was dope is like, I had, you know, so much trust in you all doing it, and it was just fun

00:11:03:29 – 00:11:16:21
Rock
to just kind of see it happen without having to do much. So thank you both. And then, you know everybody else on the team that contributed. Thank you to the community because you’re part of what makes this. You are what makes this so special.

00:11:17:04 – 00:11:23:28
Rock
And then obviously, the partners made this particular deal extremely special as well. So you like just teamwork all around? I’m blown away by it.

00:11:24:14 – 00:11:35:08
Arielle
Hell yeah. And just for some logistics, we used Viper A.I., which was an amazing platform where we were able to stack up all of the tasks and we were able to keep track of points, and we had a lot of fun with Viper.

00:11:35:16 – 00:11:45:05
Arielle
Alex, what is the future of the scavenger hunt? Are we going to do it again? We had a bit of a recap discussion internally and we decided that it was a huge success. What is the future?

00:11:45:19 – 00:12:03:14
Alex
I definitely think we will have another one, maybe even two a year. I haven’t decided yet, but I think it’s a great way to constantly keep the community engaged in sharing other parts of the community that either newbies didn’t know or even some of the vets finding.

00:12:03:28 – 00:12:16:08
Arielle
And for folks who want to get more information about the SquadCast community and about any future iteration of the scavenger hunt, you can join our Slack community. We’ll have a link to the application form in the show notes of this episode.

00:12:16:25 – 00:12:29:25
Arielle
Our community is awesome. It’s thriving. We are very active on Slack, answering your questions, sharing ideas for episodes, facilitating promo swaps, facilitating guest swaps, and we would love for you to join us if you are an active SquadCaster again.

00:12:29:26 – 00:12:36:04
Arielle
The link will be in the show notes of this episode. Any other comments about the scavenger hunt? Before I move on to the next order of business.

00:12:36:15 – 00:12:38:19
Alex
I just want to share some of the numbers one more time.

00:12:38:20 – 00:12:39:11
Arielle
Oh yeah.

00:12:39:12 – 00:13:01:27
Alex
I know we have in the past, but we had over, I think, 325 active participants. Over 25,000 tasks completed gave away over 4040 prizes of actual prizes. And then on top of that 100 100 plus SquadCast accounts to those who participated enough.

00:13:02:07 – 00:13:09:10
Alex
So I think it was very successful. We had great numbers and a great turnout, and it was a lot of fun to the hunt.

00:13:10:08 – 00:13:27:02
Arielle
All right. Let us now move on to talking about Safari. So Rock, as you said, Safari was your word for the last month and a half two months at SquadCast before we officially launched Safari. We put out a few cryptic tweets and Instagram posts and things like that.

00:13:27:02 – 00:13:39:15
Arielle
one of them was Zach tweeting a whole bunch of emojis with animals. Another one was me posting Zach and Rock with Safari hats on. On December 24th Christmas Eve, we shipped Safari for SquadCast. What does that mean?

00:13:40:07 – 00:14:06:17
Zach
It means that SquadCast can now help people record and connect from their Apple devices, most notably iPhone and iPad. Those are like from a software nerd perspective, they’re a little different from each other. So we have always supported laptops and, you know, Mac OS and like that sort of stuff MacBook Pros with every browser except for

00:14:06:20 – 00:14:30:26
Zach
Safari. But the catch is, is that on iPhone and iPad, all the browsers are kind of Safari below your user experience that has held back our ability to support any browser on iPhone or iPad. All this amounts to is that Apple added what was missing in the web standard in their browser, and that allows SquadCast to

00:14:30:26 – 00:14:56:00
Zach
Tehran and help people connect and record on their iPhone and iPads, which our team are big. Fans of SquadCast is built primarily on Apple devices, and to unlock that kind of device category for creators and their guests is usually the word accessibility is used in terms of like captioning or screen readers and things like this, but

00:14:56:00 – 00:15:11:16
Zach
just opening up a whole category of devices that didn’t. Used to be able to record remotely in studio quality on SquadCast. Opening that up definitely broadens the level of access that people can have into the cloud recording studio where they’re going to.

00:15:11:18 – 00:15:26:17
Zach
They’re going to sound and look great, really excited that we could bring that to life. And we were tracking that momentum from Apple and the open web standards like very closely and we have for. It’s fair to say years now and we’ve worked with Apple, we’ve lobbied them.

00:15:26:17 – 00:15:51:21
Zach
We’ve contributed code and like here we are with iOS 15 to kind of lands in alpha and beta. Thanks to Alex. I think you tracked it pretty closely. And when we kind of saw those final final pieces of final building blocks, if you like added to Safari, the team sees the opportunity rose to the occasion and decided

00:15:51:21 – 00:16:07:04
Zach
like, Hey, let’s let’s put in whatever work is necessary to to get support for Safari, iPhone and iPad over the finish line and like, as you said, went right up to the holiday. So it’s like a gift for the holidays.

00:16:07:09 – 00:16:11:08
Zach
I guess it wasn’t necessarily our original timeline, but you know, it worked.

00:16:12:00 – 00:16:25:08
Arielle
Yeah, Zach and I, we recorded a bonus episode on Christmas Day, you and I where I had you, I think read your blog post about it because we really just wanted to make sure we really want to spread the word that Safari is here now.

00:16:25:08 – 00:16:34:08
Arielle
We’ve already had people reacting on social media saying, Oh wow, this is a game changer for guests and- Rock. Can you talk a little bit about why it’s a game changer for guests?

00:16:35:00 – 00:16:50:23
Rock
Yeah, because sometimes it’s just the best way to reach them is what they’re most comfortable with the devices that they have at their disposal. So a lot of times they’re using an iPhone or an iPad, and oftentimes it’s like a really high profile guest where that’s the only way you’re going to grab them.

00:16:50:23 – 00:16:54:05
Rock
And so trying to make it super easy, trying to make the guest feel like gold. (Music Plays, transitioning into an ad break)

00:16:58:00 – 00:17:12:13
Arielle
Hello Between Two Mics listeners, this is Arielle. This is your community manager, and I am very excited to tell you about the SquadCast community. We have a very active, vibrant community of SquadCasters hanging out on Slack, and we’d love for you to join us.

00:17:12:25 – 00:17:25:24
Arielle
We will have a link to the application form in the show notes. Anybody who is an active SquadCaster is welcome to join us in our Slack channel. We share all sorts of resources, we share opportunities for growth and so much more.

00:17:25:29 – 00:17:44:09
Arielle
We also host a monthly Squad Podits. It’s those are SquadCast podcast audits where we invite you to sign up and we’ll listen to your podcast and offer marketing suggestions, content suggestions and more. You can join us at the squad pod and hang out with us on Slack by filling out the application form in the show notes

00:17:44:09 – 00:17:48:11
Arielle
of this episode. Thank you so much, and I hope you enjoy the rest of this episode.

00:17:49:20 – 00:18:08:12
Rock
I think what’s interesting about this update compared to like previous ones, is it does feel a little bit like Zach and Alex, you guys could attest to this, but like it does feel like back in the day, like SquadCast, beta days that we were developing it where we kind of were just building it and planning it

00:18:08:12 – 00:18:21:00
Rock
as we go. Because even though, like you said, Zach, we were keeping a close eye on on Apple’s progress and, you know, just pretty much ready to flip the switch and get it, get it out to the world once once Apple made the changes that that we needed.

00:18:21:02 – 00:18:36:00
Rock
You know, we were still like it was not scoped into our roadmap because we had no idea when this was going to happen. We were just more so optimistic and waiting. But it’s definitely not how we’re going to be doing updates in the future where everything’s much more planned out and, you know, just a lot easier to

00:18:36:08 – 00:18:51:29
Rock
do all of the activities that are part of a product update outside of just the product development, but all the marketing and community building stuff that needs to happen. So in some ways, it was kind of fun because we dipped our toes back in, back into the old days, but also it was a little bit rough and

00:18:51:29 – 00:19:01:13
Rock
tough and feels like it. You know, we did get a few bumps and bruises along the way of really pushing hard, trying to make it before the end of the year. And yeah, total total team effort making it happen.

00:19:01:29 – 00:19:20:03
Arielle
Well, just to clarify, SquadCast is now available on Safari browsers on desktop. What does beta mean and what should customers? What should SquadCasters look out for if they are using Safari on iPhone and iPad? And when do you expect Safari on iPhone and iPad to be out of beta?

00:19:20:17 – 00:19:36:12
Zach
Yeah, I think the short answer is that beta means that we’ve tested it to the extent that we can. But like, there’s no real substitute for the real world kind of network conditions that phones find themselves on and different devices, different versions, all that stuff.

00:19:36:21 – 00:19:54:20
Zach
And the app will tell you this if you try to join on iPhone or iPad, that needs to be 15.2 version 15.2 or higher. And to to piggyback off of what Rock said that just came out from Apple in beta in like November December.

00:19:55:02 – 00:20:06:28
Zach
So our beta is kind of informed by them just coming out of beta as well. Like, it’s not just SquadCast code that’s brand new here, it’s also a lot of Apple code that’s brand new here to bring this to life in Safari browsers.

00:20:07:07 – 00:20:20:27
Zach
So, you know, our confidence grows with the amount of recording that is put through on those devices. Thank you for helping us. If you are recording on those devices, we have been a lot and we feel confident in it.

00:20:21:04 – 00:20:33:11
Zach
We just want to really, really make sure before we take that beta label off that everybody can be confident in it. Now that it’s been out for a couple of weeks now, I can confidently say we’re not working any major known issues with it.

00:20:33:11 – 00:20:37:24
Zach
And I think that’s a really good sign for removing the beta tag with the quickness here.

00:20:38:06 – 00:20:51:09
Arielle
And if folks are testing it out and they have feedback, you can share your feedback with us on our Slack channel. We have a back channel called Open Beta and we would love to hear from you. Any other words?

00:20:51:17 – 00:20:55:20
Arielle
Thoughts, feelings about Safari going on Safari?

00:20:55:22 – 00:21:07:20
Zach
Yeah, I think that’s awesome on its own. Like, you know, I love getting on SquadCast on my iPad. It’s great. It actually looks, you know, beautiful thanks to the design team and Alex‘s hard work there. So the experience is full featured.

00:21:07:20 – 00:21:22:22
Zach
It’s not like, Oh, it’s only for my guests or I can only record as a guest. It’s like you have the entire SquadCast app. Anything you can do on SquadCast, you can. When we say we support a device, it’s like the entire app is supported there.

00:21:22:23 – 00:21:35:23
Zach
It’s not like some minimal corner of it. So I think that that’s really meaningful. Yeah, the experience is great. The cameras, the front facing cameras are great on these devices, so you and your guests are going to look awesome, you know, read the blog post will link to it.

00:21:35:23 – 00:21:53:15
Zach
There’s some best practices for like connectivity and like switching between apps and stuff like that that you want to be mindful of. But aside from that, I think the real headline here is that now, you know, as of Safari or iOS 15.2 and forward SquadCast just works on any device.

00:21:53:21 – 00:22:04:12
Zach
Basically a box you can remove from the checklist that you send to your guest before the interview that they can come on on any device that they that they have and SquadCast is going to work. So that’s less anxiety.

00:22:04:12 – 00:22:14:15
Zach
It’s less we have to think about as content creators. And you know that broader access is really opening up a whole new device category with great cameras, great microphones, and that’s really awesome.

00:22:15:04 – 00:22:29:19
Rock
The other thing, of course, we’re doing this for all the users on SquadCast, whether it’s our customers or their guests, their team, we’re trying to, you know, make their experience better. But also, I think selfishly, what I’m excited about is like not having this look like.

00:22:29:19 – 00:22:39:24
Rock
It’s a shortcoming of SquadCast like that’s kind of the perception that people had was like, Why aren’t you supported? Why don’t you work on Safari? And it’s like, Please believe me, we wish we could. We would love to.

00:22:39:25 – 00:22:44:23
Rock
It’s just not in the cards for us right now, but as soon as it is trust, we’ll make it happen.

00:22:44:23 – 00:22:49:20
Arielle
And yeah, not to mention, it’s been really fun taking SquadCast meetings on. Go on my phone.

00:22:50:00 – 00:22:50:27
Rock
That’s pretty tight to.

00:22:52:00 – 00:23:02:17
Arielle
Let’s shift gears a bit and talk about the future V5. What does V5 mean? first, let’s talk about design. What’s going to be new about V five when it comes to design Alex?

00:23:02:28 – 00:23:25:03
Alex
Everything. It’s been redesigned pretty much from the ground up, from the user experience to all the visuals colors. It’s all been updated. Logo new refreshed logo dashboard is a bit more robust. You know, we open the design up a bit to be a bit more clean.

00:23:25:13 – 00:23:31:09
Alex
I would say I hate using the term, but cleaner. It’s more modern. It’s a nice refresh.

00:23:31:16 – 00:23:35:07
Arielle
And Zach, what does it mean? Behind the front end, in the back end, if you.

00:23:35:07 – 00:23:36:05
Rock
Will, backstage.

00:23:36:26 – 00:23:37:29
Arielle
That’s better way to put it. (Everyone laughs)

00:23:39:13 – 00:23:58:16
Zach
A lot of work. The majority of our work historically has gone into the recording studio aspect of SquadCast. The shared awareness of what microphone your guest is using, right? The quality of their video, the reliability of the uploads across, you know, a hundred and something in countries around the world, right?

00:23:59:00 – 00:24:21:00
Zach
There’s a lot of work that goes into that. That’s core to what our customers and our relationship with our customers is, is that quality and reliability? But we’ve nailed a lot of those things, thankfully, and V5 was really like, All right, let’s improve everything that we can, whether that’s Alex‘s, you know, approach to design language and colors

00:24:21:00 – 00:24:37:09
Zach
and typography and icons and all of the things that we can improve their across the experience. But what new capabilities do we want to add and how can the experience evolve to meet those use cases is like, OK, we have more people recording than ever on SquadCast.

00:24:37:09 – 00:24:56:24
Zach
And over the past year, we added up to ten people can record together at once, right? But that’s a team podcast support. Yes, made by individuals, but increasingly so by teams of collaborators. So really broadening the experience of SquadCast to to not just be collaborative in the recording studio.

00:24:56:25 – 00:25:15:01
Zach
That’s been true since day one, but collaborative in the scheduling, in the post-production and the team dynamics and collaboration of the different roles that are working in an organization across multiple shows, right? What does that? What does that look like outside of the recording studio and inside the recording studio?

00:25:15:21 – 00:25:33:21
Zach
And that’s where backstage comes in as the the team experience for, you know, modern podcasting in the cloud is that not everybody’s on Mike and on camera, right? You might have producers, you might have fact checkers, you might have members of your team in different roles, then the the talent, let’s say, on the mic or on camera

00:25:34:01 – 00:25:48:20
Zach
. So, so opening that up for like the yeah, the production side of the coin or the guest kind of VIP side of the coin is really awesome and we call that backstage. So that’s if I had to sum up V5 in three words, it would be teams and shows.

00:25:48:20 – 00:26:06:15
Zach
And backstage, in addition to all of those, backstage is one word. (everyone laughs) In addition to all of the design, you know, we’ve reimagined kind of the experience that teams can can have. Our mission is to amplify collaboration and V5.

00:26:06:15 – 00:26:11:05
Zach
We’re focusing on a number of different forms of collaborations that podcasters are empowered by.

00:26:12:03 – 00:26:14:05
Arielle
Rock, what are you most excited for about five?

00:26:14:18 – 00:26:31:10
Rock
This is a very special update, in my opinion, because I think it’s the first one where our team, as is now. It’s the first time that we’ll be working on this from the inception of the project all the way through the the the launch of it where that hasn’t really happened previously.

00:26:31:10 – 00:26:41:25
Rock
Like when we, you know, this is going to be Kim’s first product launch where she’s going to be around for the whole time instead of just kind of coming in at the tail end and like, Hey, this is what we’re doing, like help us, you know.

00:26:42:00 – 00:26:42:28
Arielle
Our marketing manager.

00:26:43:01 – 00:26:57:21
Rock
Thank you. Thank you for that. And then Anthony, our software engineer, same thing. They were hired around the same time and they kind of just jumped in and certainly were, you know, huge impact. But this is like the first time we’re they’re in on the planning in the early stages of the project, which I’m really excited about

00:26:57:21 – 00:27:18:29
Rock
. And in addition to that, we have more professional and organized opinions and feedback and research going into this update, unlike ever before. So historically, how we’ve done updates is talk to our customers and then try to just make decisions the best we can from that information gut informed decisions, I guess, but there’s limitations to that.

00:27:18:29 – 00:27:38:28
Rock
So now we’ve had like so much more consultations with customers to build this. So my level of confidence in it is extremely high. And then seeing the what we’re building is like, Alex is saying, it’s funny how the current version of SquadCast, including our branding, not just the product, it’s all starting to look old quickly and

00:27:38:28 – 00:27:50:17
Rock
less modern, but like, I mean, we thought it was the bee’s knees just a short time ago. So it’s crazy how we do that. It still feels like we’re just getting started on so many things, and I’m excited about that.

00:27:50:17 – 00:28:00:19
Rock
But yeah, there’s just so much more that’s coming in to this, and it feels like we’re growing up as a company where it’s like we’re it’s a much more polished and professional update comprehensively. Hmm.

00:28:01:08 – 00:28:03:29
Arielle
Yeah, Alex, anything you want to add about V5 in general.

00:28:05:04 – 00:28:08:21
Alex
I just can’t wait. I can’t wait to have it in our hands.

00:28:10:15 – 00:28:23:19
Arielle
Can’t wait to get it out to the squad pod. Of course, being part of the SquadCast community means that you get a little sneak peak before everybody else does. So SquadCasters again would love for you to join us in the squad pod.

00:28:25:03 – 00:28:28:25
Arielle
When can SquadCasters expect to start using V five?

00:28:29:01 – 00:28:32:09
Zach
Yeah, our targets definitely Q1. We’re targeting March first.

00:28:33:05 – 00:28:36:05
Arielle
Nice. Can’t wait. That’s my half birthday. Great. Great little presents.

00:28:36:05 – 00:28:36:26
Rock
You celebrate that.

00:28:37:04 – 00:28:39:00
Arielle
Sure. Why not, Scott? To celebrate everything.

00:28:39:05 – 00:28:41:20
Rock
I heard, some people that do. I know some people that.

00:28:41:20 – 00:28:44:06
Arielle
Celebrate everything, celebrate everything. All right.

00:28:44:21 – 00:28:45:19
Rock
It’s a celebration.

00:28:46:19 – 00:28:54:16
Arielle
We’re definitely starting to slowly roll out the new logo in a few different places, so if you’ve noticed it, let us know, send you a prize.

00:28:54:17 – 00:28:58:26
Zach
It’s beautiful. We’re going to have to get updated gear and all that for for the updated branding.

00:28:59:00 – 00:28:59:12
Arielle
Oh yeah.

00:28:59:12 – 00:28:59:26
Zach
Excited.

00:29:00:17 – 00:29:19:08
Arielle
All right, folks. Well. Zach Rock, Alex, thank you so much for taking the time to share with me and with the listeners information about the SquadCast scavenger hunt. It was such a blast. Thank you to everybody who participated and again, thank you to the sponsors of the scavenger hunt and information about Safari and about V5.

00:29:19:17 – 00:29:36:02
Arielle
As always, we will keep you updated with everything on our blog, on social media, on the podcast everywhere that you can catch us. We appreciate you tuning in and I will not be here as the host next week, but it was really fun co-hosting slash facilitating this conversation today.

00:29:36:03 – 00:29:37:10
Arielle
Thank you for letting me do so.

00:29:38:07 – 00:29:38:27
Rock
Thanks for doing it.

00:29:38:28 – 00:29:41:07
Zach
Nailed it for being a great host. Yeah.

00:29:49:20 – 00:30:03:16
Rock
Thanks for listening to Between Two Mics, the remote recording podcast. We’re back next week with more. In the meantime, we’d love to hear your thoughts on the show. Hit us up on social media. We’re at SquadCast FM on all platforms and our DMs are wide open.

00:30:04:02 – 00:30:21:07
Zach
Between Two Mics is written and edited by Arielle Nissenblatt. It’s mixed and designed by Vince Moreno Jr. Our music is by Sean Baez. Our logo and designs are by Alex Whedbee. Our transcripts are by Ian Powell and we’re Zach and Rock, your hosts. Goodbye.