How to record webinars

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A woman recording a webinar for future viewing and sharing with others
a subject matter expert hosting a live webinar

What’s better than hosting a live webinar? Reaping the benefits from it long after the actual event is done, of course.

Yep, you heard it right. You can still get more from your live online event even after the “live” part is over.

How, you may ask? By using the webinar recordings for other purposes.

Here are a few ideas:

  • an on-demand webinar video (people sign up or even pay to watch it)
  • a video you can feature as content for blogs 
  • you can even try to get it to go viral on YouTube and other social media sites

But we’re getting ahead of ourselves—we can talk more about this later. Before you can go dreaming up other things you can do with a webinar recording, you need to know how to record first.

So, let’s explore that.

How do I record a live webinar?

Each webinar software will have a different set of steps detailing how to record an online-hosted event. In most cases, however, the steps for recording a video conference are the same ones you can use to record your webinar.

In this part, we’ll show you how to use RingCentral Video to record a webinar as an example.

Here are the steps:

1.
Launch a webinar using RingCentral Video. What makes RingCentral Video unique among different audio and video conferencing providers is that it doesn’t require webinar participants to download anything. (Most providers require participants to download their software or mobile app before they can join. That’s on top of having to register their information.) With RingCentral Video, participants just have to click on the meeting link to join from their browsers.
2.
Press the record button when you need to start recording. The placement of the record button can be different provider-to-provider. The record button on RingCentral Video looks like this Record button and can be found on the horizontal bar near the bottom of the screen. Once you click it, it will turn to Stop Recording button . That means it’s recording.
3.
Pause the recording as needed. You don’t want to include moments when you're encountering some issues like a bad internet connection or other technical difficulties in your video recording. Just click the Stop Recording button button to pause the recording while you’re making the necessary adjustments. Then click Record button to resume recording.
4.
Check your recorded minutes. You can easily check how long the video recording is running by checking out the horizontal bar near the bottom of the screen. If you're recording, you'll see a running timer near the meeting ID. That’s how long the recorded video is at the moment.
Timer on the RingCentral Video interface indicates how long the webinar recording is
5.
End the meeting to end the recording. No need to press the record button, or any other button for that matter, to stop the recording. Simply end the conference, and the recording will also stop.
6.
Access the recording. After the virtual meeting has ended, the recording will be processed right away. You can check the status of its availability by logging into RingCentral Video. Once there, click on the Recordings tab and you'll see all your recordings. You can play it back or download an mp4 copy.
7.
Share it with the right people in your organization. If you don’t want to download the mp4 version of the video recording to forward it via email, you can share the video directly from your RingCentral Video account instead. Just click on the share button then a pop-up screen will appear where you can enter the names of your colleagues. They will be sent an email letting them know that the video recording is available.
press the share button on the RingCentral Video interface to share the webinar recording to colleagues

There you go! You've successfully recorded a webinar and even shared it with some people in your company.

Even better, you can polish the mp4 file using video editing tools like Adobe Premiere Elements and Apple iMovie.

Now, let’s answer some frequently asked questions about recording a webinar.

FAQ on how to record webinars

How can I record a webinar for free?

You can do a free trial of some of the available video conferencing software in the market, but know that you'll eventually have to pay if you want to continue using the service.

If you're subscribed to RingCentral, the video conferencing feature is included for free in most of the plans. This means you won’t have to pay for a separate online meeting and screen sharing software to host and record webinars.

Can you record a webinar on a PC? What about on your smartphone (Android or iPhone)?

Most video conferencing software are cloud-based. This means the video won’t be stored on your PC or your smartphone, but on the cloud (your provider’s data center).

So even if your device doesn't have a large storage capacity, it doesn't matter (unless you're downloading a copy locally). Whether you're using a laptop, a desktop, or your smartphone, you’ll be able to record as long as you have the software or application for it.

Why would you want to record a webinar?

You might be thinking, “Why do I have to worry about recording this webinar? Organizing it was already a lot of work, now I have to worry about recording it too?”

The thing is, you can do a lot of things with the recording. As we mentioned earlier, you can actually get a lot out of your live event, long after the “live” part is done.

Here are a few ways to get more use out of your webinar recordings:

  • Continuous lead generation. One of the main reasons why a lot of companies host an online live event is for lead generation. They ask people to register their information so they can get an invite to attend the live webinar. You can continue your lead generation campaign by asking people to fill up a form to access an uploaded copy of the video.
  • Pay-to-access webinar. If you have a webinar that people are willing to pay for, then have them pay for it. A lot of training/educational online videos can be accessed via subscription or enrollment.
  • Video content for your website. You can use your recordings as video content for your website. Create a library of educational and interesting video content, or just create a landing page for the webinar video and use it to generate leads. You can also reference it in your blog posts to help you increase engagement with your web visitors.
  • Viral or syndicated video. You can also post your webinars (or bits and parts of it for more video content) on YouTube and other social media sites where followers can watch it for free. If it’s any good, then your videos just might get shared by your audience on multiple platforms, which can help build awareness for your brand.
recorded webinars can go viral globally

Why choose RingCentral Video for webinars?

RingCentral Video integrates video conferencing, screen sharing, and messaging in one online meeting platform:

Screen sharing options on RingCentral app

Plus, its capacity to host a large number of participants in a call makes it an ideal webinar platform.

But what separates it from the rest are these benefits:

  • HD-quality voice and video. As part of the RingCentral unified communications suite, RingCentral Video can make you feel like you're in the same room as the speaker with high-quality voice and video.
  • No app or software download required. When you're hosting a webinar, imagine having to ask participants to download an app after they’ve registered. Some people just might go “No thanks. I just want to watch the webinar; is that too much to ask?” Fortunately, that’s not the case for RingCentral Video. Participants can join the conference with a click from the browser or the RingCentral App.
  • Switch from one device to another. RingCentral brought Call Switch into the video conferencing game. With one tap (or click) you can switch between your mobile phone and your desktop instantly. This way, your participants can conveniently choose the device where they want to watch your webinar, then change it in the middle of the conference without missing a beat:
Team member using RingCentral app to switch from desktop to mobile during a video conference
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