Okay, so we use Descript a lot, and these guys were doing AI before it even became a "thing," so they're way ahead of the curve. Their huge USP, which is still the number one time-saving feature, is that when you have a video project, you can essentially edit it like a Word document.
This gets rid of all those fiddly hours spent trimming videos to get the flow right or trying to remove "ums" and "uhs" from a speaker – for example, in a webinar where someone has a, how do you say this diplomatically, a particular vocal tick that you'd like to clean up for the on-demand version. That can be a complete nightmare without Descript, but with it, you can just upload it and click a button, and it'll automatically get rid of those repeated words and filler sounds, giving you a much better edit.
But it does way more than that. Nothing beats Descript for a great production workflow when recording podcasts (which we've admittedly just been playing around with to see which tools we need to productionize everything). You can preset overlays and intro/outro slides – all the stuff that will turn a raw recording into something that looks much more professional.
I'm not saying you'll never have to get down and dirty, manually editing things; you probably will occasionally. However, Descript has handled much of the heavy lifting.
The other thing that happened is not exactly breaking news, but it was late last year, Descript acquired SquadCast. SquadCast is similar to Riverside FM, so when you're recording, each participant's video file is stored locally in high definition (I believe it can reach up to 4K, although we haven't tried that). All of this is now part of Descript Rooms. This means you also get a recording studio right out of the box, which will make your life a lot easier when creating high-quality content.
Here are some of the use cases for Digitising Events. I've already mentioned one, which is post-production for webinar content. It can also be used for post-production of keynote video content in under an hour after the keynote, rather than days, while maintaining brand consistency, etc. Additionally, for any video files, even if they're just screen recordings of seminars, you can process them quickly and intelligently to cut out the preamble and post-roll, making them much more helpful.
One of the other areas where it excels (although some tools laser-focus on this outcome, making them potentially better) is converting social media clips and transforming long-form video content into social media content.
There are also some other cool features like eye contact correction and Studio Sound, which is genuinely impressive if you don't have a great setup or if a guest, in their wisdom, decides to call in while they're on a train or something – it'll do a very good job of giving you much better audio. I recommend you check it out.
Key Advantages:
- Simplifies video and audio editing so anyone can update content, reducing reliance on specialists.
- Speeds up production and review cycles through intuitive, text-based workflows and AI-powered automation.
- Enables rapid content repurposing, making it easy to create social clips, highlight reels, and market-specific versions.
- Empowers teams to collaborate in real time, streamlining feedback and approval processes.
- Enhances content quality automatically, improving audio, visuals, and on-screen presence with minimal effort.
- Breaks down traditional barriers, making professional post-production accessible and efficient for all team members.
Overview of Descript for Event Digitisation
Descript can now fundamentally change how we can leverage and repurpose event content by allowing users to edit video and audio by simply editing text. This text-based editing approach makes post-production accessible to team members without specialised video editing skills, while its AI capabilities dramatically reduce editing time. The platform transcribes your event recordings into text documents that synchronise with your media, allowing you to edit by modifying the transcript
Use Case: Post-Production of Webinar Content
Webinars represent significant investments of time and resources, yet typically reach only about 40% of registrants during the live broadcast. Descript offers several powerful capabilities for making the most of your webinar content:
Streamlined Editing Process
Descript eliminates tedious editing tasks through:
Comprehensive Repurposing
Repurposing is time-consuming, but with Descript, you can transform webinar recordings into multiple content formats:
You can get a full overview in Descript's webinar repurposing guide "Using AI, you can now squeeze a lot more value from your webinars with a lot less effort... With tools like Descript's Underlord, you can transform your webinar repurposing process from a time-consuming chore into a streamlined workflow"
Use Case: Rapid Post-Production of Keynote Content
For keynote speakers and event organisers, the ability to quickly share high-quality content after presentations is invaluable. Descript enables remarkably fast turnaround times if you have done your template set-up.
Two-Hour Turnaround Capability
Descript facilitates rapid post-production through:
Enhanced Presentation Quality
Even hastily recorded keynotes with minimal cameras can be polished quickly with:
Use Case: On-Brand Social Clips and Video Edits
Maintaining brand consistency across social media channels is crucial for event marketing. Descript provides powerful tools for branded content creation:
AI-Powered Clip Generation
Creating social media clips becomes effortless with:
Brand Consistency Features
Descript ensures content remains on-brand through:
Other Features and Use Cases for Event Digitisation
Beyond the primary scenarios, Descript offers several innovative capabilities for Digitising Events:
Remote Recording Studio
The Rooms feature provides studio-quality recording capabilities for distributed events:
Multilingual Event Content
Expand your event's reach globally through:
Highlight Video Creation
Transform hours of event footage into compelling highlight reels:
Accessibility Enhancements
Make event content accessible to more audiences:
Event Content Measurement and ROI
Descript enables more sophisticated approaches to measuring event content performance:
Some Tips and Suggestions Based On Our Experience
This is a good case study on webinar content. Like with any system, there is a bit of a learning curve; however, it is not that steep. The biggest thing to learn is that while Descript has menus, a lot of the commands you type, which takes a bit of a shift in thinking.
You should learn how the templates work and set them up well, as they can be slightly confusing.
Another thing to look out for is that Descript is a video editing tool, and a lot of work is done behind the scenes, so you need a perfect internet connection and a high-powered computer. Without those, it can get frustrating.
