Recommendations for video conferencing with recording

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Wazza69

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#320244 22-Jul-2025 16:17

Hi,

My wife wants to do some VC calls to run interviews and be able to record and edit these calls later to form online content. It looks like there aren't any free options any more. Google meet looks to be NZ $20 per month, Teams better at NZ $7 per month but are there any issues with her sending one off invites when she isn't part of a corporate Teams infrastructure? Any other options welcome

Thanks

Dynamic

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#3396208 22-Jul-2025 16:27

Teams works really well, in my experience. As long as the people being invited are anonymous guests there should be no issues.

No matter which solution is chosen, test it far and wide with friends and family using invitations to personal email addresses and business email addresses so you can iron out any kinks in advance. If someone is dialling in for an interview, that is not the time for tech-support issues to pop up!

“Don't believe anything you read on the net. Except this. Well, including this, I suppose.” Douglas Adams

caffynz

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#3396213 22-Jul-2025 16:38

Consider what she wants the end result to look like, when she edits it for online content?
Not familiar with options with MS Teams recordings, but with Zoom (paid) there is options to have several outputs of the recording, e.g. gallery view (everyone's video the same size, laid out next to each other), or speaker view only etc.

nztim

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#3396214 22-Jul-2025 16:38

While $7 a month looks good on paper its not reality

You will still need to setup an Entra tenancy to purchase it, recordings are stored in SharePoint/OneDrive so a teams license on its own is simply not going to cut it

M365 Business basic is $9.70 per month + GST and will do what you want but you will need to commit to a year for that pricing

Zoom workspace at $22 per month is the best option as this includes some cloud storage, zoom free I believe you can record to your own device but have a limit of 30 minutes, it also blocks your laptop ages to encode the file

Any views expressed on these forums are my own and don't necessarily reflect those of my employer.

Wazza69

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#3396217 22-Jul-2025 16:49

Great advice all, thank you

KiwiSurfer

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#3396233 22-Jul-2025 18:25

I would recommend Zoom if you are sending invites to random people -- my experience is most people at home can do Zoom (but can't say that for e.g. Teams, Meet, etc). Zoom also has good recording abilities. Just be aware Zoom when recording to your computer, 'follows' your view so if you change your view it'll change how it's recorded as well. So I generally try and stick with either a Speaker or Gallery view througout the call depending on what I need to record.

I've only really used Teams for work and to other people at mostly NZ govt or larger corporate workplaces. If you're mostly working with professionals working for mostly Microsoft-dominated orgs then Teams may be a better option to avoid corporate IT issues. Teams I find their video quality to be somewhere between borderine and acceptable though it has improved over the years. Never used Teams recording function though -- my workplace tend to use Zoom for larger gatherings which are the events typically recorded.

Google Meets I last used some years back but I remember being shocked at how terrible it was at adapting the resolution and bitrates -- at times the compression was extreme to the point the video was so pixelated I couldn't see the other parties at all! Same device/internet/etc could easily do crystal clear high FPS smooth HD calls to the same parties on Zoom so that clearly isolates Google's infrastructure as the cuprit. Maybe improved nowdays.

shrub

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#3396305 22-Jul-2025 22:39

Google meet is excellent now. Auto transcripts emailed to you after each meeting with Gemini and recordings are put into Google drive. Using it daily it's a great service.

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cddt

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#3396368 23-Jul-2025 08:37

Alternatively just record your screen with OBS or similar.

My referral links: BigPipe | Mercury

Wazza69

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#3396428 23-Jul-2025 10:33

Thanks all. Signed her up for Zoom in the end and was the easiest for personal usage with recording. Pricey though.