Configuring Riverside’s Microphone and Group Camera Sources

Hello! Last time, you checked that the Windows computer, browser, connection, power, and storage were ready for a Riverside session. Now you will choose the actual recording sources. For this setup, the three people in the room will share one external microphone connected to the computer, while a phone will supply the group video. A remote guest, if you invite one later, will join on their own device.

Allow about 40 minutes, including a short test recording. The aim is to leave Riverside with one intended room-audio source and one intended group camera, rather than accidentally capturing the laptop microphone or joining the phone as a second audio participant.

Select the room microphone on the computer

Connect the external microphone—or its USB audio interface—before entering the studio. In the Riverside lobby, find the microphone/input selector and choose that device by name. Do not assume that “Default” means the external microphone: Windows may currently designate the laptop’s built-in microphone as the default. You can leave the computer camera off if the phone will provide the only room shot.

Riverside’s Step-by-Step Guide: Record High-Quality Video & Audio with Riverside shows where these choices appear. Watch the lobby controls for camera, microphone, and audio output. Then watch the headphone prompt. Make the headphone selection truthfully; whether to use headphones or room speakers for a remote guest is a separate monitoring decision you will work through later.

After selecting the external microphone, speak at a normal conversational level near its planned position. Check that Riverside’s input meter responds. A moving meter alone is not proof you chose the right device—the laptop microphone could also hear you. Reopen the selector and verify its displayed name. If the microphone is connected through an interface, the interface may be the device name Riverside shows.

If the intended device is missing, first check its connection and power, then confirm that Windows recognizes it. Close any other application that might have exclusive control of it and reload Riverside if necessary. The browser permissions checked in the previous lesson allow access; they do not make a disconnected microphone appear or select it for you.

Add the phone as a camera, not another participant’s microphone

There are two different ideas that are easy to confuse. A phone can join a session as an ordinary participant, potentially bringing its own microphone and speaker. For this setup, you instead want Riverside’s second-camera mode: the computer remains the room’s audio participant, and the phone contributes the group-camera view. This is not the same as selecting a phone-shaped “webcam” from the Windows camera dropdown.

Riverside’s How to Use Phone as a Webcam (iOS & Android) gives the current sequence in its “How to turn your phone into a secondary webcam with Riverside” subsection. Read the five steps, beginning with signing in on both devices and ending with where the resulting camera angle appears. Stay within that subsection; the later discussion of third-party webcam apps describes a different approach.

Put those instructions into practice in this order:

1. On the Windows computer, enter the intended Riverside studio and project. Choose the external microphone, switch off the computer’s camera if you do not need its video, and join the studio.
2. On the phone, open the updated Riverside app and sign into the same account. Find the same studio and project, then look for Use as second camera, Join with second camera, or a similarly named second-camera option. Its location can vary by app version.
3. Grant the phone app camera access when prompted, confirm the second-camera connection, and look for an active camera indication on the phone. Do not join the phone through a normal guest link simply because you cannot immediately find the camera option.

This screenshot shows one mobile-app layout. The three-dot menu at the bottom exposes Use as second camera; on another version, the wording or menu position may differ.

Riverside’s iPhone Multi-Camera Recording on Riverside demonstrates the distinction. Its interface is from an earlier version, so follow the mode, not the exact placement of every button. Watch joining a second camera, then camera-only behavior. The latter segment also shows switching between front and rear cameras.

For now, make sure the phone shows all three speakers and is held securely in the intended orientation. The next module will deal properly with framing, lighting, and microphone placement. Keep the phone powered, and avoid interruptions such as incoming calls during a recording.

Confirm the sources with a short recording

Before inviting anyone to a full session, make a 20–30-second test recording with ordinary speech from the room. Use it to verify the configuration, not yet to judge final sound quality.

Look for three pieces of evidence:

• Room audio: Riverside identifies the external microphone or interface as the computer’s input. On playback, the speech is present. There should not be a second room participant producing another copy of that speech.
• Group video: The phone reports that its second camera is connected and recording. The phone angle should be available as its own video material after the test and its upload complete. Depending on the interface version, you may not see a full preview of that angle on the desktop while recording.
• No duplicate input: The phone has not joined as a normal participant with an active mic, and the computer has not fallen back to its built-in microphone.

The last part of Riverside’s multi-camera demonstration shows the separate phone video in the recording files. Watch the resulting file to understand what you are looking for; do not assume the resolution shown in the demonstration is guaranteed for your own device and settings.

If you see two room-audio participants, stop the test and check how the phone joined. Leave that phone connection and re-enter using second-camera mode. If the recording contains room speech but sounds much more distant than expected, recheck the computer’s selected input: the built-in microphone may have been chosen. If the phone image is missing, check that you entered the same studio and project, that the app has camera permission, and that the phone remained connected long enough to finish its upload. Do not delete browser data or close a device while a test recording is still uploading.

What is configured—and what is not yet settled

You now have a clear division of duties: the Windows computer records the shared external microphone, while the phone supplies the group video as a second camera. The computer’s built-in microphone and the phone’s ordinary participant microphone are not additional room inputs. That separation gives the editor a usable room-audio source and phone-video material without two competing recordings of the same voices.

A remote guest will introduce a legitimate separate audio source later; “one room microphone” does not mean “one microphone for the entire session.” Next, you will prepare the room itself so that this correctly selected microphone and camera can capture clean, balanced voices and a useful group shot.