Which Video Studio Upgrade Do You Actually Need?
Sep 11, 2024Usually none, and not for the reason you expect. A studio upgrade changes what you can produce, not how good it looks. If your video looks flat or sounds thin, that is lighting, framing and delivery, and no extra camera fixes it. Add an upgrade when your work has outgrown one angle and one voice.
That is the short version. Here is how to tell which side of the line you are on.
Will an upgrade make my videos look better?
No, and this is the misread that costs people the most money. Equipment is one of four things that decide whether a video works. The other three are your message, your delivery on camera, and whether you actually publish. Equipment is the easiest of the four to change, which is exactly why it gets blamed for problems the other three are causing.
A second camera pointed at a badly lit face gives you two badly lit angles. A studio-grade podcast microphone in a room with hard walls gives you a very clear recording of the room. Nothing you bolt onto the studio corrects a problem that sits in front of the lens.
So the honest test is not "what is available". It is: has the shape of my work changed? If you are still recording the same one-person, one-angle videos you were recording six months ago, an upgrade buys you nothing you will use. If you have started interviewing people, running webinars with slides, or recording a podcast with a guest in the room, the format has genuinely outgrown the base kit and an upgrade earns its place.
When does a second camera earn its place?
When there is a second thing worth cutting to. That is a person, a product, a screen or a demonstration, not variety for its own sake.
Worth knowing before you price anything: every current Desktop Studio ships with a video switcher as standard. It was an optional extra until May 2026 and it is not any more. So a switcher already sits on your desk, it already takes a laptop or an iPad as a second source, and it already does picture-in-picture. If what you actually wanted was slides beside your face on a Zoom call, you can do that today with the kit you own and nothing to buy.
A second camera is the step past that. It adds a genuine second angle, and the recording option captures each camera separately so an editor can cut between them afterwards rather than you having to switch it perfectly live. Ridge has a full guide on when a second camera earns its place, and a walkthrough of how to incorporate a switcher into the studio you already have.
The one warning worth giving: every angle you add is another thing to run while you are also trying to be good on camera. If the reason your videos are not going out is that recording already feels like a production, a second camera makes that worse, not better.
What about the background?
Leave it last. Not because backgrounds do not matter, but because you cannot judge one until the lighting is in.
Mike Mortlock runs MCG Quantity Surveyors in Newcastle. When Chris first met him on Zoom, there was a busy mural behind him and the whole frame read as noisy. Mike had been running a podcast for five and a half years by then and it had never gone onto YouTube, because the way it looked was not worth publishing. After the studio went in, the background he settled on was the plain white wall that had been there the whole time.
it's lit in such a way that you don't actually need anything more than that
His podcast went onto YouTube within the following year. The change was not a backdrop. It was light on a wall he already owned.
That is why Ridge tells people not to bother deciding on a background before install day. Once the lights, the frame and the camera position are set, a lot of rooms turn out to be fine as they are, and the people who still want a backdrop system after that are usually the ones with a real reason: several brands to shoot for, or a look they need to change between recordings. The full picture is in backgrounds that look professional.
What to do before you buy anything
Three things, in this order.
Record four videos in the setup you have. Not one. Four is enough to show you where the friction actually is, and it is usually not the gear. The clients who buy equipment to solve a confidence problem end up owning equipment and the confidence problem.
Name the format you cannot do. Write it as a sentence. "I cannot interview someone sitting next to me." "I cannot show my screen and my face at the same time." If you cannot finish that sentence, you do not need an upgrade yet. If you can, the sentence tells you which one.
Then look at what is on offer. The current list, what each one includes and the demonstration videos all sit on the upgrades page. This post is deliberately not that page, because the useful question is not what exists, it is which one you will actually use.
If you are still working out what belongs in a setup at all, start further back with what actually changes the picture and what just costs more.
Common questions
Which upgrade should I add first?
Backdrops last, not first. You cannot judge a background until the lighting is in, so wait until the studio has been installed and you have recorded with it. If your work has genuinely changed shape, take the upgrade that matches the new format: a second camera for interviews and dual presenters, a podcast microphone for a second person in the room.
Will a studio upgrade actually make my videos better?
Not on its own. Equipment is one of four things that decide whether a video works, alongside your message, your delivery on camera and whether you actually publish. It is also the easiest of the four to change, which is why it gets blamed for problems the other three are causing.
Can I add an upgrade later, or do I have to decide when I buy?
Later is fine. The Desktop Studio is modular and every upgrade attaches to the system you already own. Every current studio also ships with a video switcher as standard, so adding a second camera is an addition to something already on your desk rather than a new system.
How much extra time does an upgrade add on install day?
About half an hour per upgrade on top of the standard install, and about an hour if you are adding a backdrop system. A standard Desktop Studio install runs around two and a half hours including training on the equipment.
Not sure which side of the line you are on?
Chris will tell you straight, including when the answer is that you do not need anything. Book a call and talk it through against your own setup and the videos you are actually trying to make.
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