Hit Record and Go: Inside Pittsburgh-Based StudioMe's Content Creation Technology

What if you could walk into a studio, hit record and walk out with a polished, multi-camera video ready to roll? That's the idea driving StudioMe, and TechVibe Radio gets a firsthand look at the technology making high-quality content creation faster, easier and a whole lot less intimidating. Keith Parish and Joe Leachko join Jonathan Kersting and Audrey Russo to talk about StudioMe's evolution from traditional video production to automated communication studios that handle cameras, audio and live switching in real time. They also dig into StudioMe's AI-powered Sidekick Coach, which can listen to a conversation, suggest questions and insights, highlight key moments and even score your podcast performance. Plus, hear why authenticity and consistency still matter more than the fanciest camera in the room and how two guys who met at the gym nearly 20 years ago ended up building technology that is changing how companies create content. Hit play. The cameras are already rolling! The Pittsburgh Technology Council produces TechVibe Radio to explore Pittsburgh's technology and innovation ecosystem. Transcript: StudioMe radio cut === [00:00:00] one. Fancy seeing you here, Audrey, in the Huntington Bank Studios. You know how excited I am every time I roll into these studios? I know. You're very protective of the studio. Very protective. I gotta tell you something, if anyone comes in here And he, I think he has like an alarm I do As soon as someone comes in, he, "Oh, what's up?" Yeah. "What are, what are you doing in here?" Don't touch that. "What are you-" We've had some incidents in the past. "What are you touch- what are you touching? What are you touching?" Exactly. That's, that's natural. I mean- Yeah. It's your baby. It's, it's our baby, and because we are talking to our friends from Studio Me here, Keith Parrish and Joe Lechko, who built the Huntington Bank Studios here for us. I know. We have upped our game, Audrey, like it is no one's business. Fantastic. I've gone from iPhones and 10-year-old cameras- You have ... patched up with duct tape and stuff to this full-blown studio where we are having the best conversations with everybody in Pittsburgh's tech sector. And I cannot wait to talk to these guys about... They do this for lots of people. I know. And they got so many things going on between videos they shoot, between their studios where people can come in and create their own content and [00:01:00] have high-quality stuff. We're lucky because we, they built us our own studio here. So we're gonna jump in and have a lot of fun today. So guys, welcome to the show. It's so great to have you guys here. And what does it feel like to be in your own creation here at the Tech Council? It feels weird. Does it feel weird? We're not used to this. We're used to being behind the camera and making this production happen and showing people what we have. But since we walked in, you've shown all the new things you have done inside of your own- Yeah ... part of the software that we built for you. It's just, it's, it's fun to see you make it yours. Cool. You know? Yeah. So- It's, it's always cool to see something that was, you know, just a, a blank canvas before. I mean, you had a table in here. It had... But you didn't have this, this nice background, the TV. And then to see it come together and, and look like a studio at the end of the day, and then to be actually like sitting here and having a conversation is pretty cool. Yeah. For sure. It's really cool. So let's set the stage. Tell everyone or tell us exactly, what's your pitch? So we always had envisioned that we wanted to make high quality content easy to [00:02:00] create for everybody, and we had to build a bunch of systems to make that happen for the general public or whomever we interact with on a video or photo shoot. We wanted to make that easier, easy, so media made easy no matter what it was. ~Keith and I met probably almost 20 years ago. Oh, this is a good story. I like this. Oh, let's hear it. In the gym, right? Yeah, yeah. This is, yeah. I like- Well, it, it's interesting. Yeah, so Keith and I met in 2000 something. By the way, this is our most asked question for some reason. Is it really?~ ~Everybody's interested in how we- How did you meet? ... how we met. How did you meet? Not about the business, but how did you guys meet? Yeah, exactly. Yeah. It's it was like almost 20 years ago. We met at a gym, and it was Market Square when it was Gold's Gym. Now it's a Taj. And I was in college still. He had just graduated college.~ ~When you see the same people in the same places, you say, "Hi." It's a friendly hi, that sort of thing. That's what it was. And we all came at the same time after, after school for me, I think after work