Frequently Asked Questions
If you’re an upcoming participant on a Blinder call, have no worries. You don’t need to signup or download anything -- you have all you need to join right now.
If it’s a phone call, simply answer your phone as normal. You should have received the information about what phone number to expect the call to come from in a text or email notification when the call was scheduled.
If it’s a video call, simply click the link provided to you by text or email at the start time and the video room will open in your browser (accept the permissions to access your camera and microphone.)
Blinder emerged from pro sport in New Zealand. One of our founders (Caley Wilson) ran communications for New Zealand Rugby League and thought that remotely connecting the media and athletes could be done a whole lot easier.
In our part of the world, ‘having a Blinder’ is slang for a great sporting performance. So, the name ‘Blinder’ acknowledges our sporting roots, while also highlighting that calls through our system can be done blindly (without any personal contact details being exchanged).
If you’re booking a phone or HD video call, you use our secure online communications dashboard. Call details and reminders are then automatically sent by text and email to your call participants. At the agreed time, the parties just click a link (video call) or receive or place a phone call (audio call). Conversations are recorded to your cloud-based team dashboard.
No. Nobody does.
Blinder video calls connect through web browsers with call participants just clicking a link in a text or email.
Blinder phone calls are placed or received over regular phone lines. Those booking calls do so through our online communications dashboard.
To schedule calls, yes. To be part of a call, no.
- No one needs any new software (so everyone you work with is set to use Blinder right now).
- No personal contact details are exchanged between the parties on calls (so it’s easy to respect everyone’s privacy and time)
- You capture video and phone call recordings to a cloud-based team dashboard. No more recording locally and then sharing the recordings awkwardly through Dropbox.
- Accounts can be jointly managed (to streamline your team’s workflow and increase collaboration between your production and editing departments)
In short...
- Have a good and stable internet connection.
- Light you face properly (not your backside.)
- Keep your camera steady.
- Frame yourself so that your camera is parallel with your eyes and the floor.We've provided more details on how to accomplish all these in our blog.
By making things a whole lot easier and streamlining workflows. With Blinder:
- Reporters/presenters and talent can do interviews from their homes (or the studio) through their own laptops or mobile phones
- Audio and HD video content from these interviews can be broadcast live or recorded to your cloud-based team dashboard
- Production and editing teams can have immediate and remote access to the content captured by their colleagues, and
- Everyone can get started easily from wherever they are (no one needs any new software – and talent just click a link in a text or email to join a call)
Very. Blinder is a great way to jump into video creation without adding any new hardware and software. Simply use Blinder in place of your local recordings and you're set.
No way. Blinder is used by people from all walks of life who want to bring people into conversation easily, capture great content, and save time and hassles.
Blinder is mostly used for one-on-one calls.
However, you can have up to four parties on a Blinder video call and up to three people on a Blinder phone call.
For starters, there’s no need for any party to have new software, everyone can do calls through their personal devices, and parties join calls just by clicking a link in a text or email. That removes a heap of hassle. Then call recordings are saved to your cloud-based team dashboard, meaning production and editing teams can have immediate and remote access to the content captured by their colleagues. Blinder also automatically sends out call details and reminders to all parties, keeps a record of everything on your dashboard, and ensures calls happen when they should.
If you’re a PR manager, Blinder also allows you to simultaneously make your entire squad available, through their personal handsets, without privacy or time concerns. And you can just tick a box to automatically send the content from any conversation to the media.
Yes. For those making and receiving calls, Blinder works just like a regular phone call. So, PR managers schedule calls using an online dashboard, then callers can make these calls from a mobile or landline, and your ‘talent’ can receive these calls on a mobile or landline. All calls are done on a recognised team number, assigned to your Blinder account.
Blinder records each party individually in our base resolution of 720p. Premium accounts can enjoy recordings of up to 1080p (network and device conditions depending).
Yes. With Blinder, the likes of producers or publicists can easily be part of any audio or video calls.
Blinder calls happen at defined times only, without any contact details being exchanged and with a record kept of everything. You can also schedule multiple simultaneous calls for your team – or instantly start calls whenever things need to happen ‘now’.
You can see our Help videos, along with some tips and tricks, here.