
Webcam, Lights, and Audio for Remote Work, Podcasting, Videos, and Streaming - ryanmaynard
https://mattstauffer.com/blog/setting-up-your-webcam-lights-and-audio-for-remote-work-podcasting-videos-and-streaming/
======
nickjj
You can spend $700+ on his high end audio recommendations but 90% of home
office style recording environments (even with acoustic panels) are going to
have a noticeable amount of background hiss (computer fans, etc.) get picked
up and his set up doesn't account for that.

If you goto the OP's Youtube channel and listen to his recordings, for example
[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lh0sTxLs9VA](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lh0sTxLs9VA),
there is a HUGE amount of hiss / static in his audio, to the point where I
would be uncomfortable listening to his voice for a long period of time at a
medium volume. He's using the $400 Shure mic in that video too.

The $100 for the dedicated 2nd pre-amp with the Triton seems pretty wasteful.
As an alternative, for $299 you can pick up the DBX 286s pre-amp[0] which also
acts as a noise gate (helps filter hiss / static), de-esser, compressor and
basic EQ together. It's an awesome piece of hardware and offers way more bang
for your buck.

Also the AT2005[1] mic is a solid upgrade from the AT2100 that he recommends,
and both are about the same price. IMO the AT2005 is worth using as an end-
game microphone. The AT2005 is one of those crazy mics where it almost feels
like it's mis-priced at $80 and the DBX 286 has enough knobs and buttons to
make it sound good with a number of different types of voices.

Ultimately your real natural voice is going to play one of the biggest roles
in how you sound in the end.

[0]: [https://amzn.to/2VPbmMc](https://amzn.to/2VPbmMc)

[1]: [https://amzn.to/39hyQwI](https://amzn.to/39hyQwI)

(Yes these are affiliate links, I've been using both pieces of hardware for
years)

~~~
adamwathan
A noise gate does not remove hiss or static, it simply reduces the volume of
the signal when it gets below a certain level.

As a professional audio engineer in a past life, I can say the SM7B + Triton
Fethead is a great recommendation. The SM7B has very good off-axis rejection
characteristics and will pick up _much_ less room noise than most
alternatives.

~~~
nickjj
> A noise gate does not remove hiss or static, it simply reduces the volume of
> the signal when it gets below a certain level.

But the end result is with a configured noise gate the audio coming out will
not appear to have as much hiss or room noise.

Check out the Youtube video I linked of his. It's super noticeable. With Sony
MDR-V6 headphones, I hear a huge amount of hiss in his audio. To the point
where it's distracting and drowns out his voice.

I'm not trying to pick on you or him, but if I go to your most recent Youtube
video at
[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7lf6dwipRYg](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7lf6dwipRYg),
you can very much hear the same type of hiss within the first few seconds. I
can't say for what what it is, but it sounds like your computer fan is
spinning at 50% and it very much comes through. At about the 16:22 mark in the
video, your fans appear to be spinning at 100% because it's much louder than
before you started coding. It sounds like your computer is about to launch
into space.

It looks like you have the same mic too.

I'm not saying the mic is bad, it's a really good mic. I just think the OP
should have talked more about one of the biggest things that will kill a
recording, especially when talking about "professional podcasting" and
recommending high end gear.

For comparison, here's something I recorded with the AT2005 + DBX 286s acting
as a noise gate:
[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-Xd84hlIjkI](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-Xd84hlIjkI)

There's no software processing here either and my room is not treated with
acoustic panels. In fact, my office is almost a worst case scenario. It's a
wide open empty room with hardwood floors, angled ceilings and almost no
furniture or rugs. I have super loud computer fans too and I'm right next to a
window.

Even at maximum volume (unrealistically loud) there's pretty much no hiss or
room noise. At least nothing I can hear with the same Sony MDR-V6 headphones.

I'm sure I could get similar results with the Shure mic too (using the DBX),
but I'm happy with the AT2005. If I ever upgrade mics in the future it would
be to a shotgun mic so it's out of frame.

~~~
adamwathan
What you're hearing in that video is a space heater running in my office — I
don't put a ton of effort into making everything perfect for ad hoc live
streams.

A proper screencast is probably the better thing to judge:

[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ff_n_QClipQ](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ff_n_QClipQ)

I'm sure you'll find something to nitpick over but I think it's pretty good
for a programming tutorial recorded in my home office.

~~~
nickjj
> I'm sure you'll find something to nitpick over but I think it's pretty good
> for a programming tutorial recorded in my home office.

It's not nit picking.

The video you linked sounds much much better and really really good. Besides
turning off your heater did you do any other processing with software
afterwards? Such as using your video editor's noise cancellation filters or a
proper DAW?

I'm just asking because taking a quick skim through your videos, your live
stream videos all have some form of hiss but your shorter non-live screencasts
do not which makes me think additional post-processing is being done on them.

But I think the OP's channel intro video and your live stream video is a good
example of the importance of managing background noise, which isn't mentioned
in the article at all but it's probably the most important thing to do and you
can't just blindly throw money at the problem to fix it with no prior
knowledge.

For a professional set up, it seems like a no brainer to want to filter out
background and room noise before it even hits your computer. That's some of
what the DBX does. This way the amount of effort it takes to do a live stream
or screencast is the same when it comes to audio quality. You just turn it on
and hit record, and you're done. It also works the same in OBS, your video
recording tool of choice, zoom, hangouts, skype or any program that records
your mic.

You mentioned being an audio engineer. Surely you know how important having a
good audio source is, and how time consuming the editing process is when you
need to fiddle with cleaning things up after the fact. Configuring all of this
stuff to happen live is something I did after recording about 20 videos. Now
400+ videos later I couldn't imagine having to do post-processing on videos
just to clean up audio.

~~~
leviathant
I listened to the first clip expecting it to be much worse than it ended up
being. I'm listening on HD280pros, the headphones I keep at work, although I
use Sony MDR-7506s when I'm in front of my audio gear.

The noise floor sounded more to me like bad gain staging than it sounds like
fans and room noise. And I honestly think that the majority of people who
watch that video aren't going to notice. I think you're too close to the
process. I would venture that almost no one else in this thread would watch
that video and call that an all-caps HUGE amount of noise.

A long time ago, I was mixing down some rough recordings of my band, and as I
was putting everything together, I kept hearing the squeak of my cheap kick
pedal every time I hit the bass drum. It was incessant, and it didn't help
that I typically played at upwards of 160bpm. I tried EQ, notch filtering, all
kinds of things available to me back in 2002 to try and get rid of that squeak
without destroying the other things coming through the room mic, and I just
couldn't do it, so I had to leave it in. No one else in the band could hear
what I was talking about.

On my way home, I put in a CD by the band Cake that I'd had for a couple of
years at this point, and I had heard probably a hundred times before. And even
though it had never stood out to me at all before, all of the sudden the only
thing I could hear on this professionally recorded album was THE SQUEAK OF THE
KICK PEDAL. It was absolutely maddening.

I went on an electronic music binge for a couple of months after that, just to
cleanse my palette.

~~~
klodolph
> I would venture that almost no one else in this thread would watch that
> video and call that an all-caps HUGE amount of noise.

I listened to the video and while I wouldn’t go all-caps, it’s way more noise
that I like to listen to. So I downloaded the audio track and measured the RMS
noise and signal levels, getting about a 30dB SNR. That’s a somewhat bad
number, which matches my subjective experience.

A few years ago I converted some old audio cassettes with voice recordings of
deceased family members to MP3. I heard all sorts of weird noises, but I spent
a while getting rid of them with EQ and notch filters. I don’t know if anyone
else in the family cared about the work I did cleaning up the audio, but I
did.

Everyone has different standards, and it’s not quite fair to say that nobody
in the audience cares about these things, just like it’s not quite fair to say
that everyone in the audience cares.

~~~
nickjj
Thanks for doing the work to get the RMS noise and signal levels.

Yeah just casually comparing it to other random videos and podcasts, IMO it's
really noticeable.

I was going to post a screenshot comparison of that between all 3 videos but
it's probably not worth the effort. It's tricky to compare just by hearing
because headphone quality plays a massive difference. On some headphones you
can't hear anything but on others you hear all sorts of stuff.

Here's a funny story... I recorded a video course once, and even with a
dynamic mic, RDX, etc. a crow was going BERSERK outside of my window, like you
would think it was having a fight to the death with a pterodactyl.

Since the video came out pretty nice, I decided to keep it in as a joke since
it didn't last too long, and during a spot where it was super loud I decided
to throw up a 1 second picture of a crow.

Since the course has come out, I've had about 20 people e-mail me asking me
why I showed a crow picture while talking about Docker. Turns out, they
couldn't hear it even after I mentioned why I did it and requested to them to
play it back a few times in a loop at max volume. Some headphones are just
mechanically limited to not emit certain frequencies. Sadly, these are common
frequencies in voice, instruments and random background noises that humans can
hear.

A pair of MDRV6s can go a long ways. It's no wonder they are used in almost
every recording studio.

~~~
klodolph
As I’m reading your comment I have the MDR-7506 (the V6 is discontinued, I
think) right next to me.

They’re almost useless for mixing, but whenever I record something with a mic,
I’ll put headphones on and crank up the mic gain. Does wonders for getting
clean recordings.

------
SuddsMcDuff
I think the section on mics could be enhanced by explaining a little about the
different pickup patterns available. A cardioid pickup is a lot more
appropriate for these uses than an omni pickup would be. The author mentions
the Yeti mic picking up a lot of background noise - I'd bet that that mic has
an omni pick up pattern. Some mics even have a small switch which allows you
to cycle between different pickup patterns.

EDIT: While I've always known them as pickup patterns, I've just noticed that
Wikipedia refers to them as polar patterns. I assume this is a more universal
term.

~~~
dalore
There is a switch on the Yet that gives you 4 different pickup patterns.
[https://www.bluedesigns.com/products/yeti/](https://www.bluedesigns.com/products/yeti/)

    
    
      - cardioid
      - stereo
      - omni
      - bi

~~~
ravenstine
I use my Blue Yeti on cardioid mode without headphones and the noise picked up
is relatively minimal. My apartment is pretty quiet to begin with, but
cardioid limits some of the noise and also seems to prevent feedback. (which
is taken care of to some degree by the software, but I never have issues when
cardioid is on)

~~~
SuddsMcDuff
Do you remember what the factory default was? I expect most people who aren't
au fait with pickup patterns will either leave it on the factory default or
put it in stereo (which looks very similar to omni).

~~~
ravenstine
Unfortunately, I don't.

------
ravenstine
The value of a good mic for remote work cannot be understated.

One of the worst aspects of my job as a remote developer has been working with
people with crappy microphones. I worked with one client whose conference mic
was so low-fi that a lot of what they were saying in meetings was
incomprehensible. (I told them about this, but they didn't seem to care, which
is why I'm glad I'm not working with them anymore)

Going against what the author suggests, I purchased a Blue Yeti mic. The
reason I went for it is that I want my coworkers to not have to strain to hear
me. Ideally, it should sound as if I'm in the same room with them. With
cardioid mode turned on, I can use the mic with my MacBook Pro speakers as the
output channel and never have feedback issues. My home is quiet, so I never
have issues with bad noises coming through. If I'm at a cafe, that's when I'll
use my AirPods. However, I use my Yeti mic when possible. A few of my other
coworkers have since bought a Blue Yeti or a Razer Seiren, and it makes a
world of difference.

~~~
slantyyz
I used to use a Snowball, which worked great, but it obstructed my view of my
4 monitor setup. I currently use a Blue Snowflake, and it's been working very
well. It's small and inobtrusive, and I haven't heard any complaints about the
audio for calls. For a podcast, however, I would probably go back to the
Snowball or higher end mic.

------
exabrial
One thing he didn't differentiate on was the microphone and its appearance in
video casting.

While there are many good choices, the Shure SM7B is the quintessential desk
or studio microphone for recording vocals. However, it is a bulky monster and
will take up a _lot_ of real estate in a video frame. If you're audio-only,
that's not an issue, your vocals will sound awesome.

For video, I really think an off-camera mic on a boom stand in sound treated
room is the best option for seated, stationary casting. Many hypercardioid
vocal microphones most people have actually work fairly well in this setup.
Treating panels doesn't even need to be expensive; this youtuber made really
nice looking ones from towels:
[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WVEXp87TTrs](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WVEXp87TTrs)

I don't like the sound or intrusive look of a lapel mic or the noise it picks
up, for moving sequences, it's probably the best option unless you can hire a
grip.

~~~
dundercoder
Surprisingly the monoprice 600700 pencil condenser with a hypercardiod capsule
works really well for this, and it’s way cheaper than mid range shotguns.

------
geocrasher
I hope that nobody reading this thinks you HAVE to have these things to work
from home. I've been WFH for the better part of a decade. Audio: A $25
Logitech H390. Video: A MS 720p webcam. Cost: Maybe $60 USD tops? I'm not in
meetings all day, but really it's not that big of a deal when I am.

------
PaulDavisThe1st
One small point I'd like to make regarding USB mics (and USB headsets): the #1
rule of digital audio is to only have a single sample clock for the entire
system (the sample clock is the thing that defines when a voltage value gets
converted to/generated from a digital sample).

Although I understand the plug-n-play appeal of these devices, they uniformly
violate this rule because they cannot share whatever sample clock is being
used for the other "direction" (i.e. the USB mic has its own clock, which is
independent from the one used for playback).

Using these sorts of devices implicitly requires the audio software stack to
do resampling to keep both input and output in sync with each other. For
podcasting the change in quality that this causes is probably not an issue,
but users should at least be aware this is happening under the hood.

You're much better off getting a cheap USB audio interface, an XLR mic and
doing both recording and playback via the same device (with a single sample
clock).

~~~
rasz
Are you claiming to be able to "hear" resampling, and I dont mean 20 year old
naive implementations like Cretive SB Live. Sample clock, and its phase is
irrelevant as long as you pass Nyquist threshold, reconstructed signal will be
indistinguishable from original.

You might want to read [https://people.xiph.org/~xiphmont/demo/neil-
young.html](https://people.xiph.org/~xiphmont/demo/neil-young.html)

~~~
PaulDavisThe1st
I cite xiph.org/monty's videos to people all the time, just to be clear (I
write a DAW for a living).

If you check out infinitewave.ca you will see that actually there are still
lots of resampling implementations with notable artifacts, certainly when
subject to measurement.

Can you hear them? Depends on the nature of the artifacts. I'd agree that in
general, the answer is no.

Nevertheless, it is still wrong in my opinion for these mics to be spreading
(or even being made) without it being clear what they imply for the user. You
might not hear the effect, and you might not care, but you should understand
clearly what using these devices require from whatever software stack you're
using.

------
kh_hk
To be honest, investing in a whole studio setup for remote work seems to go
against one of the biggest perks of remote work itself: freedom.

Stock is usually good enough. That money is better invested on a pair of
comfortable headphones, and also some good on-the-go light headphones with
micro to hold remote calls outside of a quiet environment.

~~~
ghaff
It mostly seems unnecessary even if I'm doing calls from my office, as opposed
to when I'm traveling or otherwise not at home. I have a dedicated office with
decent lighting (and not backlit) and a good Logitech webcam. That's more than
a lot of people I work with have. Anything more would really be overkill and
probably not even noticeable on a typical video call.

~~~
pc86
Hell, I've been trying to get coworkers to just _get_ webcams and it is an
uphill battle. There is so much non-verbal communication that you lose working
remote, it's harder still when you can't even see the person.

~~~
ghaff
A number of teams I work with have fairly strict "Cameras on unless there's
some reason you can't (e.g. you're driving)" rules. In general, I think it's a
good idea. I know not everyone likes video but it's one of those things you
should really do IMO if everyone isn't co-located.

------
whitehouse3
It’s disappointing to see the Shure SM7B recommended so widely for use in
residential environments. While Shure’s classic offering is popular among 2020
media creators (Joe Rogan, Bret Weinstein, and streamers like Tfue or
SypherPK) it is still cruel and unforgiving of poor microphone technique,
audio reflection, and background noise. Considering its high noise floor when
driven by all but the nicest preamps, other options are just more attractive
overall.

It’s not that the SM7B is bad. Like any high end tool it requires to skill
(and other high end tools) to be effective. Even in amateur hands it can sound
great. But for $350 the average podcaster, streamer, or remote worker can do
much better.

Otherwise this article is great.

~~~
kwerk
What would you recommend?

~~~
whitehouse3
Shure's SM58 and SM57 have the same capsule as the SM7B for 1/3 the price and
fuss.

Like the Rolex Submariner, the SM58 has been cloned at lower and lower prices
since its introduction. The design is solid regardless of the price point.
Imitations from Pyle and Audio Technica sound great and cost less, but aren't
as rugged.

If you _want_ to spend money for more pleasing tone the Beta 87A from Shure is
outstanding. As are similar cardioid microphones from Electro Voice and
Neumann

~~~
geerlingguy
I've also driven a truck over an SM58, dropped it about a dozen times, and
seen them smashed up beyond recognition—and they still sound as good as new.
Those things are built like tanks.

~~~
52-6F-62
That line of Shure's in general are amazing. I've got an old 565SD from the
60s or 70s that was given to me. It's beat to all hell and _still_ sounds
fantastic and is totally reliable. They've re-released them as well if
anyone's into the shiny thing

[https://www.shure.com/en-
US/products/microphones/565sd](https://www.shure.com/en-
US/products/microphones/565sd)

------
eropple
A few things:

\- Sony makes great cameras but the lenses are expensive. You can get an old
Panasonic GH3 and a camlink and the lenses will be cheaper, while the image
quality won't (for this sort of use) be affected much at all.

\- You don't need a freakin' SM7B for this stuff. I do audio engineering as
one of my too-many side gigs and the _most expensive_ microphone I own is the
Synco D2, an interesting little MKH416 knockoff shotgun microphone. It was
$225. It's above my head right now, I was on a call an hour ago. It's out of
frame and it sounds great. While the PR40 (which personally I prefer to a
SM7B) or the SM7B are great mics for what they are, the delta between them and
much cheaper competitors is not that significant.

\- You don't really need hardware to tune your audio stack, aside possibly
from a preamp if you bought the wrong microphone (in this case, defined as
"the SM7B"). Use your computer. It's fast enough, it can save multiple
presets, and it will _get out of your way_.

\- Software matters. I use vMix for everything: live streaming and recording.
_This_ is where I recommend spending money. vMix has a reasonably featured
(for the purpose--videography and audio to go with it) audio system, able to
use ASIO with Windows and to use VSTs. It can support half a dozen cameras (my
road kit uses 4, my home setup uses 6) and as many voices as your interface
can, while supporting multi-record for archival footage/alternate takes and a
nice tablet-control interface that's topped only by Logic Remote in this space
(and if you're only doing audio, Logic Pro on a Mac is a no-brainer).

------
Sholmesy
Somewhat off topic, but I've thought this would be quite a useful thing to do
just for helping my focus while working, kind of like having a permanant
rubber duck.

Has anyone ever had experience of "live coding" at a company, and if so, how
do you manage things like, not broadcasting a database secret, etc.

Are there any examples of companies letting people record their work? I
remember a lot of videos floating around about "a day in the life at X" style
things.

~~~
mrdonbrown
Actually, I just started doing this yesterday. I had streamed a handful of
times on Twitch (channel the same name as my username here) for side projects
before, but I just joined a startup as a co-founder and decided to try
streaming during work hours.

A couple tips:

    
    
      - Use multiple monitors - this is almost a hard requirement
      - Separate secrets into their own files.
      - Exclude secret files from your IDE/editor search
      - Make the second monitor the main monitor so notifications and what not go there
      - On that second (or third monitor), put everything that isn't your editor
    

Be prepared for few to no viewers. Remember the point is to help keep you
focused, not get attention.

------
Pigo
I recently got a green screen to use during my video conferencing. I thought
it would be fun just to mess with my co-workers, make it look like I'm on the
Mars or something. I've yet to figure out how to get it to work with
gotomeeting/skype/hangouts video though. I've found apps that can do it for
recorded video, but I suppose it's on the camera to have the chroma effect
available. Which the one I have doesn't do. I don't want to spend too much
just for a joke.

~~~
emilburzo
Zoom has this feature built-in, it's called virtual background.

[https://support.zoom.us/hc/en-
us/articles/210707503-Virtual-...](https://support.zoom.us/hc/en-
us/articles/210707503-Virtual-Background?mobile_site=true)

------
TheBlerch
Any suggestions for maintaining sound and video quality when you are
interviewing/featuring someone remote, who does not have any special sound or
video equipment beyond what they have on their laptop? Would you keep a modest
kit with decent webcam and mic that you can mail them with a return label?
I've heard of at least one podcaster doing this.

The comments here were as helpful as the original post - thanks all.

------
uncensoredjrk
Spending money on decent lights and cameras to then block the view with a
GIANT microphone doesn't make sense to me. I've been involved with
professional audio for 23 years--if I were doing this, I would use a decent
single ear, earset style mic. That would keep the mic out of view, provide
excellent sound quality, and keep the audio consistent if you turn your head
(away from a fixed mic).

It actually drives me nuts when podcasters use the SM7B mic and have their
low-end cranked or don't apply a strong enough HPF to compensate for the mic's
proximity effect. That's incredibly tiring to my ears--I usually end up
reducing the low end via my playback device's EQ.

99% of the pre-amp options don't matter as long as you get a strong, clean
signal into a decent ADC stage. Spend your efforts on learning how to properly
process the signal chain instead (apply High-pass filter, proper gain, apply
dynamic compression, possibly EQ/de-ess, etc.).

Sorry for the rant. :)

~~~
klodolph
> 99% of the pre-amp options don't matter as long as you get a strong, clean
> signal into a decent ADC stage.

It turns out this is actually hard, when you use inexpensive preamps, typical
microphones, and you’re recording voice at home. Getting a strong signal means
more gain than onboard preamps in inexpensive interfaces typically provide,
which is why you might want to get an outboard preamp or use an inline device
like the fethead. Getting a clean signal means learning how to do mic
placement, doing some room treatment, etc.

From what I understand, there’s a limit to how much clean gain you can get
from a single amplifier stage, and it’s often just not enough. I was very
skeptical about getting an outboard preamp but it ended up making a much
larger difference than I thought it would.

------
outworlder
> Mine is the C930e, but Wirecutter now recommends the c920s, which is cheaper
> and adds a privacy shield.

Ah, Wirecutter. The same guys who will one year absolutely recommend dual-hose
portable ACs (and cite many sources, including the Department of Energy) and
utterly demolish the efficiency of single hose models. Then, next year, say
that this is not actually important at all. Because they are less practical or
something. Which is an argument they themselves discarded just one year prior.

What changed? That's left as an exercise for the reader.

They may be fine if you use them to check products that you might otherwise
have missed. But as far as recommendations go, I'm not sure they have no
agenda.

------
federalemployee
I hate doing video on calls. But I might be more willing with a stylish red
beanie. My appearance is my biggest concern and a stylish hat is a good idea.

------
jamestomasino
I was a bit surprised to see the recommendation of another inline preamp in
the chain with the Focusrite. He recommends a TRITON AUDIO FetHead Filter in-
Line Microphone Preamp. Does anyone have further experience with this setup?
I've been using my MXL Mics 770 Cardioid Condenser Microphone with a Focusrite
Scarlett 2i2 with nothing in-between. I know I've got the gain dialed up
pretty high but it never occurred to me to put something else in between them.
I'd love to hear your experiences and recommendations. Is an in-line preamp
worth it?

~~~
meheleventyone
I don't see that recommendation in the article. Rather it's specific to the
SM7B which is famously pretty quiet.

I use a Cloudlifter with my SM-58 just because the gain it provides is a lot
cleaner than my interface (Audiobox iOne) seems to provide at the top end.

~~~
geerlingguy
It also gives you a little more headroom for doing things like talking at a
greater distance from the mic (e.g. talk at 6-10" from the mic and still get
great signal).

Of course, if the room acoustics are horrible, that's not going to sound
nearly as good as talking close to the mic, but if you have a decent sounding
room it is freeing to not have to be close (and a good mic won't necessarily
sound worse at slightly longer distances).

------
joelrunyon
I've been doing remote work and videos for a while. I sort of took my built-in
camera for granted even though I've had better tools available.

Recently, started using the base logitech webcam and have gotten several
mentions about how much better the video is from people on the other side of
the calls. That sort of drove it home for me.

Don't know why it took me so long for it to "hit" \- gonna probably pick up a
couple things in this post - thanks.

------
falcolas
Another audio option I don't see mentioned often is a headset with a boom
microphone. Some of my best sounding coworkers have these. They also typically
have ambient sound rejection, meaning you can be in a relatively noisy
environment (AC) and still sound good.

A nice pair of headphones can have a boom mike added with little hassle, using
something like an Antlion Modmic.

------
iambateman
I just did a bunch of this over Christmas, and it was a ton of fun to set up.

The way I see it...people work in these offices that cost hundreds of
thousands, so I will benefit from looking somewhat professional on my calls
from home.

One frustrating note: we use RingCentral/Zoom at work, and they only work with
the Elgato CamLink once. After one call with proper video, I have to reset my
PRAM.

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sbr464
Surprised the Blackmagic Design Web Presenter wasn't mentioned. It has several
nice features including switching between 2 feeds without latency.

[https://www.blackmagicdesign.com/products/blackmagicwebprese...](https://www.blackmagicdesign.com/products/blackmagicwebpresenter)

~~~
schrijver
I have the Elgato Camlink, which is way cheaper, but I’ve been wondering
whether the Web Presenter would be a more foolproof solution. For OBS the
Camlink is fine, because I’m able to get a signal by manually configuring the
source frame rate. But non of the cameras I’ve tried will show up in Skype—or
if they do, they drop out at some point. How is your experience with the Web
Presenter, does it show up as a webcam reliably across software?

~~~
sbr464
From my experience it shows up reliably, using any web related platform, and
also dev work with webcam related react/JS libraries, the BMD device works
well. (No different than the built in Mac/etc camera.

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zebrafish
One item that the author didn't touch on was internet connection. I would
imagine that streaming with a 4k camera, even with codecs and compression and
stuff that i know little about, would both take a decent sized upload pipe as
well as no capping on uploaded data.

Does anyone have more info about this piece of the set up?

~~~
geerlingguy
15-20 Mbps uplink will be enough for most situations, at 4K. It's not like
you'll be streaming ProRes or some other minimal/no-compression data. You
should be encoding a compressed stream and sending that to the streaming
service. For 1080p, you can probably get by with 10-15 Mbps up, though it is
better to have more bandwidth since you might have other things pushing data
up at the same time.

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ctingom
I've recently been thinking about really improving my home office lighting
setup. For example, most of my meetings are with Zoom and on video, and proper
studio lighting can go a long way to making a good impression. We all want to
look good, right?

~~~
Insanity
I've been thinking the same, well that I need to get better lighting in
general - I have remote calls daily and during the summer that's fine because
there's sunlight all the time whilst I'm working.

But now in the winter, it gets dark quite early and my normal room lighting is
not bright enough. Doesn't make me look exactly as if I'm sitting in the dark
but it's close to it :P

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m00dy
A little off topic: has anyone managed to have chroma key effect on Mac ? I'm
also thinking to have almost same concept youtube channel. But, I also want to
have chroma-key background. any ideas ?

~~~
DAlperin
I think OBS will do live keying.

~~~
m00dy
I'm also looking for its virtual-camera plugin which is only window :(

~~~
wdroz
I'm was looking (still looking actually) for a virtual camera for GNU/Linux,
but all the solutions I found involve lot of hacks.

That would be awesome to be able to switch scenes from OBS inside a
"corporate" video conference setup.

~~~
jnwatson
I've done it without too much trouble. I did have to compile and load a small
kernel module, but it wasn't too hard. I have notes on how I did it if you're
interested. Most of my time was spent in OBS tweaking the look.

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Mikho
Doesn't look like the author really did research on the equipment. Almost
everything except maybe lighting is a wrong choice or combination.

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mirimir
I'd hate having a webcam for remote work.

I mean, I'd need to get dressed :(

