Remaining Social, while being distant…

On a personal level, the Vollmer family tends to be a social family, much to Beth’s dismay. Prior to March, we had monthly “Game Nights” with our boys and their friends at the house. We would wire up every gaming system known to mankind, a few board games and of course the ever-present card games. And then fill the house with 10-20 teenagers and it was an amazing experience of sound, noise, and visuals.

Since March, we have had to figure out some ways to retain being social while being distant from our friends. Here are some tools and things that have helped us transition to being social.

I will start with the hardware and move into some software we use to help us reach out to friends and family.

Our Living Room Setup

• Microphone Mount: The first thing you need to get your camera into the right height is a microphone mount. I found you don’t really need much of one for this, but we picked on up off Woot for $13.00, which compared to a good one like a Rode PSA1 is flimsy, but it works well for our 3-4x a week usage.
• Microphone Bar: While you could run your audio and video from a single device, we found that the Webcam Microphones are highly directional. Which means in our case our kids were not part of the conversation. So, we got a microphone bar to go on top of the Microphone Mount. https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B06W9NGW7Z/ref=ppx_yo_dt_b_asin_title_o00_s00?ie=UTF8&psc=1
• Microphone Adapter: Microphones and Cameras have two very different mounting sizes. We need to take the 3/8” of a microphone and bring it down to a ?” used on cameras. https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B06W9NGW7Z/ref=ppx_yo_dt_b_asin_title_o00_s00?ie=UTF8&psc=1
• Microphone: We don’t need a crazy USB Microphone like a Blue Yeti. We really need just a microphone that will allow the whole room to participate and be a part of the conversation without picking up noise. We settled on the Monoprice Stage Right USB Microphone and have been very happy. https://www.monoprice.com/product?p_id=600202
• Webcam: While a Logitech Brio would have been amazing, it is also over kill. And many living rooms don’t have proper lighting. We tried out the Razer Kiyo. (And if you go to their web page, they often have $10.00 off coupons, which makes them well under a hundred bucks. It has a great picture and the light ring helps make sure we have proper lighting. https://www.razer.com/streaming-cameras/razer-kiyo/RZ19-02320100-R3U1
• Since I am also using a Surface Laptop, we grabbed a Mini Display Port to HDMI to run the audio through the home receiver. https://www.monoprice.com/product?p_id=15888 It also allows for a killer dual monitor setup.
• Wireless Mouse and Keyboard. I just used a random Logitech one laying around. At the bare minimum, get a wireless mouse.
• And a Network Wired Connection. Wi-Fi doesn’t cut it. I have a robust Mesh network and for whatever reason, Zoom still would go wonky. Wired helps make sure the party continues.

Zoom Settings (I tried Teams, I really did….)

• Zoom has an option buried in options for a dual monitor setup. It means we can see both the spotlight and gallery at the same time. https://support.zoom.us/hc/en-us/articles/201362583-Using-Dual-Monitors-with-the-Zoom-Desktop-Client
• Learn Zoom Keyboard Shortcuts. Our most used is remaining on mute and using the space bar to unmute temporarily. https://support.zoom.us/hc/en-us/articles/205683899-Hot-keys-and-keyboard-shortcuts
• Learn to share with both Audio and Optimized Video screens. https://support.zoom.us/hc/en-us/articles/202954249-Optimizing-a-Shared-Video-Clip-in-Full-Screen
• Edit the Zoom Microphone settings to turn off noise cancelling and enabling Stereo microphone on the machine with the HDMI Input device. https://support.zoom.us/hc/en-us/articles/360046244692-Background-noise-suppression and Preserve Original sound is also a great setting. https://support.zoom.us/hc/en-us/articles/115003279466-Enabling-option-to-preserve-original-sound (Update Nov 2, 2020)

Games

Jackbox Games – This is probably one of the best values out there. Pick up any one you want or can afford. We bought Jackbox 4 as a start and it is a ton of fun. 7 was just released. They run sales on them on a regular basis, so if nothing else, sign up for their newsletter as they have sales on a regular basis to their subscribers.

• Check the Settings so the games don’t run in full screen.
• Reduce in Game Volume. Out of the Box, they are WAY louder than people so they will drown out the other participants.

Cards Against Humanity

• There are two versions of this. The family friendly version we use is https://notallbad.cards/

Movie Nights

This is probably the most advanced out there. Buckle up.

Due to Digital Rights Management, getting a movie to be “shared” is hard. And we often tried the Netflix watch together, but all of them seemed weird for watching. What we ended up doing is as follows:

• We have a machine setup in our living room that we join as “normal.” And on a machine in my office, which is also hardwired, I have two PC’s. One for the movie in Zoom and one for the Movie playback.
• For the “Zoom” machine, you will need an additional piece of hardware. I use the AV.io 4k Input card. There are other options, but this is the one I have used and had amazing success with. https://www.epiphan.com/products/avio-4k/ I know there are other versions, but this is the one I have laying around. This turns the HDMI Input into a Camera Source.
• A second laptop with HDMI Output. You stream or play the movie on this machine and put the output of the screen to your “second” monitor, which is connected to the input card. Don’t forget to turn on close captions and increase the volume as much as you can.

I know this is long, but hopefully it gives you some ideas on ways to enhance the experience of being more social, while being distant. The upside here is that we have done cooking together, dinner together, movies, liquor tasting and games all with this same setup. And it has allowed us to connect with families further away and in much more meaningful ways.