Stop working from the Couch. Now!

OK, caveat up front: I know that not everyone has the luxury situation to have a separate room where they can work from home but for anyone that has at least a tiny space for themselves at home: Read on!

So many people are working from home now since a few months and given the rising cases we see, we probably will continue to do so over the next 6-12 month. Given that outlook I want to encourage you to think about your work setup and how you appear in a video call on Teams, Zoom or Bluejeans with others.

I spend the last few weeks perfecting my setup and want to share the process, the products and cost so that you can learn from it and hopefully question (and optimize) your setup after reading this article.

Again, this is mostly about how YOU appear on someone else's screen and how much fun and productive it is to talk to you. We are all perfectionists when we watch HD content on Netflix, Disney+ or Youtube. We get annoyed when in a podcast the audio quality is not superb - why would we not think about how we appear in a conversation with someone else? Any clicking, cracking and rustle in the audio, and delay in the Video - annoying. And it simply takes away the focus from the actual conversation and distracts. Let me know in the comments if you do or do not agree with me!

So, what did I do?

Video

Probably the most important item on your shopping list. Do not use the internal camera from your laptop. The new iMacs have a somewhat OK resolution but still I would recommend at least to have something like the Logitech 920S (I have that one). If you have some form of digital camera that can also record video you could also look into that which gives an even better picture! The Verge has a great article about this and I will look into that myself.

Another thing to stop is to use your phone or laptop when it is not 100% in once place. There is literally nothing worse than a shaking picture on the other side. Just take the extra minute to put the laptop on some fix counter or desk or if you really need to use your phone: Just lean it against something but NEVER hold it in your hand or worse walk around.

Talking about Video: Generally I am not a fan of virtual backgrounds. You just (almost) always look strange in these. Either an ear is cut off or your neck is suddenly twice the size. Remember, that you can tell a story with a proper background setup. Take this as an opportunity to clean up your place, pick a nice picture and hang it on the wall or show your hobbies in the background.

And no, no one wants to see that Golden Gate Bridge Background anymore that Zoom has as default. And even worse: Never use a moving background. That is super distracting and annoying and takes away from a focused conversation. Imagine you were in the office and behind the person you talk to someone would set up a TV and show some movie. You would ask to turn that off.

OK, and there are three exception for virtual backgrounds:

• If you make them somewhat fun and creative and your followed all the steps listed below with proper lighting and video quality they can enrich the conversation. But of all the people I talked to so far on VC in the last 6 month only one person made good use of them. One.
• If you have a green screen behind you, virtual background are OK.
• If you have very good lighting a virtual background can also look OK.

And lastly: I like to see who I am talking to. Do not turn your video off :) So don't be that ghost!

Audio (for the other)

Even more important than Video is the audio signal in my eyes. It is the worst when you get every second word only. It slows down a conversation, everyone in the call is annoyed and you waste everyone's time when you are the one that did not fix this. And it is easy to fix.

I am using a Rode NT-USB mic that is probably as good as you have to go and an adjustable arm to move it out of the way when I am not in a call. This mic is amazing and allows you to do great recordings (like a podcast or any other audio format you might need).

Also consider installing some Acoustic Panel Studio Foam pads behind your screen or around you while you are at it. They are cheap and increase the quality of the signal that you send massively.

If you do not want to add an external mic I would at least use Apple Airpods or even better the old Apple headset which has a surprisingly great audio quality. One thing to remember: You do not have to touch the microphone or hold it close to your mouth - EVER. The engineering teams at Apple thought about the perfect position so just leave it hanging where it is and talk.

Audio (for you)

Being in conference calls all day can be exhausting by itself. If you wear headphones on top of that you could get a headache easily. I experimented with this and the best way to go in my eyes are proper studio monitor speakers. I got a pair of Mackie CR4-X Creative Reference Series 4" Multimedia Monitors. They are amazing, have BT also (so I could use them for other events) and have a sound quality that is perfect for speech and music. Because the question came up: No, I do not have any feedback or echo in the line.

Remember that if you are in an interview situation (e.g. a podcast) you do not want to use external speakers but use over the ear headphones. I am using either Sennheiser HD 280 PRO or my Bose Quietcomfort 35 depending if I want a wireless experience (Bose) or not (Sennheiser).

Lighting

OK, now we are getting into the advance setup, but proper lightning makes the difference. If you face a window or have a very bright place you might not need this, but I can highly recommend using studio lights in video calls. Especially, when you have a light background like myself with a window (or garage door in my case) in the background.

Lights just make the picture sharper; make you look sharper and will give the other conference participants a better experience.

I got a pair of Neewer Dimmable 5600K USB LED Video Light with Adjustable Tripod Stand and Color Filters. I experimented a bit with it and added 20% of yellow and red filters to have a more healthy and warmer light. I only turn them on when I am in a call since they also blind you, but they make such a big difference. See here (without and with lights on - and I did not edit the pictures. This is how I look on video for the other folks):

Camera Position and other tips and tricks

Think of yourself of a TV host:

• Have the camera in an angle that is the same height as your eyes
• Let your head almost touch the top of the frame
• Do not look down on the screen so I only see your forehead

Here are some examples of how it should not look like (and how it should):

Internet

Finally, all this only works, when you have a fast internet connection. Since so many people work from home and there are probably 20 Wi-Fi networks around you at any time. So do not use Wi-Fi but hard wire your computer. I am with Sonic and get 1000MB up and down with a fiber glass connection. This is an easy and cheap fix. If people forgot which cable you use: Search for RJ45 Cat cable and then probably a RJ45 to USB-C adapter.

How much money does this cost me?

Every item has a pretty large range and you could spend a lot of money, but I went mostly for the cheaper setup and accomplished a pretty good result in my eyes. Here is what you need to calculate with:

• Webcam ~$70-150
• Microphone ~$100-180
• Arm for Microphone ~$20-30
• Foam Pads ~$15-30
• Studio Monitors ~$100-150
• Over the ear Headphones ~$80-350
• Lights ~$50-350
• Adapters and cables ~$10-50

In total a great setup starts at ~$445 and can reach ~$910 as well.

What is next?

I do not own a digital camera like a Sony Alpha 6400 but I am debating if I should get one to increase my video quality further. Let me know in the comments what setup you have and where I could optimize further!