I "invested" in early 2020 when all of my training moved to Zoom. I've gone through a lot of equipment and frequently am complimented on my sound, camera, and background.
My rank order for investment:
1. Mic - See my mic comment in another thread
2. Lighting - It is hard for good cameras to compensate for poor lighting. Good lighting on the other hand, does compensate and helps laptop webcams perform much better. I currently run a Godox ULC60bi with a huge parabolic diffuser. Probably overkill for many. You can get cheap fluorescent or LED lights with a diffuser. Would avoid a ring light especially if you wear glasses.
3. Camera - I have used Canon M50 and Sony A6500 as webcams. These days, I use an Insta360 Link. It's not quite as good as the cameras (you can add more "background blur" with their software), but it's more convenient. I still get compliments on this.
4. Background - Blur, doors, and bedrooms are what you see 90% of the time. A good background helps you stand out. I have a bookcase with the books ordered in color. Folks always comment about it. There are lots of other common looks, look on Youtube or X (Kevin Shen) for office makeovers.
5. Teleprompter - Not for scripts but for "looking in the eyes" of my students or the person on the other end of the call.
My setup is not as professional as yours, but I bought the "diva light" ring light and put my camera in the middle of it. I swear it makes me look 10 years younger and people say I look like a supermodel on calls which is really funny. The key is to put the camera and screen up high so you're looking upwards, which makes it a flattering angle for jawline.
I wear glasses, and having a ring in the middle of them would drive me crazy when editing videos. Also, staring at a computer screen with lights off to the side is bad enough for me, I don't know how you can look directly into the light. Finally, it isn't compatible with my camera being behind the teleprompter.
Most lighting folks recommend putting one light to the side (say 45 degrees) so that one side of your face is lit and the other has a shadow. Fancier folks have additional fill light to highlight the shaded side and the back of the head (so there is a glow around it).
>Background - Blur, doors, and bedrooms are what you see 90% of the time. A good background helps you stand out. I have a bookcase with the books ordered in color.
True on the first part, but bookshelves as backgrounds are so cliche. Every two bit hack who gives an opinion on TV has a bookshelf as the background. It's a negative signal for me.
I had my real bookshelves behind me for most of my remote career. Mostly because my old sociology professor called attention to what backgrounds people get in media reports tells you a lot about them.
Sadly, we had a second child and we put a cot into the room, so I can't have my books behind me anymore :(
Me, too. You can't really see what's on them due to the bokeh from the DSLR I use as my webcam, but you can tell they're books, at least! What's actually there is my RPG collection, and some other hobby references.
4b. Collapsible green screen[0]. Can't recommend this enough if you don't want/have the ability to stage or curate your background (my "office" doubles as a guest room). It's also excellent for presenting and handy for any number of one-off things. When I don't need it I just slide it under the bed, easy.
I put together a similar setup in 2020/2021, but had to tear it all down. I got too many jokes about being a Twitch streamer, and the teleprompter made me look like one of those dudes who stares directly into your eyeballs at all times as a power move.
Maybe I should have stuck with it and iterated! Sounds like you've dialed it in.
I'm the creepy instructor who looks at his students rather than talking to you by looking down and to the right...
More seriously, I have dialed it in because I think it gives my clients a better final product. I also just want to have things work rather than spending an inordinate amount of time setting up equipment each time I need to record.
I'm up to level 4 on this scale, with a hacked d5100 as my camera. How much incremental ROI do you feel you got from adding the teleprompter? I'd never considered one.
I use it for looking in the camera. If I don't have the zoom window on my teleprompter, I find myself looking at the zoom window. Probably not a huge deal for folks using just laptops and occasional zoom.
I find it even more useful when recording courses. I use OBS to overlay my face when talking about code. I immediately notice when folks try to do this without a teleprompter. They keep gazing off to the side.
There are yt tutorials about making cheap teleprompters. You could try it out and see if you care for it. I made two, however the value in a real teleprompter is the sturdiness and the mount. It was easier for me to buy one than hack one up that I would be using everyday.
It is a Glide Gear teleprompter with an Insta360 Link for a camera, custom foam draping, and a Lilliput 8-inch monitor. It is attached to my monitor mount with a swing arm, and some adapted camera gear (inspired by some YT video) that allows me to adjust its vertical and level position of it relatively easily.
Wow, this is being downvoted. (Please help me understand why as this comment is a summary of interactions that I have when folks ask me about my equipment.)
My guess is because for the median HN reader (an ordinary techie who doesn't talk much on video, and when he/she does, it's mostly to other ordinary techies), your setup appears to be expensive overkill.
Lighting makes a HUGE difference. Just get an Elgato Key Light Air from Amazon, set it to ~5700K and full brightness and watch the magic happen. It takes a while to get used to having a lightbulb in your face but it's so worth it.
That, and the new Macbook Pro's portrait mode feature on the webcam. It's good enough that most people won't want to bother with setting up a DSLR
For a good visual on how much lighting helps check out youtuber Hannah Poston's "Why do I look so young" where she shows herself with and without her lighting setup: https://youtu.be/S9TTLmTZnf4?si=gJoSCwWK8bg2rerL&t=41
I just got back from an All Hands meeting in our main office. Most people do it remotely. We had remote people presenting from their M-series macbooks. I was reading this thread prior to the all hands, so I was paying attention to the quality of the voices. Audio was being pumped through the ceiling speakers. They all sounded great and it convinced me that I did not need to throw money at an imagined problem... I of course reserve the right to change my mind as soon as I see a great desktop mic on a sweet deal.
I was wondering the same. I’d love to see a quick head to head, in realistic non studio wfh environment, starting with macbook mic, and then at $50, $100, $300 mic investments.
Anyone got the setup already in front of them at their zoom desk and want to make us a 5 minute comparison video?
I have a Blue Yeti, an AudioTechnica BPHS1 (headset), a Fifine 688 (cheap Shure SM7B competition), and a Behringer C2 (pencil mic). I have also used "professional equipment" sent from studios for me to record with.
The professional equipment sounds the best, but the audio device alone (sans mic) was $1200.
These days, I use the pencil mic with a Scarlett device. It sounds good enough for my recording needs (I post-process everything regardless). It is out of camera, and pencil mics (or shotgun) are what pros use in camera studios.
If you don't mind having a big mic on camera, the Fifine is a lot of bang for the buck. If you are a brand person, go for the Shure.
A headset is great for minimizing sound when talking with others (say for a podcast interview), but I have yet to find one that is comfortable for using all day (I'm often teaching day-long courses).
I have the Scarlett audio version. It works fine. However, I played around swapping my mics with the $1200 Sound Devices Pre2, and it just sounds amazing. I'm not sure what is going on inside that box. I haven't been able to justify that purchase.
I bought a Yeti Blue a while back, and several people commented positively on its sound quality. I'm pleased with it, especially given its decent price: it's not a bank-breaker for being such a huge upgrade over the built-in laptop mic.
As a bonus, it has a hardware mute button on it. Now I usually leave my Zoom unmuted, and use the button to toggle whether my coworkers can hear me. It's more convenient than clicking the Zoom button or finding the keyboard shortcut.
Basically any mic that's widely recommended for entry-level YouTubers (outside search engine spam, those don't count as real recommendations) will be a giant step up from laptop or headphone mics, enough that most people who just want to sound good on video conferencing probably don't need to spend more. The Blue Yeti is exactly that kind of mic, to the point that it's kind of a cliché.
Shotgun mics popular among low-budget filmmakers (think: people who shoot local commercials, little indie films and shorts, and, when desperate for cash, weddings) would also be a good and fairly cheap way to go, though they may require other hardware to function.
Shotgun mics? They're very good at cancelling off-axis noise (that is, anything that's not in a fairly narrow cone the direction they're aimed) but AFAIK it's really challenging to have hardware cancelling of distant noises in the direction of capture, while also capturing a narrow cone like that. So, do they do noise cancelling? Yes, very much so, it's kinda their whole point, but also no, depending on what you mean.
Oh i meant more the noise canceling you need in a call... cat meow, ambulance siren coming from the open window, the sound of you pouring yourself more coffee etc.
I have one of these, but honestly, I find it hard to convince myself it's better than the built-in mic in my MBP. I've gone back-and-forth in the Zoom audio settings between my Yeti and the MBP mic, tweaking the knob on the Yeti to every setting, and I still prefer the laptop.
The main issue with the Yeti Blue is that it's 15 years old: although microphone tech doesn't evolve as much over the years, it's still behind a bit (e.g. it does 48 kHz/16-bit audio while modern USB mics do 96 kHz/24-bit). It also uses a USB-mini connector which is very annoying.
There are a few modern improvements on it, such as the Yeti X.
hehe, I just posted a sibling comment about the same mic. I've been using it for 5+ years, and I don't think like I'm missing anything. I suppose I need to make sure to keep myself uninformed on the subject so I don't get an upgrade :)
The USB connector is not an issue for me, because the mic is connected to a docking station/computer display.
The sound quality hasn't been an issue yet, and I've used it to record some game assets, etc...
Have you used Yeti X? If so, how does it compare to Blue in practice?
The Blue Yeti is a condenser mic, so it picks up a lot of background noise.
Going the dynamic mic route can end up costing a bit more, but worth it in my opinion. Unless you have a very quiet environment and don’t need to type on a keyboard or click a mouse while on calls.
That hasn't been my experience at all, especially when set for cardioid. I use to ask diligently about whether my coworkers could hear me type, or my kids yelling from another room, etc., and they couldn't. It does a surprisingly good job of not picking up the trucks leaving from fire department literally across the street from my house.
I have a feeling this is likely due to noise suppression in the video call platform.
Possibly Jitsi doesn’t do it as well as Zoom or Google Meet, so my experience on Jitsi was a night and day improvement switching from Blue Yeti (cardioid mode) to a dynamic mic.
IK Multimedia iRig Stream Mic USB, it sounds great, has a built in audio interface, pop filter, direct monitoring, mixing, light up mute button, and all for under $100.
Def use the mic with a pair of wired headphones/earbuds to use the live/direct monitoring feature.
My team used to have a lot of issues with people mics being too loud or too quiet without realizing. Getting everyone on that mic and specifically using direct monitoring has solved that issue.
Pencil mic/ shotgun mic is what you want. Rode Videomic is the most accessible one you will find. They are highly directional (hypercardioid). The reason you sound tinny from your laptop is because a) they are not very directional (beamforming helps but it's not enough) and b) the lack of directionality is made up for by too much autogain thus picking up the room.
The "podcaster mics" will work too but they are designed to be pulled up to your face. If you don't want the mic in camera then you will not get great results with them.
I've been finding the pickup on my bluetooth bone-conduction headphones to be surprisingly good enough. I tried it as I found them convenient & comfortable for calls on my phone. People don't notice the difference when I'm using them rather than the company-provided wired over-ear headset.
Though that might say as much for the company provided mic as it does for the BC ones!
I use an Elgato Wave XLR $200 so that I can upgrade my microphone separately; I'm not a fan of hybrid/integrated devices. I use it with an Audio-Technica AT2035 $200 and a Elgato Low-Profile Microphone Arm $100.
The one built into a Logitech C922 camera. Works best when there is some sound-absorbing material in the room, such as carpet on the floor, tapestry on the wall, sofa somewhere, and so on.
I work in high end professional audio services for conferences, events, etc in Silicon Valley. The Ferrari of headset microphones in the industry is currently the DPA 6066 - the vocal nuances, timbre, and precision of the 6066 is that of a finely tuned instrument. Note that this is a mic only, you'll need something over or in ear to monitor audio from Zoom, Webex, etc.
Agree that the best mics for speech are headsets that tightly control the position of the mic.
Not that I am qualified beyond the reviews I found, but I picked up a Shure 58 for $100. Supposedly used by many musicians and can be dropped/abused without issue.
My background is very tailored. A wall of 80s/90s themed stuff and a large pixelated "loading" bar with magnetic blocks for the progress bar. I get compliments regularly and I am sure it helps me stand out in a sea of screens.
I run an HD obsbot camera and a great mic. I am fully convinced it helps.
nothing too wild. Found a wall sticker on etsy of a pixled loading bar:
_____________________
| |
|___________________|
L O A D I N G
The sticker is on the wall and looks all pixled, and then I have 7 black, thin foam 5"x6" rectangles that I've glued magnets to the back of, and then on the wall, I have nail heads that the magnets connect to. I can load up the bar, one block per day, or I can just have it as my energy indicator haha.
Ah, I was imagining something way more complex and wilder, with electronics and LEDs and what not :D But that's cool too, if simpler, nice way to track stuff. Thanks for explaining! ;)
A good non-bluetooth headset. Logitech makes some with a wireless dongle. I use a Sennheiser DECT headset. Most DECT headsets have pretty tinny cordless phone type sound but this one has an ultra-wideband mode that sounds pretty nice. Can also walk around the house with 0 connection issues.
Audio gear is surprisingly complicated for non-experts to research, evaluate and monitor. (Like even making sure your app is using it, and didn't reset to your laptop mic when you accidentally unplugged it for a minute.)
And fixing your lighting can require rearranging your entire office if you have a window behind you. Or investing in expensive blinds, etc.
