5 ms·

I commented on the blog post, but: > If you are presenting a computer desktop (e.g. I teach programming classes, so I do a lot of this), then get your IT depar

by movedx 7y ago

I commented on the blog post, but: > If you are presenting a computer desktop (e.g. I teach programming classes, so I do a lot of this), then get your IT department to organise an Amazon Workspace for you. Join the conference call from twice — once from your laptop, and once from the Workspaces session. Share the Workspaces screen, not your home laptop. That way, if a message pops up on your screen, the students won’t see it. I can recommend a better option (in my opinion): use a VM to "house" the work you're doing and then using OBS to broadcast that VM's window to Zoom/whatever using a OBS->Webcam plugin. I do this and if you get in touch (I'm in Australia too; Brisbane) I'd be happy to share my setup and show you an example of the work it renders.

ajphdiv 7y ago
I would find this helpful can you post a link to an OBS plugin for VMs. Thanks
- thunderbong 7y ago
  OBS is "Open Broadcaster Software" https://obsproject.com/ https://obsproject.com/
- deleted 7y ago
  [deleted]
- movedx 7y ago
  I'm not using a plugin to capture the VM. I just use a "Windows Source" and select the VM's window. A good tip is to set the window's resolution to 720p so that text is consoles and IDEs is very clear. I then overlay a mirrorless camera source over this and use a green screen filter to neatly place my self in the frame.
Swizec 7y ago
I have an even better suggestion: Put your computer in DoNotDisturb mode while streaming. No messages popup ever.
- movedx 7y ago
  You can still leak sensitive or private information simply by switching to the wrong window during a live stream. There are examples of this happening on Twitch all the time, often requiring the streamer to change a Skype account ID or change their email address.
  - gnicholas 7y ago
    I work in 3-4 different Spaces on my Mac, and when I do Zoom calls I always populate a new 'space' with all the windows that I'm going to need for the call. Doing that and turning on DND has been pretty reliable for me, but then again I'm not presenting to the world, so it's lower stakes.
    - RMPR 7y ago
      This and you can always close or mask all the other windows, or even create a dedicated user for teaching, anyway, a VM seems a bit... overkill.
      - movedx 7y ago
        It seems overkill to you because you don't have a need for it. That's like saying a Ryzen 3900X is over kill because it has 12 cores in it. Overkill for you maybe, but not for those that need the core count.
threentaway 7y ago
Why wouldn't you just run the screen sharing software from inside the VM?
- movedx 7y ago
  You could. It depends what you're using. If it has a Linux client then that might work, but using the window of VM going into OBS you can then use green screens and start doing some pretty pro looking stuff.
reactspa 7y ago
Why do you prefer using a VM (instead of using OBS directly in the parent PC)? Is it mainly to avoid the problem of a message popping up on your screen?
- movedx 7y ago
  Using a VM means I can use Windows for OBS and several other tools, but I can run Ubuntu/Linux inside the VM for the better tooling and terminal emulation. It also means I can run the VM at 720p but my desktop at 1440p. Using a terminal in a 720p VM window is PERFECT for showing text in a console, allowing the text to be very highly visible/readable without having to use zoom in features. You can also snapshot the VM once it's in a working/desired state (which can be configured using Ansible in minutes) and then produce clones for use for different reasons. You can craft the perfect development environments and even have them talking to each other on an internal NAT network inside of VirtualBox.
z3t4 7y ago
On a unix like system you can use xvfb to create a virtual display/buffer then open apps in that display, and video-stream or even share it using VNC.
carlosperate 7y ago
You can also create a "public facing" user account that doesn't have any private info or logins. That's useful to for public talks and presentations.
knolan 7y ago
Us mere mortals can just enable Do Not Disturb once you know the gesture incantation.
- sime 7y ago
  Which as you prompted me to discover, is Option+clicking on the notifications panel icon in the menu bar to toggle DND for anyone wondering. Of course some apps annoyingly ignore the DND setting (I'm looking at you MS Teams).
  - knolan 7y ago
    You can also swipe in from the right edge of your trackpad and then pull the notification pane down. Much like the hidden search in iOS.
    - bookmarkaccount 7y ago
      I think that is how you access a DND toggle on mac OS as well.
      - knolan 7y ago
        Yes, that’s what I meant.
- movedx 7y ago
  DND doesn't protect you from tabbing to a window with sensitive content in it. Using a VM does.
  - knolan 7y ago
    I personally don’t see the use case, I can close all sensitive tabs or documents. But if that’s a problem then fine, perhaps an edge case though.
solresol 7y ago
(Sorry for the weirdness of replying in two different places...) If I understand what you are doing correctly, in Zoom you will either select the camera with the VM window in it (which OBS is creating a virtual camera for), or you select the real camera. So the attendees for the session either see you, or they see the content: but not both at the same time. Is that right? Unless you run OBS in the virtual machine, and join the Zoom session from the virtual machine too, in which case OBS is unnecessary. And if you do that then I'm not sure what that's gaining over just sharing one window of your desktop (the VM window) in Zoom.
- movedx 7y ago
  > ... So the attendees for the session either see you, or they see the content: but not both at the same time. No. With the correct configuration in OBS, they can see both - you and the screen. This is the latest video I have uploaded to demonstrate the visual effect I mean: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DgXhH5VK1pE https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DgXhH5VK1pE > Unless you run OBS in the virtual machine, and join the Zoom session from the virtual machine too, in which case OBS is unnecessary. Hmm? I run OBS on the Windows 10 host system. That system is operating at 1440p @ 165Hz. The VM is operating at 720p at 60Hz. OBS uses the VirtualBox window to represent the VM as a source. I then use my mirrorless camera (Sony A6000 via a capture card) as my "web cam", and green screen my self over the top of the VM window in OBS. I use my Rode NT-USB microphone as an audio source and then mute the desktop audio. You can then use one of a few plugins for OBS to present the output of all of this as a virtual web cam, which can be presented to Zoom as your camera. Your audience then see your combined efforts in OBS all rendered together to produce something akin to what you see in the video. But OBS then gives you another trick (among many): scenes. You can transition between scenes really easily. Here's another example: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=P-409oJ9mBA&t=1h03m35s https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=P-409oJ9mBA&t=1h03m35s -- this example demonstrates two things. Firstly that a green screen allows you to increase the possibility of eye contact with your audience by bolstering your size in the frame without having a rectangle of mess behind you (see the video I posted above as an example of what a green screen now looks like.) Secondly with OBS you can use smooth transitions to move between scenes which can include stinger transitions, but more importantly those scenes can contain everything and anything. For example I use a could of scenes: one for really up close view of me as I talk to the camera and a focus on me is important; and a second scene in which the terminal/screen is important and I'm smaller and boxed into the lower bottom-right side of the screen (as seen in the first video), shifting the focus to the content and not me. This all comes with a few key benefits... Using a VM means I can use Windows for OBS and several other tools, but I can run Ubuntu/Linux inside the VM for the better tooling and terminal emulation. It also means I can run the VM at 720p but my desktop at 1440p. Using a terminal/window in a 720p VM window is PERFECT for showing text in a console ("720p is the target resolution. In pixel terms this is 1280x720. We've gotten the best results when we record at 1280x720(HiDPI) mode, giving an effective visible resolution of 1280x720, but extremely crisp." - https://egghead.io/articles/recording-a-great-coding-screencast https://egghead.io/articles/recording-a-great-coding-screenc...), allowing the text to be very highly visible/readable without having to use zoom in features live or in post. You can also snapshot the VM once it's in a working/desired state (which can be configured using Ansible in minutes) and then produce clones for use for different reasons. These clones can diverge off on a crazy tangent without you having to worry about losing the original (working) state. You can craft the perfect development environments and even have them talking to each other on an internal NAT network inside of VirtualBox. So you can create networks of systems to demonstrate network connectivity issues, security or just the standard client/server model. Using a VM also produces a better alternative to "Do Not Disturb" because DND cannot protect you from accidentally showing private/sensitive information live on stream when you alt-tab to the wrong window. Ultimately use what tools and methods work for you. I've found that emulating high-end Twitch streamers meant that I could have a very high production value and loads of tricks up my sleeve for close to zero cost. Hope this helps. EDIT: I forgot I had this video I did on CI/CD for Chester University in England. It's a big download (sorry) but this is how I use OBS and the above to do university lectures: https://drive.google.com/open?id=1xT31CU8Lfob88FxaDXAVWy-uXCNjNIQ4 https://drive.google.com/open?id=1xT31CU8Lfob88FxaDXAVWy-uXC... (skip to about the 3m mark for the slides)

by movedx 7y ago

ajphdiv 7y ago

I would find this helpful can you post a link to an OBS plugin for VMs. Thanks

thunderbong 7y ago
OBS is "Open Broadcaster Software" https://obsproject.com/ https://obsproject.com/
deleted 7y ago
[deleted]
movedx 7y ago
I'm not using a plugin to capture the VM. I just use a "Windows Source" and select the VM's window. A good tip is to set the window's resolution to 720p so that text is consoles and IDEs is very clear. I then overlay a mirrorless camera source over this and use a green screen filter to neatly place my self in the frame.

Swizec 7y ago

I have an even better suggestion: Put your computer in DoNotDisturb mode while streaming. No messages popup ever.

movedx 7y ago
You can still leak sensitive or private information simply by switching to the wrong window during a live stream. There are examples of this happening on Twitch all the time, often requiring the streamer to change a Skype account ID or change their email address.
- gnicholas 7y ago
  I work in 3-4 different Spaces on my Mac, and when I do Zoom calls I always populate a new 'space' with all the windows that I'm going to need for the call. Doing that and turning on DND has been pretty reliable for me, but then again I'm not presenting to the world, so it's lower stakes.
  - RMPR 7y ago
    This and you can always close or mask all the other windows, or even create a dedicated user for teaching, anyway, a VM seems a bit... overkill.
    - movedx 7y ago
      It seems overkill to you because you don't have a need for it. That's like saying a Ryzen 3900X is over kill because it has 12 cores in it. Overkill for you maybe, but not for those that need the core count.

threentaway 7y ago

Why wouldn't you just run the screen sharing software from inside the VM?

movedx 7y ago
You could. It depends what you're using. If it has a Linux client then that might work, but using the window of VM going into OBS you can then use green screens and start doing some pretty pro looking stuff.

reactspa 7y ago

Why do you prefer using a VM (instead of using OBS directly in the parent PC)? Is it mainly to avoid the problem of a message popping up on your screen?

movedx 7y ago
Using a VM means I can use Windows for OBS and several other tools, but I can run Ubuntu/Linux inside the VM for the better tooling and terminal emulation. It also means I can run the VM at 720p but my desktop at 1440p. Using a terminal in a 720p VM window is PERFECT for showing text in a console, allowing the text to be very highly visible/readable without having to use zoom in features. You can also snapshot the VM once it's in a working/desired state (which can be configured using Ansible in minutes) and then produce clones for use for different reasons. You can craft the perfect development environments and even have them talking to each other on an internal NAT network inside of VirtualBox.

z3t4 7y ago

On a unix like system you can use xvfb to create a virtual display/buffer then open apps in that display, and video-stream or even share it using VNC.

carlosperate 7y ago

You can also create a "public facing" user account that doesn't have any private info or logins. That's useful to for public talks and presentations.

knolan 7y ago

Us mere mortals can just enable Do Not Disturb once you know the gesture incantation.

sime 7y ago
Which as you prompted me to discover, is Option+clicking on the notifications panel icon in the menu bar to toggle DND for anyone wondering. Of course some apps annoyingly ignore the DND setting (I'm looking at you MS Teams).
- knolan 7y ago
  You can also swipe in from the right edge of your trackpad and then pull the notification pane down. Much like the hidden search in iOS.
  - bookmarkaccount 7y ago
    I think that is how you access a DND toggle on mac OS as well.
    - knolan 7y ago
      Yes, that’s what I meant.
movedx 7y ago
DND doesn't protect you from tabbing to a window with sensitive content in it. Using a VM does.
- knolan 7y ago
  I personally don’t see the use case, I can close all sensitive tabs or documents. But if that’s a problem then fine, perhaps an edge case though.

solresol 7y ago

(Sorry for the weirdness of replying in two different places...) If I understand what you are doing correctly, in Zoom you will either select the camera with the VM window in it (which OBS is creating a virtual camera for), or you select the real camera. So the attendees for the session either see you, or they see the content: but not both at the same time. Is that right? Unless you run OBS in the virtual machine, and join the Zoom session from the virtual machine too, in which case OBS is unnecessary. And if you do that then I'm not sure what that's gaining over just sharing one window of your desktop (the VM window) in Zoom.

movedx 7y ago
> ... So the attendees for the session either see you, or they see the content: but not both at the same time. No. With the correct configuration in OBS, they can see both - you and the screen. This is the latest video I have uploaded to demonstrate the visual effect I mean: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DgXhH5VK1pE https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DgXhH5VK1pE > Unless you run OBS in the virtual machine, and join the Zoom session from the virtual machine too, in which case OBS is unnecessary. Hmm? I run OBS on the Windows 10 host system. That system is operating at 1440p @ 165Hz. The VM is operating at 720p at 60Hz. OBS uses the VirtualBox window to represent the VM as a source. I then use my mirrorless camera (Sony A6000 via a capture card) as my "web cam", and green screen my self over the top of the VM window in OBS. I use my Rode NT-USB microphone as an audio source and then mute the desktop audio. You can then use one of a few plugins for OBS to present the output of all of this as a virtual web cam, which can be presented to Zoom as your camera. Your audience then see your combined efforts in OBS all rendered together to produce something akin to what you see in the video. But OBS then gives you another trick (among many): scenes. You can transition between scenes really easily. Here's another example: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=P-409oJ9mBA&t=1h03m35s https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=P-409oJ9mBA&t=1h03m35s -- this example demonstrates two things. Firstly that a green screen allows you to increase the possibility of eye contact with your audience by bolstering your size in the frame without having a rectangle of mess behind you (see the video I posted above as an example of what a green screen now looks like.) Secondly with OBS you can use smooth transitions to move between scenes which can include stinger transitions, but more importantly those scenes can contain everything and anything. For example I use a could of scenes: one for really up close view of me as I talk to the camera and a focus on me is important; and a second scene in which the terminal/screen is important and I'm smaller and boxed into the lower bottom-right side of the screen (as seen in the first video), shifting the focus to the content and not me. This all comes with a few key benefits... Using a VM means I can use Windows for OBS and several other tools, but I can run Ubuntu/Linux inside the VM for the better tooling and terminal emulation. It also means I can run the VM at 720p but my desktop at 1440p. Using a terminal/window in a 720p VM window is PERFECT for showing text in a console ("720p is the target resolution. In pixel terms this is 1280x720. We've gotten the best results when we record at 1280x720(HiDPI) mode, giving an effective visible resolution of 1280x720, but extremely crisp." - https://egghead.io/articles/recording-a-great-coding-screencast https://egghead.io/articles/recording-a-great-coding-screenc...), allowing the text to be very highly visible/readable without having to use zoom in features live or in post. You can also snapshot the VM once it's in a working/desired state (which can be configured using Ansible in minutes) and then produce clones for use for different reasons. These clones can diverge off on a crazy tangent without you having to worry about losing the original (working) state. You can craft the perfect development environments and even have them talking to each other on an internal NAT network inside of VirtualBox. So you can create networks of systems to demonstrate network connectivity issues, security or just the standard client/server model. Using a VM also produces a better alternative to "Do Not Disturb" because DND cannot protect you from accidentally showing private/sensitive information live on stream when you alt-tab to the wrong window. Ultimately use what tools and methods work for you. I've found that emulating high-end Twitch streamers meant that I could have a very high production value and loads of tricks up my sleeve for close to zero cost. Hope this helps. EDIT: I forgot I had this video I did on CI/CD for Chester University in England. It's a big download (sorry) but this is how I use OBS and the above to do university lectures: https://drive.google.com/open?id=1xT31CU8Lfob88FxaDXAVWy-uXCNjNIQ4 https://drive.google.com/open?id=1xT31CU8Lfob88FxaDXAVWy-uXC... (skip to about the 3m mark for the slides)