4 ms·

Improving Remote Meetings and Presentations

75 points by pmlnr 7y ago

tonetheman 7y ago
finding those capture cards now for hdmi is not cheap anymore :(
- acidburnNSA 7y ago
  I found a VIDBOX on eBay that shipped in 2 days and got it yesterday to hook up my 2012 HD camcorder as a webcam in Linux. It is an amazing upgrade and was indeed hard to find. Luckily I already had a few HDMI mini adapters. Last night I got a v4l2loopback working from Open Broadcast Studio with it and now can have "pro" transitions and compositing of my camera, my screen, text, images, etc. in Teams and WebEx or whatever. Pretty neat. Keep trying, it's worth it.
mroshangara 7y ago
In depth rundown, suggestions broken out by budget level. Good info.
cs02rm0 7y ago
I'd agree use of the mute button is the single biggest difference you can probably make. The next best free technique is possibly not using the laptop camera from the desk. No one wants to see up your nose. There was a UK pub quiz last night (some 180k people joined), one of the many things that people are trying online at the moment, and the host was struggling not to show everyone the light on his ceiling.
LasEspuelas 7y ago
If you are streaming HD video, bandwidth becomes important. This is especially true for internet services with slow upload speeds.
goatherders 7y ago
Becoming a master of the mute button is, in my book, the modern remote equivalent of knowing how to use Excel or Salesforce.
- acidburnNSA 7y ago
  In Jitsi there's a cool push to talk feature where you hold down the space bar to unmute and when you let go it mutes again.
  - goatherders 7y ago
    What a great idea. Would love to see this in Zoom or Hangouts
    - torgoguys 7y ago
      Zoom has this available to turn on in options (on the Windows client at least).
      - allannienhuis 7y ago
        isn't that the default behaviour when you're muted? pushing the spacebar unmutes until you let go. Is the option for turning that feature OFF?
        torgoguys 7y ago
        There is, at least in Windows. Advanced options screen.
      - SkyPuncher 7y ago
        It's available on Mac as well. I use it as my default.
  - RexM 7y ago
    I can still hear the sound that ventrillo would make when using push-to-talk while playing World of Warcraft.
acidburnNSA 7y ago
I have a $15 USB headset with a mic that comes out in front. It the sound quality is absolutely awesome. I don't personally mind the look of a little mic like that. I also have my house wired with raspberry pis on WiFi hooked up to stereos on different floors linked using snapcast. It's cool because I can pipe the audio from a long meeting that I'm listening in on to it and then walk around the house. Since I can get my phone to play the snapcast feed too, even the hottub Bluetooth speakers can now be playing the all-hands meeting ;)
choeger 7y ago
Funny thing is I cannot use my rather expensive Bose QC53 because my Bluetooth audio insists on mono playback when using the microphone. And that really sounds horrible.
- rgoulter 7y ago
  This has to do with the bandwidth of Bluetooth. https://www.howtogeek.com/354321/why-bluetooth-headsets-are-terrible-on-windows-pcs/ https://www.howtogeek.com/354321/why-bluetooth-headsets-are-...
  - dbbk 7y ago
    I'm surprised this is still an issue, even after Bluetooth 5. Anyone know if there are plans to fix it?
m0zg 7y ago
One thing the quarantine made me realize is how atrocious the image and sound quality is for videoconferencing. It doesn't need to be atrocious in this day and age. It's just that we don't demand a better product, so companies keep feeding us barely functional garbage to save costs.
thedance 7y ago
Zoom is a lot smarter than this blogger implies. Even if I sit with my back to the sun, it still tracks my face and differentially exposes the image so I am not a silhouette.
- pmlnr 7y ago
  This commenter doesn't seem to understand the article is not for exclusively for Zoom but for any video/audio recording.
SkyPuncher 7y ago
I have a Logitech C920 (or very similar). I feel like he didn't even make an attempt to make it look decent. The brightness is completely blown out (and it is adjustable via software). I certainly wouldn't say a C920 is as good as a dedicated camera (with a much better lens setup), but it's much better than what's represented. I have a less than ideal setup and I get results closer to the Canon camera.
PaulRobinson 7y ago
Seems to be getting HN hug of death, but my tips: Plantronics Blackwire headsets don't cost much and the noise cancellation of background noise on the microphone is superb. Your colleagues will thank you for it. I don't need noise cancellation on the headphones myself, but getting something with a decent noise cancelling mic will make life more pleasant for others, so do invest. One place I worked a few years back was almost entirely remote before it was fashionable, and the #remote channel in Slack had a topic of something like "Wires are great. Trust me: wires" or similar. I have come to agree - WiFi is more a packet loss protocol than it is a networking protocol, especially in built-up areas with neighbours networks, microwave ovens and other disturbances. An ethernet powerline extender giving me effectively ethernet from my Mac mini to my DSL router might be the best investment I've ever made for home working. Bluetooth is possibly the same: being wireless might look like you're from the future, but nothing beats wired headsets, keyboards and mice, period. Zoom, WebEx, Google Hangouts, etc. all have preferences and settings. Learn them and get used to them, and learn shortcuts. For example some people still aren't aware you can stay on mute in zoom and just hit the spacebar when you want to talk. This is great when you're not presenting. Lastly, dedicated webcams are worth it _unless_ you're on an iPad Pro. I think you'd have to spend hundreds to get a webcam as good as the front facing camera on an iPad Pro. Otherwise, a decent Logitech camera can make you look less tired - trust me! :-)

75 points by pmlnr 7y ago

tonetheman 7y ago

finding those capture cards now for hdmi is not cheap anymore :(

acidburnNSA 7y ago
I found a VIDBOX on eBay that shipped in 2 days and got it yesterday to hook up my 2012 HD camcorder as a webcam in Linux. It is an amazing upgrade and was indeed hard to find. Luckily I already had a few HDMI mini adapters. Last night I got a v4l2loopback working from Open Broadcast Studio with it and now can have "pro" transitions and compositing of my camera, my screen, text, images, etc. in Teams and WebEx or whatever. Pretty neat. Keep trying, it's worth it.

mroshangara 7y ago

In depth rundown, suggestions broken out by budget level. Good info.

cs02rm0 7y ago

I'd agree use of the mute button is the single biggest difference you can probably make. The next best free technique is possibly not using the laptop camera from the desk. No one wants to see up your nose. There was a UK pub quiz last night (some 180k people joined), one of the many things that people are trying online at the moment, and the host was struggling not to show everyone the light on his ceiling.

LasEspuelas 7y ago

If you are streaming HD video, bandwidth becomes important. This is especially true for internet services with slow upload speeds.

goatherders 7y ago

Becoming a master of the mute button is, in my book, the modern remote equivalent of knowing how to use Excel or Salesforce.

acidburnNSA 7y ago
In Jitsi there's a cool push to talk feature where you hold down the space bar to unmute and when you let go it mutes again.
- goatherders 7y ago
  What a great idea. Would love to see this in Zoom or Hangouts
  - torgoguys 7y ago
    Zoom has this available to turn on in options (on the Windows client at least).
    - allannienhuis 7y ago
      isn't that the default behaviour when you're muted? pushing the spacebar unmutes until you let go. Is the option for turning that feature OFF?
      - torgoguys 7y ago
        There is, at least in Windows. Advanced options screen.
    - SkyPuncher 7y ago
      It's available on Mac as well. I use it as my default.
- RexM 7y ago
  I can still hear the sound that ventrillo would make when using push-to-talk while playing World of Warcraft.

acidburnNSA 7y ago

I have a $15 USB headset with a mic that comes out in front. It the sound quality is absolutely awesome. I don't personally mind the look of a little mic like that. I also have my house wired with raspberry pis on WiFi hooked up to stereos on different floors linked using snapcast. It's cool because I can pipe the audio from a long meeting that I'm listening in on to it and then walk around the house. Since I can get my phone to play the snapcast feed too, even the hottub Bluetooth speakers can now be playing the all-hands meeting ;)

choeger 7y ago

Funny thing is I cannot use my rather expensive Bose QC53 because my Bluetooth audio insists on mono playback when using the microphone. And that really sounds horrible.

rgoulter 7y ago
This has to do with the bandwidth of Bluetooth. https://www.howtogeek.com/354321/why-bluetooth-headsets-are-terrible-on-windows-pcs/ https://www.howtogeek.com/354321/why-bluetooth-headsets-are-...
- dbbk 7y ago
  I'm surprised this is still an issue, even after Bluetooth 5. Anyone know if there are plans to fix it?

m0zg 7y ago

One thing the quarantine made me realize is how atrocious the image and sound quality is for videoconferencing. It doesn't need to be atrocious in this day and age. It's just that we don't demand a better product, so companies keep feeding us barely functional garbage to save costs.

thedance 7y ago

Zoom is a lot smarter than this blogger implies. Even if I sit with my back to the sun, it still tracks my face and differentially exposes the image so I am not a silhouette.

pmlnr 7y ago
This commenter doesn't seem to understand the article is not for exclusively for Zoom but for any video/audio recording.

SkyPuncher 7y ago

I have a Logitech C920 (or very similar). I feel like he didn't even make an attempt to make it look decent. The brightness is completely blown out (and it is adjustable via software). I certainly wouldn't say a C920 is as good as a dedicated camera (with a much better lens setup), but it's much better than what's represented. I have a less than ideal setup and I get results closer to the Canon camera.

PaulRobinson 7y ago

Seems to be getting HN hug of death, but my tips: Plantronics Blackwire headsets don't cost much and the noise cancellation of background noise on the microphone is superb. Your colleagues will thank you for it. I don't need noise cancellation on the headphones myself, but getting something with a decent noise cancelling mic will make life more pleasant for others, so do invest. One place I worked a few years back was almost entirely remote before it was fashionable, and the #remote channel in Slack had a topic of something like "Wires are great. Trust me: wires" or similar. I have come to agree - WiFi is more a packet loss protocol than it is a networking protocol, especially in built-up areas with neighbours networks, microwave ovens and other disturbances. An ethernet powerline extender giving me effectively ethernet from my Mac mini to my DSL router might be the best investment I've ever made for home working. Bluetooth is possibly the same: being wireless might look like you're from the future, but nothing beats wired headsets, keyboards and mice, period. Zoom, WebEx, Google Hangouts, etc. all have preferences and settings. Learn them and get used to them, and learn shortcuts. For example some people still aren't aware you can stay on mute in zoom and just hit the spacebar when you want to talk. This is great when you're not presenting. Lastly, dedicated webcams are worth it _unless_ you're on an iPad Pro. I think you'd have to spend hundreds to get a webcam as good as the front facing camera on an iPad Pro. Otherwise, a decent Logitech camera can make you look less tired - trust me! :-)