At one point I had the wild idea of building a Series 500 chassis with discrete signal processors instead but shelling out $1500 for such only for _videoconferencing_ (and occasional recording) would have been completely irresponsible.
[1] https://www.sweetwater.com/store/detail/Ultralite5--motu-ult...
What software are you using / what workflow?
As mic I use an SM57 which is fed into a DBX 286 compressor/de-esser/gate/enhancer and that signal is going to the videoconferencing application and is looped back into my headphones. The neat thing about the 286 is that it's fully analog so I can still hear myself with zero latency.
For the return signal from the videoconference I have a seperate audio interface that feeds into a Behringer Autocomp to compress practically all the dynamic range out of it and then it's going to a t.c. electric finalizer to do some multiband compression which fixes most midrange heavy gaming headsets.
This gear also has a dual purpose as outboard gear for audio production stuffs though, it's not just for the video conferencing.
At the simplest, this could be a $35 external webcam and a lamp or ring light to give yourself the most flattering possible angle. Or even spending $0 and just rearranging your existing setup.
Love it, hate it, or otherwise... I look like a sack of potatoes so it brings me no joy to say this but, it's reality. The way you look and sound has an influence on how you and your ideas will be perceived by others. Might as well spend some time and (perhaps) a few dollars on it because it's ingrained deep in our biology for better or worse.
The good news is remote work has leveled the playing field quite a bit here. It's far less work than looking and sounding great in person.
E.g. always a messy house, never any time to clean up? Move the desk half a metre out from the wall and flip the setup around. Now it will be clean 100% of the time as far as what the camera can see.
She did a good job of pointing out how the video surroundings made a substantial impact on how the candidate was perceived when interviewing remotely.
Expecting me to spruce up beyond what I would ordinarily look like in person is just ludicrous. This isn't instagram, and i'm not trying to gain any followers from a work call. I'll just chalk this one up as another thing I can blame on the unrealistic expectations people have come to think is required because of the influence they've allowed social media to have over them.
I'm certainly not the best looking person, but adding an external webcam from a different angle definitely was noticed by coworkers in a positive way. I end up in a ton of marketing calls, and often I have to be the engineering voice that speaks up to say 'we can't do it that way, here is an alternative'. Since paying attention to my camera setup, my warnings get taken more seriously and have more attention paid to them.
Nobody is expecting you to look like a model or do a photo shoot, but spending a little bit of time improving camera angle, lighting, and mic really does pay off. No photographer takes low angle shots of close up faces since it's generally very unflattering, but that's the typical setup for a laptop on a desk. Just buying a cheap desk mic and a external webcam really will level up your presence in meetings. Don't think of it as Instagram bullshit, look at it as a way to use your tech skills to lifehack having a better interpersonal presence than you might have in person. Seriously, for ~$100 you can have a nicer camera and mic than 90% of everyone else, and having those things makes people treat you more seriously.
At some point, I decided to spruce up my appearance. Shaved the hair and beard, bought collared shirts, switched to an external webcam on a boom arm, with a green screen and software to generate a soothing backdrop instead of my cluttered electronics lab. Added a decent quality directional microphone (also boom-mounted) and installed better lighting.
I also replaced my profile photo, taken with the same up-the-nostril webcam, with a professionally taken photo.
The level of respect and engagement from my colleagues went through the roof. Best tech lifehack I ever did.
Next, I'll be reading having to wear a coat and tie on a zoom call. The old days you had to have your IBM approved suit with your high&tight (or similarly strict) hair style and closely shaved face. Everyone got sick of that, and it went to casual fridays are still too uptight, so flip flops, shorts and tanktops became the norm. Long hair any above the shoulders became fashionable, and bonus points if you pulled it up into a bun.
now, the pendulum has swung back, and people are trying to differentiate themselves by going back to smartly dressed clean cut. round round like a record, and yet it never ceases to amaze how the repeat makes it out like its the brand new thing nobody has ever seen before. just like redoing your entire code base in $newLanguageDijour.
I'm shocked at the pushback on this, it shouldn't be surprising that people like seeing decent looking people. You don't need to loom like an Instagram model, I certainly don't. But spending 15 minutes on Amazon and 20 minutes of setup time to make yourself look better on video calls isn't a huge ask. Hell, BO issues from not showering would be a more major career-limiting move in an office, and on zoom the only way your coworkers can tell you didn't shower is if you actively look greasy. This is way less of an ask, acting like making yourself presentable on camera is a huge burden is crazy to me. It's way easier to be presentable on zoom, because again just spending $30 on a mic is a game changer.
so until everyone starts to use teleprompters, it is just so off-putting to me that i just can't do it.
Reading through the comments I don't get the impression anybody else thinks it's new either. It reads like you're just looking for reasons to insult people. That's a shame.
If you want to seek out jobs where remote conferencing is eschewed and nobody sees each others' faces, I think that's valid. I won't insult you.
For me there is a strong positive mental health component to having at least some brief human contact with my coworkers, even if it's just Zoom. However quite honestly 15 minutes a day is plenty for me usually... I am much closer to feeling like you than the "return to office" advocates, that is certain.
I hope that as individuals and as a society we can get to a point where we accept that some people want to work remotely and anonymously, some want to work in offices, and many prefer someplace in the middle. And that people from one group won't insult the other.
Not just the angle. I run my Sony A7S2 as a webcam, usually with the 24-240 allround zoom - and people come and say all the time how good the picture is, simply because they're used to everyone running the potato-quality webcam.
It's a fucking shame that even Apple's multi-thousand-dollar MBP lineup has crap cameras. Yeah, I get it, thin-ness is part of Apple's secret design sauce, but cameras need space so that they can have proper sized sensors and lenses.
(Side note: an external camera has the benefit of being able to point it on your cats. In long-running meetings, showing off your cats tends to be a great mood improver)
The rule is: if a pet makes it into the shot somehow, you HAVE to bring them up for a close-up
I don't think the point is mainly about sprucing up beyond what you ordinarily look like. Aside from what others have said, one thing to consider is how the eyes and ears work in person vs via screen + webcam / mic + speakers.
Differences between a human eye and a webcam make it so that when you look at someone in person, even in shitty unflattering light and in a cluttered environment, you'll mostly see that person as they "normally" look. But stick a webcam and a screen in between, and all bets are off. Especially if you're going to use high contrast (think dark skin + white shirt or the reverse, with a strong backlight for bonus points).
Same for listening. You can usually hear people when you're talking to them and there's noise around if you focus a bit. But put a crappy laptop mic and speakers in between, and good luck understanding anything they say.
I don't often use my webcam and tend to turn off incoming video because I don't enjoy teams melting my laptop. But it's an atrocious, infuriating experience trying to talk to someone when I can barely hear their voice and instead am able to follow what their colleagues are saying or counting how many cars go past their window. Taking a little care to be understandable doesn't mean you're expected to be some world-class speaker.
In an act of malicious compliance, I went to a second hand shop and picked up an old USB webcam for $3 with complete potato quality. After about an hour or so it also starts glitching out with weird green and purple patterns, a pretty good sign that the meeting has gone on for too long.
But do you really need great video for video conferencing?
Fuck it, buy some cheapy LED panels (Lidl are doing roughly iPad-sized SAD lights for under 20 quid), some gel to tame the colour, and do yourself a proper three-point lighting setup.
Honestly, laptop webcam + flattering angle + decent lighting = also absolutely fine, but it's harder to get a nice angle with something built into the laptop.
IMO a DSLR would only be useful if you're going for a filmlike look of softly blurred backgrounds, or maybe low light shooting made possible by the bigger lens and sensor. At that point it's probably bordering on ostentatious.
At my last company the CEO had something like that, but he also used that setup for calls with investors and news outlets and such, so it made a lot of sense.
I have a Røde mounted SE X1 condenser microphone which picks up absolutely everything; couldn't use it without my GPU.
Putting a bit of effort into my audio setup has been a great thing for WFH. Kudos to yourself for doing the same.
It's a common misconception that certain types of microphones are more sensitive to background noise. Truth is, even if a microphone is more sensitive, it still picks up foreground and background noise equally.
There are some caveats--you can reject background noise with the right polar pattern and mic placement, background noise might be buried in the microphone's self noise, and other minor quirks. But in general, changing microphones is not an effective way to eliminate background noise.