589: Zoom Jiu Jitsu with Teddy Svoronos

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In the middle of listening now, so happy to have another educator on. I wish I would have heard this part about the monitor/camera setup with zoom months ago!

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@ismh what HDMI input card are you using in your Mac Pro?

Completely agree — also worth following both Teddy and Luke Stein on Twitter….

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Thanks for the tip! I already added Teddy but will add Luke now.

My videoconference rig:

  • Canon EOS M200 camera
  • 22mm f/2 lens (nice bokeh)
  • Heckler Camera Shelf for 27-inch iMac
  • Elgato Cam Link 4K
  • Two Elgato Key Light Air

I will admit this setup is ridiculous overkill, but it does provide better-looking video. And I figure that post-pandemic I can use the M200 as my new “big camera”, replacing my old DSLR.

The multi-monitor Zoom setting Teddy mentioned sounds great. I’ll have to give that a try next time I’m in a Zoom meeting.

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Thanks for listening folks! I believe the image of my setup never made it into the show notes, so here it is:

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This was a great episode. I have to admit, I wasn’t really excited about the topic since I’m a bit Zoom-weary. But this was an interesting conversation.

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Hi Teddy, I thought this was a really great episode as well. I really enjoyed the information you shared. Could you explain again how you used the phone above the monitor? Were you using this as another monitor and then putting the active speaker into this “monitor”. If you could give a little more detail on that it would be much appreciated. Thanks!

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Hi @fmckeagney, you’ve got it exactly right. It’s just a third monitor that only houses the Active Speaker view of my Zoom session. A nice workaround to the M1’s lack of support for more than one external monitor is that Duet and Sidecar both don’t count against this limitation.

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I totally agree - this would have been really helpful before last semester. And it was great to hear another higher-ed voice.

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Other than a second tripod, (I already have one behind my display), does anyone have suggestions for a way to hold that iPhone under the front camera? I guess having the option to slightly adjust the tilt would be a plus.

Edited to add that my display is on an arm so I can’t use the pedestal for support.