Recommendation/feedback on online meeting set up

I have an upcoming row of meetings with around 10 participants, half of them present in the wrong room with me, and the rest connected online via zoom. Unfortunately, I do not have one of these fancy conference tools available so I have to pick what I have for a conference set up. I would love your feedback/thoughts on the setup I am considering.
I will place my MacBook Pro M1 at the end of the table, behind it is my projector (HDMI) to get a good size of the online participants on the wall. In the middle of the table, I will place my Blue Yeti. As I am in an environment with no Wi-Fi I will need my MacBook to be tethered to my phone. I have had bad experiences with the Wi-Fi hotspot of my iPhone, It can be wonky, so I am thinking of a wired tethering. All these devices I will connect to the MacBook through a Satechi app in the second USB-C slot and the power and the first.
I’m not sure if the speaker of my MacBook will do a good enough job so I am considering buying a Bluetooth speaker. As I otherwise never use a Bluetooth speaker I will go for a fairly cheap one (Wirecutter recommend).
So what do you think? Will this work? Will I have problems with sound going i “circles” (I don’t know what the right word for this phenomenon is)? Or where could I encounter problems?
I would love to hear your opinions!
Best regards Per

“Reverb” or “echo”

Sounds like a good setup. With only five people in the room, your laptop sound will probably be enough. I don’t know for sure, but I would think Zoom’s echo-canceling might work better with the built-in speakers of the laptop, rather than an external speaker.
Perhaps someone else could chime in on that.

If you’re running from any form of MacBook with macOS 12, why not use FaceTime with a web invite. No extra cost for you.

I didn’t know they had this function. Sounds great!

I am on the latest Big Sur with a very new MacBook. I don’t know this feature but will definitely look into it. I chose Zoom because it has to be very easy for not very tech savvy people. And everybody knows Zoom after this pandemic.

Facetime web invites are only available from Monterey up I think. Might need to update before you can use them. In which case I would probably advise sticking with Zoom for the time being.

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WebCam recommendations
Thank you again for your feedback on this topic! Almost everything worked perfectly. The only thing I had a problem with was my MacBook Pro M1 camera. Obviously, it is made to capture the person right in front of the camera which doesn’t work very well in a meeting setting. The online participants only saw me as chair and 2 half persons. As I now start a new round of meetings I would like an external WebCam that captures more. Do you have any recommendations? I am looking for something in middle price range. What would you recommend?
Love to hear from you and keep safe, Per

I just found an app, Camo, Reincubate Camo - Use your phone as a pro webcam, free that allows you to use your iPhone as a WebCam. Does anyone have experience with this app?

I bought a Logi Brio webcam and will be returning it. The resolution wasn’t as good as my iMac Pro’s built-in camera, and there were sometimes pieces of my scalp that moved independently of my head due to compression artifacts.

There’s been other discussions here in the forum about Camo, but I’ve found it to work really, really well. The only glitch I had was in switching from using an old iPhone as my camera to my new one. That threw off the settings somehow, so I had to wipe any trace of the app from my Mac and reinstall it.

I’ve been using Camo for quite a while now. I think it should do quite well in this application, especially if you have a newer iPhone with the Ultra-Wide lens. (of course, this might result in unacceptable distortion, but it’s worth checking out.) It will give you an image that is far superior to any separate webcam in the “middle price” range – and much better than a laptop’s built-in camera.

Following up on Camo, I got a notification from Setapp today of a new app in the service, Detail, which, among other features in the description, says “Use your iPhone, iPad, or camera as a webcam for online calls, meetings, recording video, and streaming. Detail helps you easily connect iOS devices with amazing built-in cameras or professional cameras to your Mac.” I haven’t tried it, but if you’re a Setapp subscriber, it might be worth a look. Here’s the direct website: https://detail.co. I don’t see any pricing info, so I wonder if this in beta.

Sounds interesting will Camo. I will try it out as soon as possible. Are you using the free version or the paid one? Looking at the homepage I cannot really decide if I would need the paid one. Any reflections on that?

I looked at Best Mac webcams 2022 | iMore where they often have good recommendations. And they recommend Logitech C922x Pro Stream Webcam. This camera looks quite good. Do anybody has experience with this one?

I have that model. It’s good, although it has the problem all Logitech do processing high contrast lighting. (I filter the ceiling light above me to make my forehead less shiny.) It looks much better than the $30-40 720p Logitech. A recent iPhone with Camo will probably look better if you can deal with the inconvenience of losing your phone during meetings.

I got a new idea for a solution and started a new topic: Can I connect my Blue Yeti and my projector HDMI to my phone?
Thank you for all comments and suggestions!:pray::pray: