{"id":280,"date":"2022-02-02T09:14:11","date_gmt":"2022-02-02T07:14:11","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/victorrentea.ro\/blog\/?p=280"},"modified":"2022-02-09T16:00:59","modified_gmt":"2022-02-09T14:00:59","slug":"live-streaming-setup","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/victorrentea.ro\/blog\/live-streaming-setup\/","title":{"rendered":"Live Streaming Setup"},"content":{"rendered":"<div id=\"bsf_rt_marker\"><\/div><p>This article reviews my hardware and software setup for live-streaming and summarizes the tricks I use to increase the engagement of my audience during my online webinars and conference talks.<\/p>\n<h2>Hardware<\/h2>\n<ul>\n<li><a href=\"https:\/\/www.bluemic.com\/en-us\/products\/yeti-nano\/\">Yeti Nano<\/a> microphone &#8211; not placed on the table but hung on a stand close to my forehead. Using a stand with rubber isolation you can reduce the typing sound and vibration coming from the table. Also, I set my Yeti mic to &#8220;cardio&#8221; mode to restrict the sound capturing to a smaller, close area directly in front of the mic.<\/li>\n<li><a href=\"https:\/\/www.logitech.com\/en-us\/products\/webcams\/streamcam.960-001289.html\">Logitech StreamCam<\/a> (external web cam) placed strategically between all three monitors, so I never look sideways to my participants. The laptop embedded webcam was much lower quality and image shaked on keystrokes. Also, it&#8217;s cool to be able to show attendees around your room sometimes (for example to show the cat sleeping). &#8220;Welcome to my home&#8221; feeling.<\/li>\n<li><a href=\"https:\/\/www.elgato.com\/en\/key-light\">Elgato Keylight<\/a> + a second light source to light up the wall behind me<\/li>\n<li>(old) Android tablet with <a href=\"https:\/\/play.google.com\/store\/apps\/details?id=com.hipxel.custom.soundboard.maker.creator.free&amp;hl=en&amp;gl=US\">Custom Soundboard app<\/a> installed, with 20+ sound effects installed, wired via 3.5mm jack to an<\/li>\n<li>External audio card to (like <a href=\"https:\/\/www.emag.ro\/placa-de-sunet-externa-logilink-sound-box-interfata-usb-7-1-canale-ua0099\/pd\/DC4F32BBM\/\">this<\/a>) that provides a Line-IN connection and connects to PC via USB.<\/li>\n<li>2 Extra Monitors (perhaps+1): on one of them keeping the videos (faces) of the webinar participants at all time.<\/li>\n<li>Toys (not kidding, stolen from my kids) each conveying a message, not random<\/li>\n<li>The table &#8211; why is it so small? I also dream about a big table that you can raise\/lower via a little motor so you can decide to stand down or up during the day. The truth is that I&#8217;m super grateful for my 1.5-square meter office space \ud83d\ude01. Working from home is a challenge for most of us. To be honest, I had to work with a lot less at the start &#8211; I used to pack it all at the end of the day, including an extensible table.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<h2>Software (Windows)<\/h2>\n<ul>\n<li><a href=\"https:\/\/docs.microsoft.com\/en-us\/sysinternals\/downloads\/zoomit\">ZoomIt<\/a> \u2b50 &#8211; a free tool that allows to freeze-and-draw on the screen with the mouse; also provides Live-Zoom, a brilliant feature that also allows you to edit\/type in the focused screen area.<br \/>\n<img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"aligncenter  wp-image-285\" src=\"https:\/\/victorrentea.ro\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/02\/zoomit.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"375\" height=\"390\" \/><\/li>\n<li><a href=\"https:\/\/vb-audio.com\/Voicemeeter\/banana.htm\">VoiceMeeter Banana<\/a> &#8211; a free digital sound mixing tool that proved more handy than a hardware audio mixer. In my case, it takes the MIC, sound effects, sounds from windows and zoom and mixes them to 1: output to zoom and 2: my headphones. Expect it to take several hours\/days to configure &#8211; not that trivial. <img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"aligncenter  wp-image-284\" src=\"https:\/\/victorrentea.ro\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/02\/VB-1024x620.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"732\" height=\"438\" \/><\/li>\n<li><a href=\"https:\/\/github.com\/microsoft\/PowerToys\/\">PowerToys<\/a> &#8211; a free utility that allows macOS-like experience with &#8220;search-everywhere&#8221; and &#8220;Mouse Highlighter&#8221; to gray out screen except the area around the mouse<br \/>\n<img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"aligncenter  wp-image-289\" src=\"https:\/\/victorrentea.ro\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/02\/20220202_090549-1-983x1024.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"435\" height=\"453\" srcset=\"https:\/\/victorrentea.ro\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/02\/20220202_090549-1-983x1024.jpg 983w, https:\/\/victorrentea.ro\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/02\/20220202_090549-1-288x300.jpg 288w, https:\/\/victorrentea.ro\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/02\/20220202_090549-1-768x800.jpg 768w, https:\/\/victorrentea.ro\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/02\/20220202_090549-1-1475x1536.jpg 1475w, https:\/\/victorrentea.ro\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/02\/20220202_090549-1-58x60.jpg 58w, https:\/\/victorrentea.ro\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/02\/20220202_090549-1.jpg 1863w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 435px) 100vw, 435px\" \/><\/li>\n<li>PowerPoint [hard-core], with heavy animations, but not randomly added but each one expressing an idea\/relation<\/li>\n<li><a href=\"https:\/\/www.mentimeter.com\/\">MentiMeter<\/a> (web) for live-polls to energize people in the afternoon or during evening community events.<\/li>\n<li><a href=\"https:\/\/snapcamera.snapchat.com\/\">Snap Camera<\/a> to make my face older, or kinder or just scary &#8211; kinda CPU-intensive though.<br \/>\n<img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"aligncenter size-full wp-image-287\" src=\"https:\/\/victorrentea.ro\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/02\/snap.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"951\" height=\"440\" srcset=\"https:\/\/victorrentea.ro\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/02\/snap.jpg 951w, https:\/\/victorrentea.ro\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/02\/snap-300x139.jpg 300w, https:\/\/victorrentea.ro\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/02\/snap-768x355.jpg 768w, https:\/\/victorrentea.ro\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/02\/snap-130x60.jpg 130w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 951px) 100vw, 951px\" \/><\/li>\n<li><a href=\"https:\/\/chris.dziemborowicz.com\/apps\/hourglass\/#downloads\">Hourglass<\/a> to countdown breaks or time to answer<br \/>\n<img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"aligncenter size-full wp-image-286\" src=\"https:\/\/victorrentea.ro\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/02\/hour.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"307\" height=\"198\" srcset=\"https:\/\/victorrentea.ro\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/02\/hour.jpg 307w, https:\/\/victorrentea.ro\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/02\/hour-300x193.jpg 300w, https:\/\/victorrentea.ro\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/02\/hour-93x60.jpg 93w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 307px) 100vw, 307px\" \/><\/li>\n<li><a href=\"https:\/\/www.autohotkey.com\/\">AutoHotKey<\/a> is another tool I used that allows binding any action to keys, even playing sound effects.<\/li>\n<li>My own little IntelliJ plugin (&#8220;<a href=\"https:\/\/plugins.jetbrains.com\/plugin\/18087-live-coding-toolkit\">Live-Coding Toolkit<\/a>&#8220;) that make writing code more fun with mood-background and video effects (like break the screen) &#8211; this is applicable only for programmers<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>Besides the above, you also need to bring a large load of enthusiasm, exaggerated mimic and gestures, and a lot of true care for your trainees\/participants.<\/p>\n<p>Good luck sharing your knowledge.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>This article reviews my hardware and software setup for live-streaming and summarizes the tricks I use to increase the engagement of my audience during my online webinars and conference talks. Hardware Yeti Nano microphone &#8211; &hellip; <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":290,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-280","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-practical-tips"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/victorrentea.ro\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/280","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/victorrentea.ro\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/victorrentea.ro\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/victorrentea.ro\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/victorrentea.ro\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=280"}],"version-history":[{"count":6,"href":"https:\/\/victorrentea.ro\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/280\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":321,"href":"https:\/\/victorrentea.ro\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/280\/revisions\/321"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/victorrentea.ro\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/290"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/victorrentea.ro\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=280"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/victorrentea.ro\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=280"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/victorrentea.ro\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=280"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}