Due to the current work-from-home mandate as a result of the COVID-19 outbreak, lots of us are spending time dialed into Zoom meetings from home. Coincidentally, over the past months, I’ve fallen into a trap of trying to build the best possible home office setup for this very task.

Basic Advice

For “normal” people, here are the top 3 items to focus on, in my opinion.

1. Make sure your network connection is bullet proof.  A speed test alone is not sufficient, make sure you have no packet loss and consistently good ping times. I recommend pinging http://www.google.com using PingPlotter to test this. If your network is not good, you will sound choppy and your video quality will be bad. Recommendations to fix your network:
   1. Try wired ethernet straight to your router. If that helps, look at upgrading Wifi (either a mesh system – I’ve heard good things about Nest Wifi, or a single, powerful router – I can recommend the – slightly older – Netgear R7000).
   2. If you have problems despite going wired, look into replacing your cable modem (assuming you have cable – I recommend the Netgear CM1000, which gives you DOCSIS 3.1 and more channels than most of your neighbors).
2. Get the audio right. There are many choices here, but record yourself into a “solo” Zoom session and listen back to see how it sounds, and how much of your background sound is being picked up. The best solution is a wired or wireless headset with a microphone worn in front of your face.
3. Get video right. The cameras in most laptops are not a good choice, as they show your face from a suboptimal angle and are of poor quality. Ideally, get a USB web cam and put it on your external monitor.  Make sure the lens is clean (otherwise the video gets blurry) and you don’t have light sources behind you (unless you’re going for that “protected witness” esthetic).

Overkill

In this post, I’m going to share what is part of my setup. I’ll caution that for the average person, all of this is MAJOR overkill and not recommended. So without further ado, here we go. (all the links are Amazon Affiliate links).

Hardware

• 2019 16″ MacBook Pro, 64 GB RAM, 8-core i9
• Video & Lighting
  • Razer Kiyo
  • A cheap ring light  – brightness and light color are adjustable
  • Flat panel desk lamp
  • Halogen ceiling lamp
  • Sylvania Smart+ Bulb (color the backdrop)
• Audio –  I switch between 3 setups – depending on mood and needs:
  • Setup 1: speakers + “good” mic (when I don’t want anything on my head)
    •  M-Audio M-Track 2×2 USB-C Audio Interface
    • Røde PodMic dynamic microphone
    • FetHead 48V inline pre-amp
    • InnoGear Microphone Arm
    • AudioEngine A5+ desktop speakers and S8 subwoofer (attached to main output on the 2×2)
  • Setup 2: headphones + “attached” mic (when I want more isolation)
    • Denon AH-D2000 headphones (attached to monitor output on the 2×2)
    • Antlion ModMic USB (mounted to Denon AH-D2000)
  • Setup 3: phone headset, completely wireless, so I can roam around the house
    • Jabra 9470 DECT headset (current recommendation: Jabra Engage 75 – NOT the Evolve – that one is horrible – many coworkers have ordered and returned it!)
• Network
  • AT&T GigaPower 1 GBit/s synchronous fiber.
  • UniFi network
    • UniFi USG firewall
    • UniFi Cloud Key controller
    • UniFi nanoHD access points
    • UniFI 24-port Switch
    • UniFI LTE backup in case AT&T goes down.
  • Gigabit Ethernet from the 27″ Thunderbolt display the MacBook
• Room treatments
  • Persian rug under my desk.
  • A sound proofing panel (with a nice image of mountains) on the wall behind me.
  • A stick-on door sweep to reduce some of the noise leaking through the door.
• Power
  • APC 1500VA UPS to provide power for UniFi gear during power events
  • Belkin Conserve power strip to turn off lights and speakers while not using office
• Furniture & Ergonomics
  • Uplift Desk height adjustable standing desk
  • Herman Miller Aeron Chair (though I now would recommend the Embody instead)
  • FEZIBO Wobble Balance Board
• Digital Whiteboard
  • iPad Pro 12.9 (refurbished) plus Apple Pencil

Software

• Zoom
  • Enabled “HD” and “Touch up my appearance” settings.
• Audio Hijack + Loopback + some free plugins
  • This is used to set up a voice chain in software to add a gate, compression and de-essing (I keep playing with the exact chain).
• Webcam Settings
  • Helps me re-frame the image quickly with saved presets (changing from sitting to standing)

Results

Here’s a snapshot from a call I was on today. This is with natural light from my left, the ring light at 4000K and 27% brighness, and the SYLVAIN lamp set to blue (notice the slight blue hue).

I keep on tinkering with this setup, but am happy with the results so far (and yes, I have spent way too much time and money on this, but everybody needs a hobby these days…).