I am looking to setup a video conference spot at my house. It must lend to a professional appearance, so please keep that in mind - no green Xbox headsets, etc.

For those that do this a lot, what is your preferred audio and video setup? I am wondering if small speakers and a mic built-in on something like a Logitech 1080 webcam will be sufficient for quality communications?

I have considered a discrete bluetooth headset, or possibly small wired non-mic'd ear buds. Occasionally I see people using Apple Airpods, but I do not know how well these work for both the microphone and isolated audio.

This will either be attached to my Win 7 laptop or a Win 10 desktop depending on how background elements appear while using the camera and lighting. For example, the desktop would have bright room lighting, but a small aquarium at about 4 o'clock behind me. The laptop would most likely be used at a kitchen table with solid, neutral blinds behind me. I do not like fake backgrounds.

The video must be stable, so phones/tablets are out, and I need to see a group of up to a dozen people - typically less.

All input is appreciated. At the moment I only have the built-in hardware on my laptop.

First you need to figure out what you are going to use for this, ie software. Zoom, Cisco Webex, Microsoft Teams, you need to figure out your software platform first.

Plantronics and Jabra are the corporate standards for headsets. Both make wired and wireless options for headsets that will work seamlessly with your windows machines, but it's all about the software that you will use. You can loo at their headsets on their url's then go to Amazon and look at reviews of each and decide. I use a Plantronics. I have aipod pros that also work well with my work laptop but I bought those myself for personal use and I'd only buy them if you are in the Apple Ecosystem. They work well for video conferencing, excellent, but I prefer my company provided over the ear plantronics headset for visibility. It just looks more professional. Our VP's and management folks tend to use airpods while the engineers, techs, worker bees use over the ear headsets and it's what I prefer. My fancy AirPod pros, well I don't want to give off the vibe that I'm in executive management or that the company bought them for me.

Camera, Logitech C920 has universal praise. It's always sold out too because of it. 930e is also good.

My office has a set of turntables/mixer behind me and a pic on the wall of a hundred different turntables in a professional frame etc. it gives them some chatter and I get questions, which I reply about my former music career. It's normal in the industry for someone to have pro sports team something in the background, etc. Nobody really cares unless you have a cat and it's crawling around, or a dog, etc. Just needs to be neat.

Good luck sir. I hate video conferencing and think it is not needed. I've been doing corporate meetings, bridges, etc for 20 years working triage. But it's a new world. I keep a piece of electrical tape over my cam when I don't use it. Video meetings are 1/10 for me.

It would be 80% Zoom, 20% Webex.

I have resisted, but as you said, it's a new world and it will be a requirement for me. Thank you.

Polycom bat phones are universal corporate dedicated conferencing hardware for a reason. Audio quality that can't be beat. My most successful implementations have been using them just as microphones/speakers with laptop/tablet-based VoIP or teleconferencing software. Doing it this way does not tie you to a specific provider in case your other participants are using something that doesn't play nice with your preferred provider. It is also (a lot) cheaper than so-called "turn-key solutions" (that mostly use Polycom units anyway).

Now in a corporate conference room scenario there are a lot of factors that won't affect home use, large room acoustics, large area/audience coverage, inexperienced, ignorant, and occasional equipment operators, conflicting participant preferences/"requirements," etc., but having confidence in your equipment (and the other end having confidence in you too) goes a long way in making for non-confrontational meetings.

If you want to support video, choose a good external camera, not the one in your laptop, tablet, or phone. Something that can be positioned, focused, and has sufficient focal length to give sufficient depth and field of view, as well as faithful color representation. Again, more important when the room has to accommodate a dozen or two participants, but still helpful for a professional presentation.

AirPods have good sound on both sides of the conversation but I get tired of them in my ears for hours on end which is why I prefer a speakerphone.

Anker makes a good speakerphone that connects by bluetooth to you computer. Its taken me years and multiple purchases to find a good one.

Anker PowerConf
https://www.bestbuy.com/site/a...1726.p?skuId=6421726


The analog PolyComm Sound Station II are very good for speakerphones on a home phone line.



Zoom lets you put a fake image as your backdrop so dont worry about background.

Lighting.

Don't forget your lighting.

And set your QoS to prioritize conference traffic.