This lesson is part of our series on The Complete Guide to Your Video Studio Set Up (All Budgets)
After you’ve followed the steps mentioned in this lesson, this is the difference you can expect:
The picture on the left is taken from my laptop camera. It is not a shabby laptop but once you compare it to the image quality on the right, the difference between the quality is simply undeniable.
If you were to do business with someone, which one of the two will you do it with?
If you were to buy something from someone, out of the above two, who will likely make the deal?
It is important to remind ourselves as to why we are doing this.
Looking for the exact equipment list, complete with links to purchase these items in Pakistan? That is at the end of this lesson/article.
Why Do You Need a Professional Zoom Meeting Set Up?
The appearance is important. It is superficial, yes. It is not the core, yes. But it is important. Very important in fact. That is why we want to put our best food forward whenever we can. InshAllah.
We are doing this so that we can have professional communication with others, typically via Zoom or Google Meet or Skype.
It is worth mentioning that this guide, and this lesson, has the following priority:
- Be able to have a professional video conversation with others in a live environment (like you may do via Zoom, Meet or Skype)
- Be able to record professional looking videos for your social media like YouTube, Facebook, LinkedIn etc.
This distinction is very useful for us. Why? Because if we can make our live videos look professional, we can use the same set up to make our recorded videos look professional as well.
What (minimum) Equipment You Need for a Professional Live Video Set Up?
You will need:
- A good lighting set up
- Good audio mic
- A good camera
Note that a good camera is third on the list. Many of us think that the camera is what really matters. But in fact, a bad lighting set up will make even the best of cameras look average.
My Current Video Call Set Up
I am a coach and a teacher.
I also coach and teach coaches and teachers on how to set up their online presence, their online infrastructure and their online business.
This is my current set up.
This is not the best set up, but this is definitely not a beginner set up either.
This article/lesson is basically on how to set up your video calling / video recording set up like the one above.
The results for this are incredibly different from a normal video calling set up (as you can see from the first before/after image). So let us begin, Bismilla.
We will cover the three (lighting, audio and video) areas of producing a professional level, high quality video conferencing or meeting call.
Lighting Set Up
You get two soft-boxes. You use one as key light, and the other as fill light. Key light and fill light are technical terms used in filmmaking. Key light is the main light. Fill light is a secondary light to fill any remaining darker areas in a scene.
Key light is brighter than the fill light. You can use brighter bulbs in the key light, and dimmer bulbs in the fill light. Or you can place the key light closer to you, and the fill light a bit further away from you (that is what I do).
The minimum you should have (for the Pro level), is one soft-box as the key light. This is typically placed very close to you (close enough that you can possibly touch it).
In the above image, if we analyze it, you can see that I am not using the fill light (the second softbox). The harder shadows on the right side of my face (your left) are proof that there is really one big light source.
Lighting, like pretty much all these concepts, has a lot more technicalities that you do not need to worry about. What we need to understand for our quality video calling, is that lighting is super important. More important than any other equipment out there.
Audio Set Up
The famous director Steven Spielberg said that “audio is fifty percent of the movie”. He was later corrected that the sound may be more than fifty percent of a movie!
That is to say that having a great audio is more important than having a great video.
When we are starting out, we tend to think of a video as something that contains the audio. We do not separate the two. But if you think about it, both the video (the moving images) and the audio, are distinct forms of media.
To have a professional set up, you must focus on getting good audio.
If we were prioritizing video recording over Zoom video calling, I would have recommended getting a sound recorder like the imitable Zoom H6 (still my favorite audio recorder).
But we are first focusing on setting up our live video calling system. For that, we are good if we focus on just getting a quality mic.
One of the best mics that I have tested and still use to this day is the ATR-2100 mic by Audio-Technica. The great thing about this mic is that it has three outputs: a jack, an XLR and a USB out. This means you have flexibility in terms to to what you can connect that mic to.
In our case, as teachers, we need to be able to connect the mic to our computer. The ATR2100 can be connected directly to our computers, without the need to any additional devices or dongles or what have you.
The Equipment List You Need
I am only mentioning my recommendations. There are tons of other ways you can get the same (or better) results. My intention is not to provide you with all the options, but with the right ones. So here is the equipment list you need, with links to where you can buy them from within Pakistan.
In a list format for convenience:
- Camera – Sony a6400. You can buy here in Pakistan (BNWCollections).
- Lights – the lighting set up is by a company called Icon. You can buy here in Pakistan (GEOnline)
- Mic – the ATR2100. You can buy here in Pakistan (ION)
- HDMI to USB video capture device – used to convert any pro camera into a webcam.
- Buy here in Pakistan (UGREEN, via Daraz)
Camera
Sony a6400 (with kit lens) is the camera I recommend (and use). There are later models out there right now, but this camera has stood the test of time. I have added some additional compoenents to it like a SmallRig cage for safety while travelling and an additional Rode mic to capture audio while on the go. But you only need the camera.
Make sure you are buying this camera along with its kit lens and not body-only. You can get this camera in Pakistan (I share the link below). But if you have someone who is traveling abroad, you can get it cheaper if you buy from Amazon.com. That is usually the case with these things. It’s cheaper from the States, and not from Europe it seems.
Note: this is, easily, an expensive camera, especially in Pakistan. If you are reading this out of context, you will think that there are no other recommendations available. That’s not the case. You can check out the guide (free) on setting up your own video studio, on every budget. Because this is the Professional level set up, we are using professional level equipment. And that is, in many cases, more expensive.
HDMI to USB Video Capture Card
I use this to make the professional camera appear as a webcam on my laptop. So you would need this device with most cameras. Some professional cameras these days connect directly to the laptop without the need for this device, so you can check. I have three of these devices (one is as back up).
These devices I have ordered over the years from different vendors. These are usually non-branded items, and sometimes they can just simply stop working. The device I use right now, I can not find where I got it from. But I found this one by UGREEN, and it has good reviews. I would buy this one if I had to buy one right now (but please note, I have not used this specific model as of yet)
You can buy this in Pakistan from here:
Lighting Set Up
This is the lighting set up I recommend (and use). This is much, much cheaper than the Apurture lights (which are really cool looking and someday I may get those). These lights do the job just fine.
- Two softboxes
- Two stands
- Two 4x holders
You can get these lights from Daraz. I recommend getting them from GEOnline, an e-commerce store I had the pleasure of doing business with many times.
Audio / Sound
The ATR2100 mic by Audio-Technica is the one I recommend (and use).
This was first recommended by Tim Ferris, and I bought it many, many years ago. It wasn’t even available anywhere in Pakistan – I had to request a friend to bring it on his way back from America. That mic is still going strong, Alhumdulillah.
You only need to hear the difference between your laptop/desktop built-in mic, versus a professional mic, to really appreciate the difference. There is a vast difference, and that adds to the quality of your video call.
Also, I have seen people spend 4 times more to buy the (no-doubt the awesome) Shure SM7B type mics. Those are very nice, they have a great history (a lot of famous recording artists and studios use these mics), and they definitely are very high quality. But they also require phantom power (you dont know what that is? Exactly why you should not be going for this kind of equipment), and they are also very expensive. The difference in audio between a Shure SM7B and the ATR2100 may be picked up by an audiophile, but not my mere mortals like you and me who are trying to have a professional, high-quality video meeting/class. So let us stick with this tried and tested Audio-Technica ATR2100 family.
You can buy this beautiful and practical mic at the ION store here in Pakistan (I have used this store to order a few things in the past as well)