Simple and affordable setup for distributed teams
Paul Vincent
Tyro
To choose a single device, it has to be the Lavelier Mic, in its various forms - WiFi for modern 3.5mm-less devices, but this one for its sheer affordability and the degree to which a good audio feed can really ramp up the audience's experience: https://www.amazon.co.uk/Microphone-Professional-Omnidirectional-Recording-Conference/dp/B073GJQKL1/ref=sr_1_8?crid=H2TUAHP09AKD&keywords=lapel+mic&qid=1563353502&s=gateway&sprefix=lapel%2Caps%2C132&sr=8-8
More broadly, just prior to lockdown, we had started to collate a set of hardware to distribute to our remote-working tutors and other academic staff for use with Panopto as part of our on-boarding processes, but we're now just dispatching directly from Amazon where necessary.
The following is what we came up with:
Desktop LED lighting: https://www.amazon.co.uk/Andoer-Camcorder-Wedding-Interview-Macrophotography/dp/B07SH4DPXL/ref=sr_1_10?keywords=led%2Blights%2Bfilming&qid=1582281373&sr=8-10&th=1
Logitech C920 webcam: https://www.amazon.co.uk/Logitech-C920-Pro-Webcam-Recording/dp/B006A2Q81M?th=1
These provide the rudiments for any home-based practitioner, without breaking the dept. budget. I created a quick video demo on how each of the above impact upon quality (via Panopto of course 😉 ) :
In my view, audio is the critical part, and where we haven't been able to provide lapel mics, during lockdown we've recommended also recording audio via a mobile device to reduce risk of a poor audio track. We've subsequently discovered that feeds recorded from mobile devices (even budget devices) tend to be superior to some more expensive digital mics we've used in the past on-prem.