How to uplevel your Zoom game

Zoom, Teams, Skype, they all get fancier as people use them more. Select our own background, blur the background in your office, you name it. But you can easily go one step further. Inspired by Scott Hanselman's video on YouTube, I put together my own setup today. This is what it looks like on my screen:

And these are the moving parts:

OBS Studio ties everything together. This is where you assemble all your resources that go into your video.
OBS VirtualCam takes the output from OBS Studio and makes it available as a virtual camera to be used in Zoom, Teams, or your preferred conferencing software.
Samsung Galaxy S20 which is my best Android video camera. Laptop webcams suck, so I am using the main camera from an Android phone.
Iriun Webcam to stream the Galaxy camera into OBS Studio. I am using a USB connection. For that to work you need to enable developer mode and USB debugging. Wifi works as well without these hacks.
HyperX QuadCast as the audio source, on the lowest gain, with two audio filters added: compressor and noise gate.
Neewer Chromakey which enables the chromakey filter in OBS to mask the background behind me. It just filters out the green color from the video stream.

The interesting thing is that it puts just three percent load on the Surface Pro X to assemble this HD video stream. Quite amazing.

I use the large microphone connected via USB and a wired over-ear headset plugged into the back of the microphone, because that produces the best sound. Once you start adding a camera and a USB hub, you might as well go all in. However, this works just as well with just a gaming headset or any other gear you are currently using with Zoom. Just avoid using a speaker or an open-back headset so that the microphone cannot pick up any feedback.

Remember mmhmm? I am on the beta now but it kills my (old) MacBook Pro. With OBS Studio it all just works. The software is open source, free, and available right now.

2020-07-18 :: email :: twitter :: qr code

Comments

Do we get to see your example output?

Ian Bradbury, 2020-07-19

Well, one of these days we might do a big Zoom meeting. I hear they are fun. Start building.

Volker Weber, 2020-07-19

Be aware the VirtualCam plugin has quite a number of known issues.

Good news: It has been decided to integrate the plugin inside OBS not only for Windows, but make the functionality also available to Mac and Linux.

Details: https://github.com/obsproject/rfcs/blob/master/accepted/0015-virtual-camera-support.md

Recent commits prove that it is actively worked on it :-)

Tobias Zuegel, 2020-07-19

What tripod do you use in this setup - or which one would you recommend? The PeakDesign Carbon is a little expensive for just an occasional use... ;-)

Alex Martin, 2020-07-19

Die nächsten Upgrades für ein klassisches Twitch-Setup sind Elgato Keylight und Streamdeck. Aber Vorsicht, das Zeug ist nicht günstig.

Kai Nehm, 2020-07-19

Option to OBS Studio/VirtualCam: Snap Camera. My favorite filter here is "My Twin". Works like a charm with Iriun Webcam (tested on macOS).

Peter Meuser, 2020-07-19

Wird morgen ausprobiert. Bin sehr gespannt auf das Ergebnis.

Joachim Haydecker, 2020-07-19

Hatte Kind #3 diesen Post gezeigt, wg. OBS Studio und VirtualCam. Jetzt hat es sich einen Elgato Key Light und Elgato Green Screen zum Geburtstag gewünscht. Danke, Kai!

Sven Richert, 2020-07-20

Hat fast gleich funktioniert. Eine VC...DLL hat nicht funktioniert. Aber konnte behoben werden.

Habe gestern unauffällig statt eines Teams Standbilds ein leichtes, unauffälliges Bewegtbild eingesetzt. Man erhält überraschte Gesichter :-)

Gerade für Workshops, die sowohl real und virtuell in Mischformen stattfinden, ist das eine super Lösung mit mehreren Kameras zu arbeiten, die einfach umgeschaltet werden können. Da gibt es Blech, das deutlich mehr kostet.

Werde mich auch mal die Elgato Sachen anschauen.

Joachim Haydecker, 2020-07-21

Cooles Walt-Mossberg-Skin! :-)

Martin Kautz, 2020-07-21

@Peter: ich hatte auch snapcam installiert - und dann bemerkt, dass es mir am Ziffernblock die Taste 7 blockiert. Deinstalliert - "7" funktioniert. Neu installiert: "7" tuts nicht. Also adieu gesagt - schade eigentlich, da es auch gut mit Teams funktioniert hat.

Bernd Schuster, 2020-07-21

Recent comments

Frank Quednau on Anrufqualität at 17:26
Jan Tietze on Anrufqualität at 16:20
Oliver Schult on Anrufqualität at 15:13
Sven Richert on Anrufqualität at 13:58
Volker Weber on Anrufqualität at 13:49
michael rother on Anrufqualität at 13:43
Tobias Vogel on Marshall Stockwell II :: Klingt gut, sieht gut aus, meine Empfehlung at 12:57
Jörg Wölker on Anrufqualität at 12:31
Volker Weber on Lenovo Smart Clock Essential at 08:29
Stefan Niemeier on Lenovo Smart Clock Essential at 08:25
Volker Weber on Lenovo Smart Clock Essential at 21:51
David Guillaume on Lenovo Smart Clock Essential at 21:46
Richard Albury on No battery woes on Apple Watch 6 at 18:56
Stefan Pfeiffer on Apple Watch 6 :: Erste Eindrücke at 16:02
Eric Bredtmann on Leatherman Free T4 :: Das hat sich bewährt at 19:53
Volker Weber on Leatherman Free T4 :: Das hat sich bewährt at 19:36
Volker Weber on No battery woes on Apple Watch 6 at 19:25
Dominique Roller on Leatherman Free T4 :: Das hat sich bewährt at 17:03
Bernd Hofmann on No battery woes on Apple Watch 6 at 16:33
Jan Van Puyvelde on Lenovo Yoga Slim 7 i7/16/1000 :: Erste Eindrücke at 14:30
Volker Weber on Lenovo Yoga Slim 7 i7/16/1000 :: Erste Eindrücke at 13:37
Volker Weber on No battery woes on Apple Watch 6 at 13:34
Dominique Roller on No battery woes on Apple Watch 6 at 13:31
michael rother on Lenovo Yoga Slim 7 i7/16/1000 :: Erste Eindrücke at 06:40
Jan Van Puyvelde on Lenovo Yoga Slim 7 i7/16/1000 :: Erste Eindrücke at 02:22

communicate :: collaborate :: commemorate