The Best Zoom Meeting Setup Under $100
Can You Create a High-Quality Zoom Setup for Less Than $100?
I’ve tried hard to find the best Zoom meeting setup. Most are terrible. That’s why I keep trying different setups. My current setup uses a Sony a5100 camera and a Shure SM58 microphone with a Scarlett Solo USB audio interface. Even buying things used, it cost about $800 to put together. While it’s stunningly better than the integrated webcam and microphone in my laptop, it’s also too expensive for most people to justify. That’s why I decided to find the cheapest good quality setup I could.
The best quality cheap Zoom meeting setup is your old iPhone 5 (or newer), a lightning to HDMI adapter, HDMI cable, HDMI to USB capture card, any practical lights you have for the background, a 12” ring light (to light your face) with a stand and phone holder and a Razer Seiren Mini USB microphone.
The problem
Most people on Zoom for work use either their laptop. Then they set it on a desk in a room with an overhead light. They tip the screen back to aim the camera up at them, and then they slouch back so you can only see their head near the bottom of the frame. It’s dark and blurry, and you can’t tell what they’re saying over the echo of their kitchen. Blech.
The pain
Let me ask you. If you were meeting your boss or a client face-to-face, would you slouch back in your chair in a dark office and muffle your voice so they struggle to understand you?
Don’t be an idiot. Modern-day knowledge work of the sort conducted either face-to-face or in virtual meetings is ALL ABOUT good communication. You need to sound good and look good.
You wouldn’t wear scruffy or dirty clothes, or leave your personal hygiene 5 days behind you. Would you? If you answered yes to that, you can leave now. I’m not talking to you.
OK, now that they’re gone, let’s do this. You care about your appearance. You care about your communication skills. Let’s bring your virtual presence up to that same level.
The solution
Face it. Most people’s presence on Zoom sucks. They’re hard to look at and worse to listen to. It’s partly because of the equipment they have, and partly how they use it. The answer is to use better, single-purpose equipment and make a few simple changes to your Zoom meeting setup. Let’s get started…
Audio for Zoom meeting (tldr: get the Razer Seiren Mini)
Audio is THE most important factor in communicating over Zoom. If they can’t understand what you’re saying, it doesn’t matter what you look like.
I’ve tried a lot of different things to improve audio. First, no matter what equipment you’re using, follow these three tips:
- Choose a quiet location with lots of stuff in it. No microphone in the world will help you if there is music blasting nearby, or if the landscapers decide to run the leaf-blowers outside your window.
- Choose a quiet location with lots of stuff in it. Empty rooms with hard surfaces echo. A lot. Think of the sound of an empty garage Vs your furnished bedroom. Carpet, curtains, and soft furniture, like a bed, reduce echo and make you sound better, clearer, and easier to understand.
- Stay close to your microphone. You want the direct sound of your voice to be the closest (and loudest) signal that hits the mic. The further away you are, the more similar the background noises like fans or AC will be to the level of your voice when it reaches the mic. Also, sound reflects off hard surfaces. Your voice will bounce back to the mic and get picked up as an echo that’s a little bit out of sync. The further you are from the mic, the more that echo competes with your voice, making you sound like you’re in a box, or worse.
Next, spend most of your initial budget on a good microphone. Be a little careful. More expensive doesn’t necessarily mean better in this case.
High-quality, large-diaphragm condenser microphones like the Neumann U87 ($3250) are a terrible choice for this purpose. They’re amazing if you’re in a properly sound-treated studio or vocal booth with the right (professional) pre-amps and recording equipment. You’re not. A large-diaphragm condenser mic will sound bad because you’re using it wrong. It will pick up every breath, mouth click, keyboard tap, and rustle, and your money will be wasted.
What you want for Zoom is a lower sensitivity mic like either a small-diaphragm cardioid or super-cardioid condenser microphone or a dynamic cardioid or super-cardioid microphone. These will reject background noise better, making you sound better. A USB version is the most convenient and can be had quite affordably.
Right now, I recommend the Razer Seiren Mini or the Samson Q2U.
Framing your Zoom meeting
Nobody wants to look up your nose during the meeting. So quit hunching over your laptop or iPad. It’s a bad look (and a bad sight) for everyone. Likewise, nobody wants to talk to the top of your head.
Get your camera to eye level. You know, like you’re talking to a person and looking them in the eye.
For most laptops on a desk, 6-inches will usually do the trick. Grab a box or a few books (you do still have some books don’t you?), and set your laptop on top of them. Aim the camera at your face, and sit up at the table like you respect and are interested in the people you’re talking to.
Your head should be close to, but not touching, the top of the window. Your shoulders should be visible in the bottom half of the frame. That puts your eyes a little above the midline of the window, just like you’d frame a head-and-shoulders photo of yourself. It looks more natural, and you’re big enough to see, even when your window is just a thumbnail size on your client’s screen.
It will feel to your clients like they’re looking at you from a natural angle if you do it right. Refreshing, no?
Lighting your Zoom meeting (tldr: get this 12” ring light)
Webcameras work by turning light into digital signals that are translated back into the light from your screen that forms the video. Did you get that? Light? It’s important. Cameras just don’t work as well in the dark.
Since the video on Zoom is meant to show your face, it’s important to put some light ON your face. Ideally, you do this without creating harsh shadows. The simple way to do this is to have light coming from a large source, close to your face (but out of the camera frame), and slightly above your eye level.
A simple ring light does this well. A 12-inch ring light is the smallest I’d recommend, and they’re quite affordable now. Bigger is better, because it makes the light softer, filling in shadows in a flattering way.
An alternative to a ring light is a softbox (which takes up a lot of room), or a few cheap utility lights spaced out to either side a little above and below your jawline. A dollar-store plastic frosted shower curtain will diffuse the light to reduce the harshness of any shadows.
Having a bright light on your face will make the background look darker. Light it up with some practicals like utility lamps or a desk lamp to add some depth, and separate you from the background.
Video for Zoom meetings
Did you notice that video itself is coming LAST in this Zoom meeting setup? That’s because, if you don’t take care of the other things first, even a $5000 camera can look bad.
I have tried the laptop webcam (it’s usually awful). I’ve tried external webcams (a few are good, but most are terrible). I’ve tried GoPros and DSLRs. My preferred webcam right now is a Sony a5100 with a 20mm f/2.8 autofocus lens. That’s kind of overkill for today, though.
The best cheap option I’ve found is to dedicate an old smartphone to webcam duty. I dug my iPhone 5 out of a drawer and charged it up. It doesn’t have service (or even a SIM card), but I connected it to WiFi and downloaded an app called True Visage. It’s free, and what it does is give you a camera view with no overlays.
To connect this as a webcam, you need three things.
- A lighting-to-HDMI adapter (preferably one with a lightning input as well so you can power the phone while using it as a webcam)
- An HDMI cable (three feet is long enough)
- An HDMI to USB capture card
Connect them all to your iPhone, and connect the capture card to your laptop. Start the True Visage app, and mount the phone in a holder (at eye level). Then the iPhone will show up in Zoom (or Teams) as “USB Video” or similar. Et voila! A MUCH better quality video stream than most webcams.
Conclusion
With $50 for a good USB microphone and $50 for lights, cables, and adapters, you too can have a really effective Zoom meeting setup and a Zoom presence to be proud of. Your colleagues might not comment, but they’ll notice.
The best thing of all is when you realize how rare it has become for anyone to say they couldn’t understand you. Step up your Zoom game. Everyone on your calls will appreciate it.
