Hangouts On Air Unbound

I recently hosted my first Google+ Hangout showcasing floral gifts one can order online for Valentine's Day. I was pleased with how the Hangout went in the overall. The sound was very good. The flowers were lit well, as was I. The archive video was more pixelated than I would have liked but I can figure that out and fix it for the next hangout. But what makes it worth noting that the sound was good and things were lit well is that this Hangout was hosted outside. That took the use of some specific equipment, which I will discuss in this post.

The first thing to notice is the difference in the ambient noise levels between the video above in which I am highlighting the equipment I used and the actual Hangout archive video. The ambient noise on the archive video is at a minimum because of the microphone I am using. 

It is the Jabra Go 6430 Bluetooth Headset And USB Adapter. 

This microphone did quite well in the noise cancelling department.  Yes, in my Google Hangout ambient noise from the freeway offramp right outside of the balcony can be heard.  But the difference in the extent to which it is heard in the Google Hangout compared to how loud it is heard in the equipment video above is substantial. Don't take my word for it, play 30 seconds of each video yourself.  The dongle plugged into my laptop and sent bluetooth signals to the earpiece which acted as a microphone and a speaker.  According to Jabra the user can stand 33 meters from the dongle.  I actually tested this distance and it did work with some caveats.  I tested it first on my desktop and I plugged the dongle into a USB port on the back of the desktop while I stood in front of the desktop.  The microphone did not work at all.  The desktop itself was acting as a signal obstacle.  Once I plugged the dongle into a front USB port the microphone worked beautifully and I was able to walk at least 33 feet from the desktop and still have my voice sound crisp. This microphone is also made to be a regular bluetooth headset for mobile phones, though I did not test this functionality.

As +Ronnie Bincer is always warning, make sure your computer is in a wired connection when you participate in or host a Hangout. Well, the beauty of wireless is that it allows you to move around your home or office.  So how do you achieve that same mobility when you have to have a wired connection in order to achieve optimal video?  

I did it with a 25 foot ethernet cable.  

I purchased mine on Amazon where the cable also came in 50 foot lengths.  I plugged one end into my laptop and the other end into my router and I was able to move my  laptop into a position to film me on my balcony and still have a wired connection.

Now, I did not use the webcam attached to my laptop. I used a Logitech webcam that has a hole on the bottom which allows me to screw it into a tripod.  I then set the tripod up in an optimal position to film me and I attached the webcam to my laptop using a 3 foot USB extension cable. 

These cables have to be tested in advance. Even though my Logitech webcam's attached USB cable is USB 2.0 and the extension USB cable I purchased is the same, there is still the chance that by using an extension cable the camera is going to  have significant lag. So I was sure to test the webcam with the extension cable in a trial Hangout before the main event.  The extension cable I purchased was only 3 feet so that may have been too short a distance for any lag to present itself.  The longer the extension cable, the more critical it is to test it before your main event.

Not to state the obvious, but I am a dark skinned woman.  Because I do have high melanin skin and because women are judged more on their looks, I am very conscious of how I am lit when I am being photographed for professional purposes.  Most webcams have settings that are not as sensitive or sophisticated as a user might be used to on a high end DSLR.  I wanted to show the palm trees swaying in the background of my balcony (so I could make everyone in snowy climes envious).  But the backlit setting on my Logitech webcam left me a featureless talking shadow in the foreground and the flowers barely definable.  So I had to light up myself and the flowers in the foreground quiet a bit.  I did this with three softboxes that came with the:

ePhoto Professional Photography Video backdrop

 

The overhead softbox came with a superbulb.  The other two softboxes came with four standard bulbs.  In my trial run I tried lighting with the standard bulbs and I was not satisfied with the amount of light.  So in each of the two standard softboxes I replaced two of the standard bulbs with superbulbs.  Specifically, 

Limo Studio Full Spectrum Lighting Bulbs

Boy are these bulbs huge. But they do the trick.  The important thing was to match the light spectrum, in this case 6400K of the superbulbs with the light spectrum of the bulbs that came with the Limo studio soft boxes.  That way I did not freak my webcam out by casting two different spectrums of light on the same subject.  Since color is a critical part of showing off flowers (or clothing, or makeup tips), it was also important to test the lighting in advance so that I could make sure the flowers looked good under the lights.

Untethered Hangouts are great for specific subjects like cooking demonstrations or hair and makeup tips or whiteboard presentations.  But they are also good for personal hangouts where you just want to present yourself somewhere other than in front of your computer.  With the right equipment, and amble time to test everything, you can achieve and untethered Hangout without a lot of hassle.