David Gardiner - Working from home

Elgato Green Screen MT

2022-11-23T22:30:00.000+10:30

When I do presentations from home I like to have a non-distracting background. For a while, I was using a really old movie projector screen that originally belonged to my grandfather! The kind that is on a stand with tripod legs, it was getting on in years, and required a pair of multigrip pliers to hold the screen in place! I was just waiting for the day the pliers would fall off and the screen collapse mid-presentation, but thankfully that never happened!

It also needed to be packed away in my shed when I didn't need it. So I started to think about getting something more fit for purpose, that could be built into the room where I work from. Enter the Elgato Green Screen MT!

The screen itself is 2 metres wide and 1.8m high (the actual mounting points are 2.12 metres apart), and it is intended to be mounted on a wall or ceiling. I chose to do the latter, but after using a stud-finder I determined that my ceiling joists were not the same width apart as the screen. To compensate for that, I used light-gauge chains to join the screen to the hooks.

I took a lot of care to measure out how far back from my desk the screen should sit; so that I'd have enough room to sit in front of it, but also to try and avoid gaps showing in the video feed past the sides of the screen.

Now, most of the time the screen is retracted/up, but if I have a meeting or a presentation, then I can pull down the screen. Even more so in the evening, as our TV is in the same room so I can participate in the meeting online, while family members can still watch the TV without accidentally ending up on the video feed.

If you're thinking about buying a green screen, this week is a good one to do it with the price discounted.

Check it out online (affiliate links)

RODE NTUSB Microphone and PSA1 Boom Stand

2022-01-24T08:00:00.000+10:30

My "home office" is working rather well, but I did think it would be nice to go the extra mile and do some minor upgrades, particularly for remote presenting.

First up is audio recording.

My requirements were a better microphone on one of those flexible arms, but it needed to fit on my existing desk layout. I have three 27" monitors mounted on a standing desk. Something coming down from above was almost certainly going to obstruct my view, so I figured if it could come in low from the side, that could work. Something that "hovered" above the keyboard so I could still see all three external monitors as well as the laptop display. It might obstruct the keyboard a bit, but I can touch type so that's not a show-stopper.

Whilst an XLR microphone would have been nice, that would also require purchasing a separate device to plug into my computer. I didn't think I could justify the extra expense.

After a fair bit of research I settled on the following:

(Affiliate links)

RØDE produce world-class audio gear, and it's pretty cool that they're actually an Australian company.

My one hesitation was whether the boom stand was going to be flexible enough and reach far enough. My desk is 1800mm wide, so it would need to span 900mm to get to the middle. Using a measuring tape it sounded like it would, but there's nothing like actually getting one and trying it out. Good news - it does just reach!

I was a little surprised at how sensitive the microphone is. I'll definitely need to keep the door shut when I'm using it. It will also be interesting to see if it picks up a lot of ambient noise (fans, keyboard, etc). I've read some comments online that mention getting better results by turning down the gain a lot (eg. 50-60%).

The microphone comes with it's own 3.5mm audio jack, perfect for plugging in some headphones. This output appears as a USB audio playback/output device in Windows. There are two dials on the side of the microphone for managing the headphone audio. The top dial is used for adjusting the mix between the microphone and other audio. The bottom dial is the volume for the headphones. The documentation mentions that the audio output is "zero latency", so you're hearing yourself directly (without the audio having to be processed by the computer and then sent back).

The NTUSB comes with a pop shield - useful for reducing popping sounds and keeping moisture off the microphone. This is optional so you don't necessarily need to fit it, or you could use different filter.

Some people like to use a microphone shock mount (those fancy wire cradle things that hold the microphone - often used by radio announcers). I figure I'll see how I go without that for now.

Mounting the microphone onto the PSA1 boom stand was straight forward, as was mounting the boom stand on my desk. The stand comes with two options, either a clamp style (which is what I used), or an insert (for a larger desk where you'd drill into the desk and mount it that way). I was able to use the clamp mount, putting it on the left edge of my desk.

When I'm not using the microphone, the stand folds up sits to the side. In doing so it's out of my field of view for using the monitors.

Not only does the arm + microphone reach and "hover" as I'd hoped, but it turns out it's barely (if not at all) in shot when doing video presentations, which is ideal.

Brateck monitor arms

2021-03-07T17:00:00.000+10:30

One of the things on my to do list with my working at home setup was to get some new monitor arms. I am pretty tall and also have had some back issues in the past, so was keen to have my monitors up at the right height to encourage good posture.

After doing a fair bit of research I settled on a Brateck Single Monitor Full Extension Gas Spring Single Monitor Arm(17" - 32" Up to 8Kg). But I was still a bit unsure if it would completely meet my requirements. How far could it stretch and how high and flexible would it be? So I decided rather than ordering 3 (one for each monitor), I'd play it safe and just start with one, and then if it turned out ok I'd go ahead and order the other two.

I ordered from CPL and it arrived a couple of days later. You can also find them on Amazon (sponsored link).

Nice when they include all the tools you will need to assemble it.

What impressed me was they included screws to cater for all needs. Obviously you don't want to use a screw that's too long. LCD displays don't take kindly to a metal screw piercing through them!

My monitor VESA mounts already had screws in them, so I was able to take those out and compare them against the Brateck ones (slightly longer as they'd need to go through the bracket and washer). In my case, the screws from the "M-A" packet were suitable for my Dell monitors.

And here's the monitor up on the arm. I needed to adjust the tension in the screw that sits on top of the flexible joint so that the monitor stayed up in the air (instead of slowly sinking to the table)

With that I was able to confirm that it did have enough height and flexibility to suit my purposes, and I've now got two more on order (which should arrive after the long weekend).

It will be great to reclaim some desk space and move the stack of books that have been temporarily supporting the monitors back on the bookshelf where they belong 😊

New Dell laptop, dock and displays

2021-02-27T18:00:00.000+10:30

Starting my new position at SixPivot is an opportune time for a hardware refresh. Part of the package includes a laptop allowance so I utilised that along with my own contributions to purchase some additional items to round out my 'working from home' environment.

The laptop

After some consideration I've gone with a Dell Latitude 7420 laptop:

11th gen Intel i7-1185G7
32GB of RAM
256GB SSD *
3840x2160 (4K) non-touch display
4 cell 63Whr battery

Why have I linked to Dell's US site? Because if you look for those kinds of specs on Dell's Australian site, you'll be disappointed. Yes, they do have the 7420 but not with the 32GB (or higher) RAM option. If your organisation has a relationship with a Dell sales rep then they can facilitate orders like these.

That SSD is a bit on the small side. While Dell do offer a 512 or 1TB option, I calculated the cost would be the same or slightly cheaper if I then buy something like a Samsung 970 EVO Plus 1 or 2TB and swap it over myself.

As a side note, the SSD that came in the laptop is a "Kioxia" brand. Never heard of them before.

The Latitude comes with the following ports:

(Left)

Thunderbolt 4 with Power Delivery/DisplayPort Alt Mode/USB 4 type-C
Headset (headphone and microphone combo) port

(Right)

micro-SD card slot
Thunderbolt 4 with Power Delivery/DisplayPort Alt Mode/USB 4 type-C
SuperSpeed USB 3.2 Gen 1 Type-A with PowerShare
HDMI 2.0 port

So you get two Thunderbolt 4 type-C ports and just the one older style (type-A) USB port. If you have a few type-A USB devices to plug in you'll definitely need a dock or some kind of type-C to type-A hub.

Windows "Hello" is fully supported either by the integrated webcam or the fingerprint reader (as part of the power button).

Here's my three Dell laptops to compare the sizes. The XPS 15, XPS 9550 and now (on top) my new Latitude 7420.

Thoughts so far:

It is nice to have a more compact laptop, but one downside is there's less room for cooling so I almost immediately noticed it was doing a great impersonation of a hair dryer. Quite noisier than my older XPS 9550 (and as it as aged, I've noticed that does use the fan more). You can adjust the power settings so the fan doesn't need to kick in so hard. The other option is to get some kind of laptop cooling stand (with the hope that the fans on the stand are quieter than the fan on the laptop).
Performance is snappy
The keyboard is compact. A little different to the 9550 layout as far as the placement of the Home and End keys (moved up to the top row to the right of Insert). I was concerned I might hit the power button instead of Delete but actually that hasn't happened so far. I think I'll probably get an external, full-sized keyboard soon and use that in preference to the laptop keyboard when it's docked on my desk.
I'm still playing with the power settings. Not sure if it's being connected to the dock or something else but it seems like hitting the power button just turns off the screen, not actually sending the laptop to sleep.
Yeah, it's not a touch display. The US site only had touch available for the HD resolution, so I gave up touch to get 4K.

Dock

I had a lot of good suggestions for docks from my earlier post. I decided to go with the Dell WD19TB. Curiously in the few weeks since I got mine, they've dropped that model in favour of the WS19TBS (appears to be identical except it doesn't have the 3.5mm port).

The WD19TB is a Thunderbolt 3 device. I did search for Thunderbolt 4 docks (as the Latitude supports Thunderbolt 4), but there's not too many around at the moment and what is available is not cheap.

What I paid most attention to when selecting a dock was the support for multiple displays (and at what resolution). There's a good summary of capabilities in the WD19TB Display Resolution Table. I want to run three displays, so the following information (extracted from that linked table) are of interest:

WD19TB for Thunderbolt systems
Display Port Available Bandwidth	Triple Display (maximum resolution)
HBR2 (HBR2 x8 lanes - 34.5 Gbps)	DP1.4 + DP1.4 + HDMI2.0: 3 x QHD (2560 x 1440) @60 Hz DP1.4 + DP1.4 + MFDP Type-C: 3 x QHD (2560 x 1440) @60 Hz DP1.4 + DP1.4 + USB Type-C TB: 3 x QHD (2560 x 1440) @60 Hz DP1.4 + MFDP Type-C + USB Type-C TB: 3 x QHD (2560 x 1440) @60 Hz DP1.4 + HDMI2.0 + USB Type-C TB: 3 x QHD (2560 x 1440) @60 Hz
HBR3 (HBR3 x4 lanes + HBR3 x1 - 32.4 Gbps)	DP1.4 + DP1.4 + HDMI2.0: 1 x 4K (3840 x 2160) @60 Hz 2 x QHD (2560 x 1440) @60 Hz DP1.4 + DP1.4 + MFDP Type-C: 1 x 4K (3840 x 2160) @60 Hz 2 x QHD (2560 x 1440) @60 Hz DP1.4 + DP1.4 + USB Type-C TB: 2 x 4K (3840 x 2160) @60 Hz 1 x QHD (2560 x 1440) @60 Hz DP1.4 + MFDP Type-C + USB Type-C TB: 2 x 4K (3840 x 2160) @60 Hz 1 x QHD (2560 x 1440) @60 Hz DP1.4 + HDMI2.0 + USB Type-C TB: 2 x 4K (3840 x 2160) @60 Hz 1 x QHD (2560 x 1440) @60 Hz

Thoughts:

I tried the dock out with my older Dell XPS 9550 (with also came with a Thunderbolt port). Because that laptop doesn't supports HBR3 it could only drive two displays. The 7420 manages 3 as expected.
Interestingly the display combination I'm currently running isn't really listed. The two 4K displays are connected to the dock using DisplayPort. The 3rd HD monitor I'm currently using is plugged in to one of the dock's HDMI ports. A HD or QHD looks like it would be the maximum this setup could support. That is supported by a Dell Community Forum answer I got to a related question.
Surprised it doesn't have more Type-A outputs.

Displays

I've written earlier about really wanting to maintain 3 displays (and ideally also the laptop display). I had an existing Acer SA240Y that I'd bought last year, but I thought it was probably time to invest in some good displays, and 4K makes sense. I chose the Dell S2721Q. It's a 27" 4K monitor with HDMI and DisplayPort 1.2 - a nice step up from the 22" HD monitors I'd been using for work previously. The colour contrast is also much better. I got two of these and are running them at 150% scaling. Interestingly, the laptop has the same resolution but I have that at 300% scaling (as it's a smaller display).

Both of the monitors are plugged in using DisplayPort adapters to the Dock.

Further plans

I'm almost there, but a few things remain on my list:

Samsung SSD
Replace the Acer monitor with a newer model (that has a VESA mount)
Monitor display arms. Currently using some stacks of books, which is not ideal!
External keyboard
A/V upgrade. I'm still using my trusty Plantronics headset that I got from TechEd 2009. Maybe one of those fancy microphones could be the go?

We'll see how far I get with those. Yes, I can claim the costs on tax, but it's still my money I'm spending so it depends on how the household budget is going too.

I'll publish additional blog posts if I have anything more to report on this hardware combination. So far, so good.

Lights, camera, action!

2020-10-02T17:00:00.000+09:30

A number of times now I've given a remote presentation in the evening and I've struggled with lighting. The room I use just has ceiling lights and my desk faces a window. A pleasant view in the day but very dark at night. I ended up borrowing my daughter's desk lamp to help make me look a bit brighter. That's not a long term solution (especially if my daughter wants to use her desk light too!)

I've noticed some people getting Elgato Key Lights, and they certainly look pretty swish, not to mention how they're remotely controllable, but at $AU270 per light (or $AU199 for the 'Air'), they're not that cheap. Elgato make some nice gear, but unless I was using it all the time I don't think my budget could justify it.

More recently I saw the 'Neewer' brand getting mentioned on Twitter and at $AU55 for two lights, I was interested!

I ordered a Neewer 2 Packs Portable Photography Lighting Kit Dimmable 5600K USB 66 LED Video Light with Mini Adjustable Tripod Stand and Color Filters for Table Top/Low Angle Photo Video Studio Shooting amazon.com.au amazon.com.

You get two lights which are USB powered, with a controller on each power lead to turn on/off and dim up/down. They come with a small stand that uses standard 1/4" screw connectors.

The comments on this product point out that the stand is not that tall, but I realised that I should be able to mount the stands on my existing monitor arms. All I'd need was something to attach to the arms. A couple of SMALLRIG Super Clamp Mount with Ball Head Mount Hot Shoe Adapter and Cool Clamp amazon.com.au amazon.com should do the job!

I was pleasantly surprised that it only took a few days for the packages to arrive. I presume they must have stock in Australia instead of having to ship from overseas.

I assembled the lights and removed the tripod foot so I could instead use the clamps. Here's the clamp attached to the monitor arm:

And here's one of the assembled lights:

Now I'm all set for my next evening presentation!

Disclosure: As an Amazon Associate I earn from qualifying purchases

Work from home update

2020-06-25T13:00:00.000+09:30

I started working from home back on March 16th, so it's been around 14 weeks since I've worked in our office in Adelaide CBD.

My normal weekday routine is getting up (usually earlier than I'd prefer), breakfast, shower and some stretches and exercises. The exercises were given to me by the physiotherapist after I injured my back last year playing basketball. While I haven't returned to playing competitively, I figure it's worth it for my own health to keep them up. A friend on Facebook was challenging folks to try and do 30 push ups a day for 30 days. I usually ignore these kinds of things (and don't repost them), but in this case I figured it was worth adding to my list. I've slowly been building up and hope to keep doing it for the long term.

Around the time of the school run (or a bit before) I head out for a morning walk. Most days I've been doing a 5km loop around the neighbourhood (weather permitting), which takes around 60 minutes. It takes the place of my walk to the bus and commute into town that I would previously have done. A great chance to get some fresh air and get the blood circulating, listen to podcasts (Daily Audio Bible followed by various technical podcasts), and prepare for the day ahead.

The mornings can be chilly when I'm out walking, so my pullover with these sleeves that let you put your thumb through the collar are handy. I originally thought the hole was a defect, but later I realised it was intended all along and is a handy feature!

Work follows mostly business hours, though a few weeks ago we did have a number of evening conference calls and training sessions. That is an ongoing challenge working for a global company - finding a time that's convenient for most people to attend.

I usually take my own lunch to work, but it is extra nice to be able to put a bit of extra effort into a homemade sandwich! Yes, that fruit is home grown too.

Being able to focus with less interruptions is a big bonus. I can also choose to put some background music on. Double J Radio is my station of choice.

Wrap up the work day around 5-6pm and then see what's happening with the rest of the family. It is nice to be home when they all get home from school. Sometimes there's some hot chips as an after-school treat so it's nice to be around to enjoy that!

There's been some discussions about returning to the office in the future. South Australia has had a total of 440 cases of COVID (with just 4 deaths) and no new cases in the last 4 weeks which is very encouraging.

I'm in no particular rush though. I've generally enjoyed my time working at home. I don't miss the 2 hours I was spending commuting each day. I feel like I think I'd like to keep doing it going forward (maybe going in to the office 1 day a week)

Two weeks in

2020-03-29T15:30:00.000+10:30

I've been working from home for two weeks now. The first week I'd already planned in advance once the MVP Summit went virtual (so I'd be attending sessions online in the morning and then working the rest of the day). But by that first Wednesday the rest of my office had followed the same pattern. It was a bit sad, as I had a colleague leaving. Usually as an office we'd make a point of going out to lunch and enjoying our last day together, but social distancing had other plans.

I originally set up camp in our 'middle' room - which is pretty much where everyone moves through. While it is nice to be in the centre of all the action, it did mean others had to tip-toe around when I was on a conference call. So last weekend I decided maybe I'd be better moving down to our 'end' room. The TV and piano are there, but for daytime hours, I can sit down here uninterrupted.

It's quite a pleasant spot. I can look off to the side and see out to our garden and beyond. Last year I had been researching standing desks. I think if I end up working here long term, I might follow that up again.

Last weekend I brought home my 3 monitors + stands from the office. Sadly one of the monitors refused to start up when I got it home. The previous week I'd bought a new Acer 23" monitor, so for now I've got that in the middle, with the two remaining AOCs either side. It would have been fun to have 4 monitors. Maybe later.

I saw a tweet by Jason Fried offering to refund the purchase price of his book (co-authored with David Heinemeier Hanson), "Remote: Office Not Required". I was inspired to purchase a hard copy of it, and while I was there I figured I'd grab "It doesn't have to be crazy at work".

I've had previous jobs where I worked from home for a day a week. This is the first time I've done it for any consecutive period.

The "Remote" book is quite an easy read. Each chapter is divided up into a number of 1-3 page bites. It's certainly got me thinking about whether this is something I'd want to continue doing even after the current situation.

A point the authors make is it doesn't have to be "all or nothing". Working from home Monday to Thursday and heading in to the office on Friday could be an option. Why Friday? Well traditionally that's our 'team pizza lunch' day :-)

The fact that my entire company is working from home potentially makes this more viable, as whether they like it or not, everyone is hopefully now learning now to be effective working from home. I'd like to think that learning will remain long after the pandemic has gone.