Zoom tips & tricks

[Tomas]

(And yes, let's not discuss f@#$%!* Teams that should die, die, die...)

The other day I decided to record some thoughts on Walmart and their eCommerce problems for my "circle of friends" (https://www.linkedin.com/feed/update/ur ... 141131776/ ). I recorded Zoom meeting (with myself as the only participant), and posted the final presentation on Youtube:

The problem I have is that the presentation has very wide black margins. The tech people I talked to *think* (but are not sure) it's because my main office monitor has one of those super-wide curved screens.

I do have dual-monitor set up, and my other monitor is the old style 4:3, but I do not want to do presentations on it (because it is positioned to the side, several feet away from my chair, etc...)

So, the question I have:
Is there a way I can tell Zoom: "record only the middle 16:9 (or 4:3) on my otherwise extremely wide screen?

[And one less important question: Is there a way how to make the presenter window just a little bit bigger? Incidentally, I do know the trick with using PowerPoints as a background, but I consider the 'talking head' look a little too tacky...]

Thanks!!

[tifosi77]

There's a Camera setting in the desktop client that allows you to change the aspect ratio, but I don't know if that will solve your issue.

[MalkinIsMyHomeboy]

you can record a virtual background

I made one of myself walking in the background, so it looks like I have a twin when I'm in meetings

I am immature

[mac5155]

I actually like Teams better.

[Tomas]

This will not answer my "super-wide screen" issue, but I learned something interesting today:

There is an important difference between saving the Zoom presentation on the "local computer" vs. cloud.

Local computer: what-you-see-is-what-you-get. If you want to increase the size of the presenter window, you can. If you want to move it anywhere, you can. 16:9 slides will fill the whole screen, and so the presenter window will for sure block some part of them.

Cloud: No matter where you put the presenter window, whether you increase the size of it or not, the final presentation will have a small presenter window in the upper right corner WITH a black stripe under it. 16;9 slides will NOT fill the whole screen because of the black stripe under the presenter window (and they will not be centered thanks to this black stripe).

In other words:

If you like to have control over how to record things, save on your local computer.
If you want to be sure that your face will never block important data on your shared screen, save on the cloud (but you will look like an ant on the recorded presentation).

[dodint]

I wish ypu could put the docked chat and participant panel on the right hand side. Simple pleasures for me.

[Pavel Bure]

I actually like Teams better.

This

[LITT]

The only thing I like about teams is the ability to move the self camera. Teams is better in all other areas

[Tomas]

My problem:

This semester, I teach in one of our "cash cow" programs (Executive MBA). Face-to-face on selected Saturdays, with decent in-person attendance (I'd say 80%). For the remaining 20%, I have to do live Zoom simulcast. Because of social distancing, I teach in huge auditorium (about 400+ non-Covid seats) - so I have to wear clip-on lapel microphone to deal with room acoustics.

Our tech people so far have not been able to come up with a solution when this microphone would feed the Zoom simulcast as well. Instead, we use this Calisto speakerphone for Zoom: https://www.poly.com/us/en/products/pho ... listo-7200 .

But the final quality sucks big time!! I have to interact with the in-person audience, but anytime I move something like 5ft away from that stupid Calisto, the Zoom recording suffers a lot (and I actually have a VERY strong lecturing voice...).

So - has anyone seen/figured out a set-up where the speaker would have an attached mike/headset/whatever that would power both auditorium speakers and the Zoom broadcast?

Thanks!!