The Gear I Use 2020
The Importance of Video
Hi Everybody, welcome back to another FUTRtech video. With the COVID-19 pandemic and everyone working from home, video has become an increasingly important piece of the business equation. Many companies have been racing to put together strategies for remote collaboration and communication. And this is not going to change any time soon. I have been talking to a lot of executives who are seeing the current work from home environment part of what will be the new normal, and are looking to divest from a large portion of their commercial real estate.
Working from home has proven its value. The companies I talk to have seen an increase in productivity for most employees, and many feel it is a major benefit they don’t want to give up. For some companies, this has opened up a larger talent pool for them as well. They no longer need to hire in proximity to their offices, and can access a much larger talent pool.
For many, video enablement has improved internal communication and collaboration. People who can see each other have better interactions and can help alleviate some internal conflicts. It is also a good way to check in on fellow co-workers who may struggle more with the isolation.
On the sales and marketing side, trade shows have disappeared, as have face to face client meetings. Video has stepped in to keep things going, with online presentations, virtual trade shows and events, to more in-depth on-demand content to educate, train, entertain and excite your customers.
The one thing that is often missing is production value and quality. I have found that improving the quality of the video and audio can greatly improve people’s experience and can reduce Zoom fatigue.
So how do you improve your production quality? Well, one size doesn’t fit all, and you have to look at the different use cases.
For internal communications and collaboration, an improved webcam, som headphone and a better USB mic can really improve your interactions. If you are looking to improve your client presentations, you may want to look for better quality microphones and cameras as well as investigating software and video conferencing solutions to help enable presentations.
For live streaming virtual trade shows or events, you may be looking at very different equipment, or looking to outside firms to help enable these. If you are producing a lot of on-demand content, you would be looking at different gear and more post-production software and equipment as well as studio setup.
You may also want to consider covering events that people can’t travel to, and for that you may need a lightweight high-quality run and gun setup that you can travel with.
The Gear I Use
I am going to be putting together more information around all of this in future videos, but I wanted to answer a question I get a lot, “What gear do you use.”
A while back I put together a video about the gear I use, but a lot has changed since then, and it is a good time to revisit it. Now this isn’t a guide to the best gear for each use-case, it is just what I use. There are many other great options out there that may suit what you do better, but this will give you a flavor of what works for me. I will add links for the gear I mention in this video. They are affiliate links, so I may get a small payment which will do a little to help me offset a small portion of the costs I incur for running this channel and the FUTRtech platform but cost you nothing extra.
My Studio
First, let’s talk about what I use for my studio setup.
Camera
The camera I use is a Canon EOS R. I can’t say enough good things about this camera. When it came out, it got a lot of bad press, but I think over time it has really proven itself, and become a standard among YouTube filmmakers.
It is a full-frame mirrorless camera with a flip out LCD. It shoots 1080P at 60 FPS and does 4K 30 FPS. Utilizes Canon c-log format and can do 4K 10-bit 422 over HDMI. Plus it has fast and accurate dual pixel auto-focus with eye detection. And it can utilize the great new line of RF lenses or all of the older EF lenses with an adapter. It has a mic input and audio out for monitoring. Plus it is more compact and lighter than a DSLR.
Now I probably just lost most of you in camera jargon, but the bottom line is it covers all the bases for what you would need to create great looking YouTube videos and beyond.
I am currently using the RF 35 F1.8 IS lens as well as the EF 17-40 F4 L. I am shifting to the EF 16-35 F4 L IS to get better stabilization for video as the EOS R does not have any in-body stabilization.
Audio
ON the Audio side of things, I use the amazing Shure SM7B. Because this is a dynamic mic, it works really well for people with louder voices like mine. Its output is fairly low, so I use a Cloudlifter pre-amp into my Focusrite Scarlett 6i6 Audio interface to get to improve the gain and really make the mic sing. I have had really great luck with Focusrite gear.
For monitoring, I use old-school AKG K240 semi- closed back studio headphones that I bought probably in the 80’s but are still available today and a great option. Typically when I am filming, I use my Shure SE215 headphones with custom Sensaphonic molds which really improve things. I also use the KRK Rokit 5s for near field monitors.
Lighting
For lighting, I have a fairly tight space, so I have Neewer 480 bi-color LED lights mounted to the walls. I should have probably gotten the 660s to give me more overhead, but these work just fine. I put a soft box over the key light and I have a small diffuser in front of the side fill. For the background light, I use a Youngnuo YN300 and some HUE color LED bulbs for some extra pizzaz. For additional color and occasional hair lights I use the Aputure MC RGB lights. They are great battery powered lights with powerful magnets so they can stick to all sorts of things.
Update: I have switched to using the GVM 80W Video Light White 5600K Daylight Balanced Video Light with the Aputure Light Dome Mini II. If I was going to buy something today though, I would look at the Aputure Amaran 100d
Extras
I’m not going to get into all the rigging I use in this video, but I do want to mention the mic boom swing arm I use, which is the O.C. White Podcast Pro.
I sometimes use a Padcaster teleprompter when I need to read from a script, like I am doing right now.
Post-Production
For post-production work, I generally use Final Cut Pro for editing, and export to Compressor. For audio, I record in Ableton Live and sometimes Logic. I clean audio up with iZotope’s RX7 which can be a miracle worker.
I have subscriptions to Epidemic Sound and Audiio for royalty free music and sound effects.
Video Conferencing
I am going to do another video about video conferencing software, but I wanted to highlight the main ones I use and a couple of up and comers. For most of my interviews, I use Zoom. Zoom is difficult and frustrating to work with, but it sucks the least of the currently available options.
I am really rooting for a new company called Squadcast.fm. They have a great audio podcasting solution that uses low quality audio for the videoconference, but records high quality audio locally and then uploads it to the cloud in the background. This is going to get really interesting this month when they release high quality video recording as well. It will record high-quality video to your drive and upload it to the cloud in the background. This means you have full resolution video without all the compression and dropped frames. It will really be a game changer for what I do.
[Update 2020-11-09]
One more platform that I have tried that offers a ton of cool functionality like call in guests and live streaming production tools is Riverside.fm. They offer both audio and video plans. The video plans offer 4K video. They are an up and coming player from Amsterdam and they are adding new stuff all the time.
I am also beta testing the new mmhmm which combined with Squadcast could really give you a great remote production studio combo. I will put a link below.
I will be exploring my run and gun set up and some of these topics in more depth in future videos, so click on that bell icon to get notified when I post them. If you liked what you saw, pleas hit that like button and click the subscribe button, because that helps a ton, and like I said before, click that bell icon to get notifications when I post new content, and I will see you in the next video.
Links
Camera
EOS R - https://amzn.to/3joP251
Lenses
EF 17-40 F4 L - https://amzn.to/30t4STH
EF 16-35 F4 L IS - https://amzn.to/3jq3gCQ
RF35 f/1.8 IS Macro - https://amzn.to/30Kivhx
Lights
Neewer 480 2 light kit with Stands and Softboxes - https://amzn.to/2CQ3ZMI
Neewer 660 2 light kit with Stands and Softboxes - https://amzn.to/3jl5xz4
Aputure MC RGB Light - https://amzn.to/30uCOzl
Update: GVM 80W Video Light - https://amzn.to/2LOemWh
Update: Aputure Light Dome Mini II - https://amzn.to/2OrV35U
Update: Amaran 100d: - https://www.aputure.com/amaran-100d-us/
Sound
Interface
Cloudlifter - https://amzn.to/2DVkLdM
Focusrite 4i4 Audio Interface - https://amzn.to/3eQ1UO2
Focusrite 8i6 Audio Interface - https://amzn.to/2E0g4iV
Mic
Shure SM7B - https://amzn.to/3hcMxB0
Headphones
Shure SE215 - https://amzn.to/39drwDi
Custom Ear Molds - https://www.sensaphonics.com/
AKG K240 - https://amzn.to/2ZL7jl7
Monitors
KRK Rokit 5 - https://www.bhphotovideo.com/c/product/1457615-REG/krk_rp5_g4_5_rokit_active_nearfield.html
Software
Ableton - https://ableton.com
RX7 - https://www.izotope.com/en/products/rx.html
Logic - https://www.apple.com/logic-pro/
Final Cut Pro - https://www.apple.com/final-cut-pro/
Compressor - https://www.apple.com/final-cut-pro/compressor/
Motion - https://www.apple.com/final-cut-pro/motion/
Extras
O.C. White Podcast Pro Mic Boom - https://www.bhphotovideo.com/c/product/1519671-REG/o_c_white_al_mbp1_podcast_pro_by_accu_lite.html?sts=pi&pim=Y
Subscriptions
Epidemic Sound - https://epidemicsound.com
Audiio - https://audiio.com
VideoConferencing
Squadcast - Squadcast.fm
Zoom - https://zoom.us
Mmhmm - https://mhmm.app
Mmhmm Promo Video - https://youtu.be/c8KhKBLoSM
