Ultimate Video Studio Desk Setup!

this is what i'm calling the ultimate video desk it is an incredibly functional video recording battle station that is loaded with features to make filming and live streaming fast and easy everything is within arm's reach everything can be moved to customize your setup and there are way too many cool features to cover in this short introduction so let's take a tour of this desk setup and then i'll walk you through each and every part of this mini studio and here is the final setup you're looking at me through one of three cameras i also have a camera behind me showing you kind of the entire desk so let's kind of break all of this down we have the desk itself nice big desk with a ton of stuff mounted to it we've got a key light we've got monitors that do various cool things which we're going to get into here in a second but i want to start by breaking down the different camera angles and of course off to my left i've got the a10 mini pro rocking all these different angles and it's also recording this video that you're watching right now so camera one we've got a camera here with a teleprompter so i can view all kinds of different stuff on it i'm going to switch to camera 2 which is kind of a straight top-down setup autofocus is great as you can see here so a really nice kind of clean top-down option for switching i'll now go to camera three here which is right over here actually mounted directly to the desk so i can do really nice close-up shots it's a really wide angle 16 millimeter really love this angle for just getting in there and showing lots of details so that is our third angle and now let's talk about the fourth input which i'll switch to right now and it just looks like my desktop but in reality it is this monitor off to my right so what i've done here is i've linked this monitor to my atem mini and this might seem kind of silly why would you go through all that hassle why not just share your screen with you know software but the reason is i have this super clean way to see no matter what whatever is on this monitor that's mapped to input number four on my atem mini this not only gives me a super simple clean way to see what i'm about to switch to on this monitor and it keeps you know people from seeing my dirty desktop whatever notifications i've got coming through and all that stuff but it also allows me to use the picture in picture mode which i'll turn on now so on the a10 mini i just turn on picture in picture i can switch where the little box with me goes to right now put it in the lower right corner and this allows me to look over in real life at this monitor here and on the recording it looks like i'm looking at the same thing you are which is you know this window with my channel on it so let's say i'm talking about youtube i could pull it up here we both could look at something great way to pull stuff up on stream um or in a video and it's always ready to go mapped to the a-10 mini's fourth input on the wall in the back here i have a 27-inch monitor mounted as you can see i'm able to see and display all the different camera angles as well as my recording my audio levels it's just awesome to have everything up there i can also solo each angle individually so i just want to blow up camera one two three or you know my desktop for some reason i can do that so really really powerful tool um love having that to be able to just get a bird's eye view of everything with one glance and it's just awesome to have here's another angle showing my microphone which is on a mic arm and attached to this crazy stand which we'll talk about as well as way up there we've got that overhead camera to kind of give you an idea of you know what that looks like now let's talk about this crazy teleprompter setup instead of using an ipad i actually have a camera monitor inside of the teleprompter so i'm able to display things like a video call or in this case a fake one that's just looping and i could look directly into the guess of my live stream and also make eye contact which you're seeing right now right now i'm looking at the guests you're seeing me make eye contact with you it's a great way to do video conferencing live streaming with guests things like that there's a couple other cool things i can do and as you can see i could just move that window out of the way and now we have a live stream chat so i could read chat interact with fans all while making eye contact with them which is pretty awesome get this window out of here and we could of course use this as what it's designed to be which is a kind of teleprompter setup i'm reading a script yada yada i can do that but that's not all folks over here i have a remote which is connected to an hdmi switch that's connected to this monitor so i can actually go ahead and switch from the camera monitor over to this which is the actual camera feed itself so i can see myself while recording and i'm making eye contact with the lens so if i need to do something like this or i put something into the shot i can make sure it is indeed in focus and see myself while recording myself it's really really trippy but really handy if you're filming youtube videos if i need to jump on a video call or start up a live stream i can switch things back over to displaying various windows and other information it's a really really powerful setup especially great if you do live streams with guests but also really good if you just want a super overkill setup for video meetings off to my right i've got my laptop mounted with this monitor on this crazy stand which we'll get into and everything is connected to my laptop through an external thunderbolt dock so everything is connected the laptops charge i can display all kinds of different software here and just a really really handy overall system to be able to sit down start streaming or recording a youtube video without any mess without any having to cook things up and turn things on we're just ready to go so that's a quick tour of the setup now let's get into the nitty-gritty and start talking about the gear needed to build something like this now i'm going to gloss over a lot in this video for time but everything mentioned in this video including gear diagrams and more can be found in one link in the description so definitely check that out for the build guide everything you need to know about putting everything together and wiring everything up with that said let's now dive deeper into the gear and parts used to put this whole thing together starting with the actual desk the desk i'm using is the husky adjustable height work table it comes in different sizes but i went with the monstrous 72 inch model it has a hardwood top wheels for moving the desk and you can easily adjust the height with a hand crank by far the best thing about this desk is the price at around 280 bucks as you can see i've got a lot mounted to this desk and everything feels super strong rigid even with all of this weight under the desk i've attached cable organizing baskets i've said for years that life is just too short for cable management with these baskets i can just stuff excess cables up and away from sight on the back of the desk i've mounted three 2u vertical rack mount trays which allows me to mount audio gear and these super sweet cable management brushes you can simply run cables through them and keep everything nice and tidy finally to keep the long power hdmi and ethernet cables tidy i've wrapped everything in a cable sleeve so that there is only one long clean run connecting the desk to everything else this allows me to actually roll the entire desk around and only have to deal with one large cable essentially and i can actually move this whole desk backward move the light and have a wider shot with the desk in the frame if i want to do so now let's talk about the cameras used for the studio setup i'm using a total of three cameras including the main camera an overhead camera on an adjustable arm and a camera mounted to the desk for kind of a lower angle for the main camera i went with the canon rp it is a full-frame 1080p camera which isn't normally what i would go with but since i plan on streaming in hd it's actually a great option color is better out of camera than my sony's and i don't need a log option as i'm going to be streaming for the lens i went with the canon rf 35mm f 1.8 autofocus is smooth and the price of this lens is really hard to beat this camera is mounted to a benro tripod which in turn is mounted to a rolling tripod dolly this allows me to keep the legs close together which allows the desk to move closer to the wall this main camera is attached to a teleprompter which i'll be talking about a little later and trust me you won't want to skip that part the second camera is an a6400 which is mounted to this awesome arm i can fold it up in a way if i'm not using it and it can also swing up down left right and telescope in and out this allows me to position the camera anywhere in this room or if i need to add another light i can swap the camera out on the end of that arm i've mounted a simple ball head for positioning the camera for the lens i went with the sigma 30 millimeter f 1.4 as i already had one laying around and wanted something lightweight using sony's clear image zoom i can zoom in and get the framing i want without degrading image quality the third camera is another sony crop sensor with a sigma 16 millimeter f 1.4 again i have this lens laying around and i wanted some nice shallow depth of field close up it also just gives me another interesting perspective to work with all three cameras have ac power adapters so i don't have to worry about batteries and all three cameras are connected to the blackmagic 810 mini pro which we will talk about next the a10 mini pro is really at the heart of this entire setup it allows me to switch camera angles view everything on a large external monitor and even record to ssds if i want to shoot a quick youtube video which is what i'm actually doing right now the a10 mini is connected to each camera and displays everything on a large 27 inch monitor which i have mounted to an adjustable wall mount cables coming out of the back of the atem are nicely organized in a cable brush plate that is mounted to the back of the desk the a10 mini is connected to my network so i can also access it from anywhere in the studio this frees up the usbc cable for use with ssds when i need to record videos on the right side of the desk i have a visa arm system that holds a ton of gear one of which is my laptop my macbook displays stream info and other software and with a single thunderbolt cable i can charge the laptop and connect to all monitors and other gear to make this possible i'm using the cal digit thunderbolt dock this dock charges my laptop and connects two monitors as well as a bunch of audio gear it also allows me to connect a mouse keyboard and other peripherals without having to connect them directly to the macbook connected to the laptop is one of two monitors this first monitor is a custom screen sharing monitor which i am quite proud of in short anything that shows up on this monitor is mapped to one of the atem mini inputs this allows me to display software web browsers or really anything while streaming or recording i can also use the a10 mini's picture in picture mode with this setup to make this possible i found a 10 hdmi duplicator or splitter which works perfectly for this setup simply connect your computer to the hdmi input and then connect one of the outputs to your monitor and the other to the atem mini now you can see your screen on the actual monitor and at the same time see the image on the a10 mini's input i know you can do software screen sharing when streaming but i prefer the setup as i know no matter what whatever is on this monitor is mapped to my atem mini so i don't have to share my nasty desktop with a bunch of junk and notifications super clean super simple now let's talk about my crazy teleprompter setup now i've done a video showing you how you can hack a teleprompter to be used as a camera monitor which is what i'm doing here to learn more about this whole concept check out that other video for this setup i took this idea a bit further and added an hdmi switch this allows me to feed several different things to the teleprompter one setup i love is to send a feed of my live stream or meeting guest to the teleprompter this allows me to monitor my guests while also making eye contact with them since i'm also looking into the lens of the camera if you do a lot of streaming with guests or participate in video meetings the setup changes everything if i need to film a youtube video i can switch the teleprompter back to displaying myself or a script with a click of a button to see how this works and how you can build this setup yourself check the link in the description for a full diagram and write up on this subject there i explain in detail how you can build this for yourself using cheap gear like that 10 hdmi splitter we mentioned earlier now let's talk about audio and we will start with the actual microphone on that visa mount that i talked about earlier i have a third arm attached connected to that arm i have the rode psa1 microphone arm with a shotgun microphone on the other end the shotgun mic has a great pickup range so i can keep it out of the shop for a nice clean frame from there the microphone is run through several different devices to improve sound and give me additional features the first stop is an xlr mute switch this thing is pretty pricey at around 45 bucks but so far it's the only mute switch that i have found to work with just about every xlr microphone and the real selling feature is there's no pop sound or clicking when you turn the microphone off or mute it i love these things for when i'm on a podcast or a live stream and i just want to kill the microphone or if i need to cough and quickly mute it's really really handy from that microphone mute switch another xlr cable is run to the dbx 286s this preamp will boost the microphone signal and it has several features that are just the best it has a built-in pre-amp compressor de-esser enhancer and expander gate in short this is a hardware way to improve your audio before it hits your computer or recorder my favorite feature is the expander gate which allows you to reduce nasty room noise like fans and other sounds from the 286s another cable is run to my focusrite 18i20 and i'll be honest this thing is way overkill for my needs but man is it nice to have in short it's a super powerful audio interface that connects microphones and other audio sources to your computer the included focusrite control app allows me to customize how each input and output flows giving me a ton of power more than we can cover in this video but i really really dig it now let's talk about sound panels this room i'm using is pretty small and has a lot of nasty reverb so i added a few sound panels from gik or gik acoustics another great budget option would be sound blankets but i wanted a few panels in the background so i went with gig if you want to learn more about those sound blankets i've done a video on those that you can check out and if you want to hear the difference between no sound panels and adding these panels let's listen to a quick test for lighting this space i kept things pretty simple with three main lights one is the aputure 120d which i've had for years since the room is small i added a 42 inch softbox but normally i prefer something a little larger than this the 120d is mounting to a rolling stand so i can easily adjust the light if needed for the background i used two cane tv bolts and lights i love aperture lights but wanted something really really quiet and these lights are almost completely silent and have a lot of output one of them is bouncing off of a white ceiling and filling the room with soft light i used the other bolts in light to give me a nice streak on the back wall to simulate kind of daylight coming through a window since i'm a bald guy i added a flag just out of frame to keep the background light from reflecting off of my head to mount all of this madness together i used a single c stand and a few grip accessories which i'll mention in the build guide below finally to spice things up a little bit i added a few prop lights or practicals in the background with aperture b7c bulbs this gives the frame a little warmth and i just love using accent lights whenever i can the last little lighting tweak i made was to pin up a white sound blanket on the wall opposite of my key light i should have purchased another white panel for this spot but for now the sound blanket does the trick so at the end of the day i'm really happy with how this entire tiny studio turned out i think it's perfect if you're a one-man band doing live streams podcasts or filming youtube videos and you have a tight space that you need to pack a lot of functionality into i've been doing this for 10 years so i had a lot of this equipment already and if you're just getting started a lot of this is really just not necessary but hopefully this video is giving you a couple ideas as to things that might mean a lot more to you and that you should focus on and hopefully there's a couple tips you've picked up that you can implement in your own setup when it comes to making videos and streaming from an office or home so that's going to wrap it up for me and this video i want to thank you so much for watching hope you have a wonderful rest of your day and we will see you in the next video

Channel: DSLR Video Shooter

Views: 389,524

Rating: 4.976192 out of 5

Keywords: video desk, live streaming, video studio, studio, desk setup, studio setup, teleprompter, lighting, tutorial, review, Caleb Pike, dslr video shooter, dslrvideoshooter, ultimate desk, ultimate studio, Aputure, desk, canon, sony, lenses, YouTube studio, YouTube setup, camera setup, YouTube lighting

Id: 9hWvN01bEPY

Length: 17min 46sec (1066 seconds)

Published: Wed Nov 18 2020