Can you see me?
Yes, they are famous. Each on its own has different connotations depending on your day-to-day job. In the world of Film and Television, these three are tied together like a fishing knot on your favorite lure, never to be separated and incapable of being used alone. Once you leave the flashing lights of Hollywood behind, we who sell technology tend to start focusing on just parts of this trio. While building out a new conference room space the focus tends to veer towards the type of camera being placed in the room. Does it Auto-track? Does it Audio-track? Does it live on a track? Leave the conference room and go to the big auditorium and now it’s the display technology. To LED or not to LED? As of late, we have the remote employee to contend with where the greatest concern is if we can hear them. If they can’t be seen, can they at least be heard? The point of this diatribe is we forget about the lights unless it’s your job to light the room.
Look don’t get me wrong; JB&A forgot the lighting for many years. We never offered products to light the spaces our customers were building until the great pandemic sent everyone home. That is when we added Lume, makers of ring lights, tabletop and monitor top lights, perfect for improving your at-home calls and even the ones bound up in cubicles. Just recently I was visiting a customer and the conversation around updating a conference room was focused on where to put monitors and cameras. During the discussion, I noticed there was a dark spot in the room that would make the cameras work harder to provide a viewable image. This would also make other people in the room look blown out, forcing everyone to think they chose the wrong camera. Choosing the correct camera matters. Don’t believe me? Give me a call sometime and let’s talk through the pros and cons of each camera brand. There is no one size fits all in technology anymore. But this was supposed to be about the virtues of lighting and not a camera conversation.
If you are designing the next conference room, huddle space, or small corporate studio remember the best cameras will still struggle with bad lighting. Employers, those fancy 4k webcams you are sending your employees are wasted without some lighting on your employee’s face. If you wantto make your conferencing look better and ensure everyone is being heard and seen, then add a light or two. Check out what Lume Cube is doing for the desk jockey; desk lamps that convert to video lighting (Ring lights are not just for influencers). If you are spending hours in front of your webcam a light and a properly mounted camera will change everything. Check out PTZ Optics new Studio Pro camera, it even comes with a light to stabilize and improve the capability of its super large sensor.
Don’t forget those corporate studios. There are more and more of them being built or converted every day. Huddle spaces that once held a few meetings are now being used with share content to the masses who no longer frequent office spaces. Often these rooms get overlooked. The assumption being made is that the lights worked before so let’s just keep using the overheads. They never worked. We just didn’t care. The bigger triumph is that we could conference at all. One pandemic later, we are past that and ready to make meetings look good. For these rooms look at GVM and Ikan. Each company has unique offerings like Ikans POE powered LED lights for easy deployment. GVM specifically has been known for years as more of a consumer brand for small spaces but now has released a complete line of full-size studio lights built with the professional in mind.
Proper lighting makes every camera look better. So, increase your bottom line and offer some lights. Check out the JB&A brand page for the latest in technology and to see the lights we have been adding to the line card.
