Mostly lighting, which I adjust throughout the day depending on time of day and weather conditions.
I have 2 Elgato Key Lights, each about 20' offset to either side and slightly above the camera, and I set brightness and colour temp according to how much natural light is coming into the room and the temp of that.
That's 80% of my use of it... and just having it there and so trivial to adjust when I've already joined a meeting is bliss. I adjust lighting to ensure I look healthy (colour temp of home lighting is a huge part of whether you look like a waxwork or not), alert, alive, and to enhance the image the camera is picking up.
I would buy the Stream Deck again, just to control lights.
Additionally though, I use OBS and also use the Stream Deck to change the scenes, i.e. to switch camera or to place my camera picture-in-picture with a presentation rather than relying on Meet or Zoom to do this (makes for better recordings of the meetings or is how I make webinar recordings).
Finally... and used much less (because once it's roughly right it's always roughly right), I adjust the volume of different devices within Windows depending on source and output... meaning I can leave music playing at a lower volume whilst I'm in meetings and ensure that I can still hear people in the meeting just fine, and even if the volume of the music track changes I can prevent it being too loud instantly and without even appearing to be distracted in the meeting.
Mostly the Stream Deck means I'm more present in meetings, despite paying a little attention to this complex setup and the environment, or choreographed presentations. It's tactile, so you don't have to look at what you're doing to adjust it... whereas all of this stuff is controllable within the OS by going through menus and clicking things... but that would distract.
BTW... this stuff, I believe it's paid for itself (multiple times over). I probably dropped about £10k on my AV setup for work from home including the mic, audio equipment, lighting, desk, camera, lens, and controls... not including the beast of a computer itself. When I was with a customer last week, who pay us high millions per year, they even stated that they appreciate deeply the ability for me to come on the call, representing this one vendor, and the effectiveness of communication to bring a messy situation under control. Additionally I did all of this as I believe that transparent communication is the heart of a manager <> report relationship and builds trust, so I think it makes me more effective. My salary and package in the 3y since I went all in on this has greatly outpaced growth in salary measured at any other time in my career... during a time when the industry isn't growing salaries much. I do think I'm good at my job, but not to the extent of the what I've achieved... and honestly, I think that a home AV studio is to the work from home generation, as to what a wardrobe of tailored suits was to the late 1980s... it's status, it communicates, it's effective, and the psychology of it is so in the favour of those doing it that I think people are failing to invest in themselves if they aren't using it to their advantage... I want to physically shake the sales people and tell them to up their AV game... it's an advantage that is huge.
Mostly lighting, which I adjust throughout the day depending on time of day and weather conditions.
I have 2 Elgato Key Lights, each about 20' offset to either side and slightly above the camera, and I set brightness and colour temp according to how much natural light is coming into the room and the temp of that.
That's 80% of my use of it... and just having it there and so trivial to adjust when I've already joined a meeting is bliss. I adjust lighting to ensure I look healthy (colour temp of home lighting is a huge part of whether you look like a waxwork or not), alert, alive, and to enhance the image the camera is picking up.
I would buy the Stream Deck again, just to control lights.
Additionally though, I use OBS and also use the Stream Deck to change the scenes, i.e. to switch camera or to place my camera picture-in-picture with a presentation rather than relying on Meet or Zoom to do this (makes for better recordings of the meetings or is how I make webinar recordings).
Finally... and used much less (because once it's roughly right it's always roughly right), I adjust the volume of different devices within Windows depending on source and output... meaning I can leave music playing at a lower volume whilst I'm in meetings and ensure that I can still hear people in the meeting just fine, and even if the volume of the music track changes I can prevent it being too loud instantly and without even appearing to be distracted in the meeting.
Mostly the Stream Deck means I'm more present in meetings, despite paying a little attention to this complex setup and the environment, or choreographed presentations. It's tactile, so you don't have to look at what you're doing to adjust it... whereas all of this stuff is controllable within the OS by going through menus and clicking things... but that would distract.
BTW... this stuff, I believe it's paid for itself (multiple times over). I probably dropped about £10k on my AV setup for work from home including the mic, audio equipment, lighting, desk, camera, lens, and controls... not including the beast of a computer itself. When I was with a customer last week, who pay us high millions per year, they even stated that they appreciate deeply the ability for me to come on the call, representing this one vendor, and the effectiveness of communication to bring a messy situation under control. Additionally I did all of this as I believe that transparent communication is the heart of a manager <> report relationship and builds trust, so I think it makes me more effective. My salary and package in the 3y since I went all in on this has greatly outpaced growth in salary measured at any other time in my career... during a time when the industry isn't growing salaries much. I do think I'm good at my job, but not to the extent of the what I've achieved... and honestly, I think that a home AV studio is to the work from home generation, as to what a wardrobe of tailored suits was to the late 1980s... it's status, it communicates, it's effective, and the psychology of it is so in the favour of those doing it that I think people are failing to invest in themselves if they aren't using it to their advantage... I want to physically shake the sales people and tell them to up their AV game... it's an advantage that is huge.