If you want flexibility in your video call background this post is for you. Green screens or chroma keys date back to early broadcast television often used by meteorologists for their weather reports. The green screen allowed the television station the mix in a weather map along with the video of the weather person. This same principle is used today for videoconference meetings etc.
There are a handful of video meeting platforms that dominate the landscape today. Zoom, Microsoft, Webex, Google, Logmein and BlueJeans. There are many more, but these have the highest ratings by customers and the lion’s share of the market with Zoom at about 40% and the top spot for customer service. What all of these platforms have in common is they feature a virtual background mode.
Using a green screen you can create any background of your choice or creation. Since Zoom has the highest market share by almost double it’s next competitor I will detail how to use a green screen with Zoom.
DIY or Buy a Green Screen
If you have a free wall in your home office you can create a DIY green screen for about $30 and a few hours of your time. Here are the pieces:
- Paint If you want to paint the entire wall this color this covers 100sq ft. Fully cover the surface smoothly.
- Backer If you need to preserve the paint on your wall, painting and mounting this backer board will help.
- Clips If you want to be certain the screws/clips don’t show just dab a little paint on the top of these.
The backer board should be mounted at about table height, 30″ or so. You are all set.
As you cant imagine there are many options when buying a green screen. A lot depends on how and for how long you plan to use them.
Cheap Quick Simple Temporary
This green screen product seems pretty basic and workable. I haven’t personally used it but it gets 4+ stars on Amazon. Depending on whether you have a wall to mount it to or not it’s under $100. Folding green screen.
More Quality More Flexible Options
Depending on your needs and use this green screen offers more options and maybe a better fit. Yes, this is our product and we are very proud of it. zoomback – green screen
zoom green screen
to be continued…