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How to use a green screen (part I)

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:

  1. Paint If you want to paint the entire wall this color this covers 100sq ft. Fully cover the surface smoothly.
  2. Backer If you need to preserve the paint on your wall, painting and mounting this backer board will help.
  3. 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 video green screen
    zoom green screen

to be continued…

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breath easy

We can agree that clean air is essential to us all. The Covid-19 virus has demonstrated this point in dramatic fashion. There have been over 1.1M deaths worldwide as of this blog post.

portable bipolar ionizer for rooms

da Vinci DISPLAY in Richmond Virginia has designed a device, the Ben-Ion Shield, to improve the indoor air quality in the office and at home. Whether you have become a 2020 remote worker or your company has put measures in place to return employees to the office the Ben-ion Shield was created to reduce pathogens, like the Corona Virus, dust, odors and other particles from small to large indoor environments.

The Ben-Ion has an initial purpose of being used in spaces where the HVAC system hasn’t been modified for pathogen reduction or the system cannot be modified. An example of this is a University that has temporary space to quarantine students testing positive for the virus. If these units were rental facilities and the systems cannot be modified the Ben-Ion Shield is a perfect solution to clean the air for the quarantined student and staff that may need to visit them.

To find out more visit da Vinci Display @ daVinciDisplay

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Just call me Joe

Last night was the Democratic National Virtual Convention.

A number of the speakers could have used a ZoomBack green screen. Except of course for the ever hopeful Bernie Sanders. His vision of the world is beautiful just difficult to convince people and cynics of it’s real viability.

While the interesting backgrounds are nice the DNC would have done well to offer consistent messaging for their speakers.

We’ll see if the Joe Biden experience is any better.

This image of former First Lady Michelle Obama sums it up. Her speech while eloquent and moving did not offer the same visual power.

Michelle Obama speaking during the 2020 DNC virtual meeting.
Image – Just Jared
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Life is like a box of chocolates!

Life is also like 40 lb bags of landscaping pebbles. If you do not use muscles they get sore when you do. My company exhibitwarehouse.com supplies trade show backdrops similar to the zoomback for exhibitors attending trade shows. It’s difficult to predict when that side of our business will pick up again. Those muscles are in decline. Probably the best advice I give companies is to plan ahead now to change or update their displays to reflect our new reality so when trade shows do return they are ready.

Here are a few tips to consider updating company policies and actively engaging customers.

  1. Include a Covid-19 statement on their marketing materials, web sites, etc. It demonstrates a commitment to keep customers, staff and vendors safe.
  2. Create a Covid specific website explaining to customers and others how your company is addressing the pandemic and how these changes will affect them as customers.
  3. Run specials during this period to stay in contact with your customers.
  4. Branded PPE is popular and can be one way to let customers know you are thinking of them.
  5. Your company can donate a percentage of every sale to charities involved in dealing with the Covid-19 crisis. This is one option: https://www.intrahealth.org/donate-now zoomback virtual zoom background

Tom Hanks is right, you never know what you’re going to get. This Covid pandemic is testing all of us and calling us to change the way we do things. If you work from home ( WFH ) our line of green screens and custom backdrops can make the experience of video meetings better. Go to http://zoomback.us/store/ for more information.

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work, work, work [ from home ]

Work is a central part of American life. Actually for many a central part of being human. Since March 15th, 2020 a large segment of the U.S. working population has been working from home. This blog and the tools sold in our zoomback store are meant to make the Work From Home(where ever that may be) more productive. Like the 48″ wide x 60″ high freestanding, wall or ceiling mounted green screen shown below. Please stay safe and healthy.zoom green screen