It’s quite likely you will have thought about including some kind of video message at your Zoom event, or even putting together a mini video production with your friends. I get asked a lot whether I can play back these for everyone to see. Fortunately I can!
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You may have seen or used the screen-sharing features of Zoom before and perhaps you imagine that’s the way it can be done? Well, that is one way, however there is a better way . . .

There are a couple of problems with using screen-share in Zoom to playback video. The first is that Zoom generally assumes you are sharing a computer monitor and so reduces the frame-rate it displays. This can often make the video stutter and not playback smoothly.

This week we are planning for a live-streamed music gig for the highly regarded ‘Bulsara and His Queenies’ who play the music of Queen, including album tracks and lots of deep cuts. This blog is about the 5 things to consider when planning an event of this kind and a few specific issues which have arisen related to this gig.

The sound has to be right at the top of the list for this kind of live stream. Fortunately the band are very experienced and have most of their own sound equipment and as I have a background in music I am confident we’ll get a good result. We'll be getting a feed from the band’s mixing desk and it’s important that I check the video/audio sync with my cameras. I know what kind of delay to expect from my video cameras (from a lot of testing!) but we will  record a clap sync test in the venue to check this. ​

A couple of key things to help the overall sound quality will be to setup the drums as far away from the vocals as possible. As the room we’re using is quite long and narrow I think this should be possible. The second is to watch the max peak of the sound level. It’s needs to be loud enough for people to watch but leaving plenty of headroom in case of any anomalies or the band get over-excited!