7: An Easier Way to Make Direct Eye Contact on Zoom – the Elgato Prompter

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Chances are you're leading or participating in a lot more meetings or interviews over Zoom or its competitors than you did a few years ago.

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If that's you and you're interested in upping your executive presence on Zoom or Teams or Google Meet, there's new equipment out there that can help you do it without a lot of technical expertise or a crazy big budget.

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A company called Elgato, that's spelled E-L-G-A-T-O, recently released a close to plug-and-play teleprompter at a relatively affordable price point.

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It helps you do what has been missing on Zoom for most people, which is to create a sense that you're making direct eye contact with the person on the other side of the camera.

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If you're confused by why you'd need a teleprompter to create that sense of direct eye contact, listen to the last episode where I talk about it in depth.

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Make Direct Eye Contact and Improve Your Executive Presence on Zoom.

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A link will be in the show notes.

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So this teleprompter from Elgato seems to be really popular.

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I was on a wait list for about two months before I got mine, which tells me that a lot of other people have been waiting for something like this to come out whether they want to use it on Zoom or for other purposes like creating YouTube videos or other content.

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Today though we're going to be talking about using it for Zoom.

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My coaching clients are MBA graduates in mid and senior-level management roles, and they spend a lot of time on Zoom.

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I also do almost all of my coaching on Zoom.

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So I'm clocking a lot of hours on Zoom, too.

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While Zoom and webcams connected to or built into our devices have done the job, meeting with other people on Zoom has never felt quite as engaging or easy as in-person meetings.

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I talk about why in the last episode.

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So again, give it a listen if you haven't already.

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The key here is that on Zoom you never feel like you're making direct eye contact with the person or people on the other side of the camera and you've had to develop some new and unnatural habits to simulate it.

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Namely, switching your focus back and forth between the image of the person you're talking to and your camera lens, which in most situations can be this lifeless little dot.

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It takes a lot of thought.

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It doesn't feel great to do it.

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And it's really tiring after a while.

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To make up for that, I took a deep dive into a Zoom setup that allowed me to look directly at the image of the person I'm meeting with and my camera lens at the same time.

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I bought a teleprompter.

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That's how I did it.

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I'm not going to go into the details of my setup.

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I talk about that in the last episode and also in a blog post.

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Links to both will be in the show notes.

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Let's just say that my setup required some technical know-how and a generous budget.

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I think it made sense for me to dive into the deep end on this one, given the nature of my work and the need to connect with and develop rapport and trust with my clients quickly.

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But it probably didn't make sense for many other people, except for the most Zoom intensive and techie people among us.

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I guess I'm one of those.

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But over time tech improves and new options become available.

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Zoom certainly has improved and offered more options in the app.

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And now there's a new teleprompter out there that makes it a lot less complicated and a lot less expensive to do what I did a few years ago.

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It's the Elgato Prompter.

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Now I'll stop and say right here, I don't have any affiliation with Elgato.

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I bought their product with my own money and the thoughts I'm going to share about the Prompter are completely my own.

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At a high level.

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I'd go as far to say that Elgato has democratized teleprompter technology.

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Elgato has made it possible for many people whose careers are reliant on virtual meetings to have a setup similar to what I've been using for years.

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So after a couple of months on the waitlist for the Prompter, I finally got mine.

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Stay tuned and I'll share my first impressions and my opinion on whether it makes sense for my MBA clients in mid and senior-level management roles and maybe you, too.

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Before I dive into the details on the Elgato Prompter, I'll admit up front that this isn't a full tech review.

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It's more first impressions.

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My impressions about how the Elgato Prompter differs from the almost-pro setup I've been using for the past few years.

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So this isn't going to go too deep or be overly long, I hope.

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There are some great detailed reviews of the Elgato Prompter on YouTube.

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Search for them, and they'll pop right up.

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They're mostly geared toward people who create content for a living and we'll be using the Prompter for that, so the people doing the reviews are used to dealing with camera setups, and they have a direct financial incentive to use tech like the Prompter.

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So in this podcast episode, I'm going to be sharing my perspective, which may be yours about using the Prompter for Zoom meetings, like my coaching sessions and things like interviews.

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I'm not going to spend a lot of time trying to describe the Elgato Prompter to you in this podcast episode.

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You can check it out on the Elgato website.

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They've got plenty of pictures.

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I'll put a link in the show notes.

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Let's just say that it's a paired down version of a traditional teleprompter.

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It's mostly made of plastic and that makes it look more refined actually and modern than a traditional teleprompter, which often features metal and fabric in addition to the glass that's in it.

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And it also is pretty compact and lightweight.

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One thing that makes it really different than my almost-pro setup that I've been using a few years is that the Elgato Prompter has its monitor built in and it displays a reversed image by default, which is what you need since you're going to see that image reflected toward you in a mirror in front of the camera that's attached to the Prompter.

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This was a big issue with previous teleprompters.

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You either had to get an iPad or a tablet to connect to your computer or laptop and then display a reversed image and that iPad or tablet needed to fit into your teleprompter.

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That wasn't always guaranteed.

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Or, you can do what I did and buy a relatively expensive reference monitor that's the right size and get it connected to your computer or laptop and get it to display a reversed image at the right resolution.

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I'll just say then when I set my teleprompter up a few years ago, this was a pretty big obstacle to overcome.

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It wasn't easy to set up and it was expensive, and I know that other people have been challenged by this, too.

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I think it's one of the biggest obstacles that you're going to face, or at least you faced in the past, when you're using a teleprompter.

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The Elgato Prompter also comes with back plates that make it relatively easy to use most cameras, webcams or even your phone.

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That's right, you can use your phone as the camera in a pinch.

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If you want to make things as simple and as easy as possible, you can buy an Elgato webcam along with your Prompter and, as you would expect, it basically fits right into the back of the Prompter.

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That's what I did.

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I bought the Elgato Facecam Pro, and I had it attached to the Prompter within minutes.

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Now, one of the things that you're probably going to want to buy with the Prompter is an adjustable tripod if you don't already have one.

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You'll want to have the Prompter at eye level if you're using it for something like Zoom.

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Or, you can attach it to a stand on your desk or to a boom arm like you'd use for a microphone.

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The advantage of doing that, using the boom arm, is that you can swing it out of the way when you don't need it.

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I do that with my microphone now, like with the one I'm using to record this podcast, and it's a great convenience.

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When I'm done, I just push the boom arm and the mic out of the way and I've got my desk back.

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Speaking of microphones, the Prompter doesn't come with a built in mic, but neither does my current setup.

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And if you use a webcam with a mic, it probably won't work too well since the camera is attached to the back of the Prompter behind a mirror.

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So you'll need to rely on the mic in your laptop, which will need to be right next to you.

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Or you'll need to buy a free-standing mic that you can connect to your laptop or computer.

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That's what I use with my current setup, a mic on a boom arm so you don't see it in frame.

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I'm trying to approximate the sense of being in a room together with my clients, so it makes sense to have the microphone out of frame.

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If you use a mic like this, be sure to take into consideration the potential for feedback.

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It's pretty dependent on the specifics of your own setup, so I'll just note that it's something that you're going to need to think about and test.

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Of course, you can also use AirPods or something similar and generating feedback probably won't be an issue.

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But for me, that look works against the sense of being in a room together with my clients.

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I'll leave the choice up to you.

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Before I talk about the software that comes with the Prompter, I wanted to mention a big difference I've noticed using Delgado's Facecam Pro and using the Sony a6400 mirrorless camera with a high-end Sigma lens that I have connected to my teleprompter now.

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It's the background.

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With my Sony camera and Sigma lens, I can achieve a really soft and beautiful blur of my background.

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And it happens in the optics of the lens and not using a filter.

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It really does look great.

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The blur is called bokeh and it gives my Zoom image a vaguely cinematic look.

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Given that my clients come to me for moments of reflection, it helps to have a calm, peaceful background.

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And the blur does that.

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It sets the tone.

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I haven't been able to achieve this look so well using the Elgato Facecam Pro.

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If I want it to, I suppose I could use a filter in Zoom to do it, or I did manage to use a piece of software called OBS to create a virtual camera that blurred my background and the results were okay.

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And frankly, it was a little beyond my capabilities this past week.

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So the Elgato Prompter comes with software that helps drive its built-in monitor with the reversed image that you ultimately end up seeing in the normal configuration.

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It also provides teleprompter functionality if you want to use the Prompter to record a script on camera.

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Or it could display the speaker's notes if you're presenting to a group or maybe an investor, if you're in a startup.

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I believe you can overlay a script or notes over an extended desktop image from your computer.

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You can make the script or notes semi-transparent.

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You end up being able to see both the script or notes and the image on your extended desktop.

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Pretty handy.

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Now that I'm thinking about it, if you're being interviewed, you could probably overlay some notes and prompts over the image of your interviewer, so you don't need to look down or off to the side to reference your notes.

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It could be more elegant and effective than pasting reminder stickies to the side of your monitor, which is what I know a lot of people do for important interviews.

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I've only just started fooling around with the software that comes with the Prompter.

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I was mainly interested in getting it set up so that I could use it for Zoom and then compare it to my standard teleprompter that I've been using for years now.

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So let's talk about that.

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How did it do for Zoom?

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Once I got past the fact that with Elgato's Facecam Pro I couldn't blur my background the way I usually do, I thought it was pretty good.

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And just a side note, if I want to connect my Sony a6400 with its Sigma lens to the Prompter, Elgato's Prompter, that is, I can do it and I'll get my beautiful blurred background.

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I do that by switching out the back plate that holds the Elgato Facecam Pro for a back plate that Elgato provides with an opening that matches the diameter of my Sigma lens.

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They actually provide quite a few back plates, so chances are, if you've got a different camera with a different diameter lens, you'll still be able to use it.

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So back to Zoom.

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Out of the gate.

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I was able to create that sense of direct eye contact, just like my current setup, which is much more complicated and much more expensive.

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Honestly, this wasn't a surprise.

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It's a teleprompter, so being able to look at the camera and the person on the screen at the same time is what you'd expect.

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The image size of the Elgato Prompter is a little smaller than what I'm used to, but I thought it was okay.

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I just positioned the teleprompter a little closer to me than I would for my current setup.

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And while the reference monitor in my usual teleprompter setup is higher quality, I thought the image in the Elgato Prompter was more than adequate.

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A big advantage is that the Elgato Prompter is much more portable than my current setup.

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With the Facecam Pro, it's really lightweight, and I was able to set it up in my living room in front of my fireplace.

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I was meeting with a group of friends, so it wasn't especially formal.

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If I had tried that with my current setup, it probably would have taken an hour or two to disconnect everything, move it and then set it back up again.

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With the Elgato Prompter and the Facecam Pro attached and my laptop under an arm, it was pretty fast.

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So if your Zoom setup needs to move around your house or maybe even travel with you, I think you'd probably be able to do that with the Elgato Prompter.

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Another advantage is that you only have two cables coming off the Prompter.

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One for the camera that's installed in it and one for the built in monitor.

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In my case, I was using a USB camera, that's the Elgato Facecam Pro, and the monitor is also USB, and both devices are powered by their cables so they don't have a separate power cable to deal with.

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Now speaking of USB.

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The monitor in the prompter actually uses a USB-C to USB-A cable.

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This caused me a brief moment of, well let's call it irritation, when I needed to find a USB-C to USB-C cable that would be high enough quality to connect the prompter to my laptop, which only has USB-C ports.

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Luckily I had one stashed in a drawer in my office.

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That hiccup aside, the Elgato Prompter is an easy to set up and easy to transport piece of equipment.

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I was talking with a friend who also bought one, and we were considering how simple it would be to travel with the Prompter.

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It doesn't come with any kind of carrying case and it does have a mirror in it, so you have to think about that.

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But we thought you could probably find a small box with some cushioning or some cushion that you add into the box and you'd be able to take the Prompter to another location, or even on a plane as a carry-on if you need to.

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I think I may actually do that on an upcoming trip, one that I have to do a little work on, too, with clients.

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Beyond the UBS-A cable problem, the Elgato Prompter was really easy to setup.

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I managed to get past a blank screen problem on the initial setup that apparently some people experience by watching a YouTube video.

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I'll link to it in the show notes.

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So overall, I think the Elgato Prompter is a great option for someone who cares about their executive presence on Zoom and wants Zoom meetings to be a better experience for people on both sides of the camera.

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With the Facecam Pro and the tripod, it comes in at about $600 as opposed to over $2,000 for my current teleprompter setup.

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And if you use your iPhone instead of the Facecam Pro, which I haven't tried yet, but I know you can do it, you can probably get the cost below $400, tripod included.

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Not too bad for this kind of setup.

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For me, I think I'm going to use the Elgato Prompter as a capable supplement to my main setup.

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Let's say I, for some reason, need to work with clients away from my main office, I was thinking about that trip.

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My parents live a few hundred miles away, and I could see using the Prompter and the hotel if I'm on the road and doing a couple of days of coaching at the same time.

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I could also see using it around my house to shake things up for more casual Zooms with friends and also to record content if I want a backdrop that's different than my office, which frankly can get a little boring after a while.

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And if I miss the blur in my background, then I can always replace the Elgato Facecam Pro with the camera I use in my main setup, the Sony a6400 with a Sigma 30 millimeter f1.4 lens.

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It's that f1.4 that gets me that beautiful, blurred background.

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As I mentioned before, Elgato has thoughtfully designed the Prompter to work with most cameras and webcams, so switching my two cameras out shouldn't be too big a deal.

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At the time I'm recording this.

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I think there's still a bit of a wait list for the Elgato Prompter.

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I'm taking that as a good sign.

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It's a product that's filling an unmet need.

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And if you're a mid or senior-level MBA in a management role who needs to make a strong impression on Zoom, maybe it can meet that need for you, too.

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See you next week, or see you on Zoom.