Don’t get caught out on camera

– In the new Covid world, office workers are now regularly in meetings from home. Many of these meetings these days now also include a video feed. The first thing others in the call do when someone pops up, is to check the background and immediately zoom in, mentally or physically, on anything that seems out of place in the background. Last night’s dishes, haphazardly discarded clothing and even a pot plant seemingly out of place will be the object of interest. Some use a green screen behind them and have an image placed on that by software.

Microsoft Teams and other services provide a set of backdrops that work well unless you have the wrong hair or clothing colours. Others have invested in a large bookshelf stocked with unread tomes to impress viewers. There have been incidents where the user thought they didn’t have the video…