What equipment do I use to record my physics shows?

I've fielded the question enough times that it's worth a blog post.  In my AP Live videos in spring 2020, in the upcoming AP Daily videos, in my summer institutes... what equipment did I use for recording?

The main camera is a logitech "Carl Zeiss Tessar" model mounted on a tripod facing my demonstration table.  It helps that my whiteboard is low-glare... the reflection from the windows and lights is not bad.  I "enable high definition" in the video settings in Zoom.

I also have a document camera on the edge of the demonstration table.  To switch between cameras, in zoom I say share screen --> advanced --> content from second camera.  This brings up the document camera.  But then I see a button in the top left of my screen to "switch camera" - click that, and I seamlessly switch from the doc cam to the logitech.

As for audio... both my doc cam and the logitech include a microphone, and I can put audio to the speakers in my classroom.  But the sound quality that way isn't great.  So I use a plantronics headset, as pictured in the top right.  The sound is as good as I've ever heard!  The only disadvantage is that I am wired to a USB port.  I've several times stepped on the wire and accidentally disconnected.

Speaking of USB ports... that's three items that need ports.  I had to get a multi-port hub.  And it's important that my internet connection is hardwired to the desktop computer I'm using - otherwise things can get annoyingly slow on Zoom.  

I'll give a shoutout here to Woodberry Forest's academic technology guru Cronin Warmack.  He's been extraordinarily helpful offering whatever technology I need, and helping to make sure it actually works.  All spring and all summer, I had working computer, internet, printers, copiers, network storage, software applications... that's not a trivial thing.  

At my previous school, the head IT guy was offended that I requested the technology that I had been promised at my interview.  While that school's administrators always had working equipment, it seemed beneath this guy even to respond to a mere teacher's concern, let alone to actually act upon it.  And I am aware that many schools operate exactly this way regarding the most basic tech.

Not here... Cronin (and Aiden and Jason) have kept Woodberry running online.  I appreciate their work.