Opinions Wanted On "Podcasting" Setup

[OldStrummer]

OK, I'll state right at the outset that this has nothing to do with guitar.

I offered to take over the duties of managing a group ZOOM gathering. My employer does this sort of thing with the "all-hands" meetings: People onsite gather in a conference room, and the rest of us dial in via ZOOM. The setup I'm taking over isn't quite as fancy (and there's no budget), but I think I can improve it.

First: The current setup. A professional sound engineer has put together the following equipment: 24" color monitor, Blue Snowball microphone, SONY speaker (USB, but he thinks it's also Bluetooth-enabled) and Windows laptop computer.

I got involved because the site has no Internet, so a phone hotspot has been used. To less than satisfactory results. I got involved because I have a Mi-Fi with an unlimited data plan. I brought it today and we had great connectivity! But other things sucked.

Second: I'm primarily a Mac guy. I brought my M2 MacBook Air, a 1080p USB webcam, some USB-C to USB-A adapters (my computer only has USB-C) an my Mi-Fi. We had a rough sort of outing today, but it helped me decide what I need to do. Funny, in the end, we wound up using my laptop: camera, microphone and speakers. The other guy displayed to the monitor.

I tried a couple of approaches after I got home. I have some spare gear, and the sticking point is usually the connector.

I have a couple of monitors, but they both use SVGA connectivity. I have an Apple mini-DisplayPort-to-SVGA, but my newer, more powerful Macs don't have the mini-DisplayPort. I can by a USB-to-miniDisplay port adapter, but then I'd be daisy-chaining adapters, which is always an iffy proposition. Plus, the older Macs don't have anything more than a uilt-in 720p webcam, and not enough horsepower to drive the external webcam. Strike one.

Tried a couple of different Macs, cables, etc. I don't like the results.

Potential solution: A "smart" monitor, such as the Samsung M5. 32" screen, wireless (AirPlay) connectivity, built-in speakers. My thinking is that I can elevate the monitor on a stand, position the laptop in front of it, use the computer's webcam (Apple has finally moved up to 1080p HD) and wirelessly connect to the monitor and use its display and speakers, and my computer through the Mi-Fi.

I made this diagram to see for myself. I think it works. Have I forgotten anything? Missed anything?

[Offshore Angler]

Put the MAC under your car tires and drive over it a few times. Macs used to be fantastic, reliable and easy to use. Today they are cantankerous relics that won't connect to anything, don't use industry standard hardware and even if you do find an app, it's almost always defeatured.

I used Macs for years and years (along with pc, UNIX, IBM mainframes, and proprietary systems). A couple years ago I moved all my recording and vid editing to pc and life has become a lot simpler. Want to podcast? All you need is a camera, a microphone and a ring light. I'd recommend a headset with boom mike, since that way you don't need to worry about microphone patterns and ambient noise as much and it's simpler and cheaper than speakers and microphones, and then worrying about feedback and echo issues. You can also keep notes, etc. right in front of you and not worry about page noise.

Chuck