In the Club
Use virtual cameras in Zoom meetings
If you want to talk with club members on Zoom while walking them through an on-screen document or demonstrating how to do something, you should install OBS Studio ( https://obsproject.com, OBS stands for Open Broadcaster Software). This free program lets you add multiple sources as ‘cameras’, including any open program window, such as a Powerpoint presentation or web page.
Add your virtual cameras
When you first run OBS Studio, select the third option (‘I will only be using the virtual camera’), then click Next and you’ll see the recommended settings for recording quality, resolution, and frame rate. Leaving these as they are should be fine, but you might want to lower the resolution or frame rate if you’re on a slow internet connection. Click ‘Apply Settings’ to close the box.
Once you have the program open, click the plus sign in the Scene box at the bottom left to create a new scene, then name it ‘Virtual Camera’ and click OK. Now you need to add some ‘cameras’, so click the plus sign under Sources. You should include yourself in the chat by selecting Video Capture Device. In the box that opens you can give the source a new name or select the default (‘Video Capture Device’) then click OK. Click the Device dropdown menu and select your webcam from the list of options.
The output from the webcam showing yourself will appear in a window in the corner of the screen. You can adjust its size by clicking and dragging the handles around the video window. Press Alt while doing so to change the width of the window. In our example, we’re going to show a Powerpoint presentation on screen, so we’ll reduce the size of the video window and move it to the top-left corner.
Add a Powerpoint presentation
Once we’ve opened a presentation in Powerpoint, we’ll switch back to OBS and click the plus sign under Sources and select ‘Window Capture’ (see screenshot below). In the window that opens we’ll rename it ‘Powerpoint’ then click OK. Next, we’ll click the Window dropdown menu and select our presentation from the list of open windows.
At this point the video will be hidden underneath the Powerpoint window. We’ll change this by clicking and dragging the Powerpoint entry in the Source box, pulling it below Video Capture. Any changes we make to the presentation will be shown live to your audience through OBS.
To add another source such as a web page, click Sources, choose Window Capture, then select your browser in the dropdown menu. We can switch between the web page and presentation by clicking the eye icon next to a source. We can show both by resizing the windows so they fit on screen.
Once everything is set up how you want it, click Start Virtual Camera in the box at the bottom right (see screenshot above). As you’ll see, our video feed is at the top left, with the presentation taking up most of the screen.
Select your cameras in Zoom
Now you’re ready to start your club meeting. Open Zoom, then click New Meeting, followed by the arrow next to Start Video and select OBS Virtual Camera as the source and the output from that (in our example, showing us and our Powerpoint screen) will appear on screen. The image will be reversed, so click Video Settings in the same window and untick ‘Mirror my Video’. Once you close the window you’re ready to let people join the meeting.