People often ask me about my setup, and it’s been a while since I did an update on the kit I’m using. I work remotely most of the time and I’ve spent a long time finding the things that help me be as productive and comfortable as possible. It’s not perfect, or ever finished, but I love my little setup so here’s a rundown of the stuff I’m using!

đź’ˇ Do you have any favourite devices that have improved your workflow? Let me know in the comments.

Peripherals

Work

  • Microsoft Sculpt Ergonomic Desktop keyboard and mouse. I’ve had this set up for years and have been using Microsoft’s ergonomic keyboards for over 20 years. I love them. It’s quiet, comfortable, and easy to store out of the way for when I’m gaming. I think it’s now discontinued, and I’ll be gutted when I have to replace it.

Fun

  • Ducky Shine 7 mechanical keyboard. When I’m gaming, it’s time to switch to the mechanical keyboard and I love the feel of the Ducky Shine 7, it’s a solid unit with Cherry MX brown switches that sound lovely when typing.
  • Razer DeathAdder V2 wired mouse. For games like Fortnite, Call of Duty, etc. this is my go-to mouse.
  • Razer Naga X wired mouse. For games like Sea of Thieves I switch to the Naga for its thumb buttons so I can easily call up food, weapons, shovel, etc.

Both

  • Stream Deck XL, 2, and Pedal devices. Giving me something like 50 customisable buttons between them, these are how I control a lot of my live streaming effects, as well as my lights and other automations.

Audio

  • TC Helicon GoXLR audio interface. Recently discontinued, this was an expensive but very useful device. It’s got four faders, preamps powerful enough to handle the Shure SM7b, and a dedicated swear and cough button as well as a bunch of other handy features (mostly for streaming). The dedicated cough button is a lifesaver I never thought I’d get so used to using.
  • Shure SM7b microphone. Let’s be clear: this is overkill, but it is an excellent microphone.
  • Arctis Pro Wireless headphones. These mean I get practically zero latency when I’m monitoring my mic and I can use them with my PC, Xbox and Nintendo Switch. When it’s noisy or I’m on a sensitive call, I switch to using these from my speakers. I can’t wear them for more than a couple of hours without my head hurting though, which might be because the band is wearing out. I am experimenting with switching to a pair of wired in-ear monitors though… so, these might not be around for too much longer!

Video

  • Sony a6000 mirrorless camera. Fitted with a Sigma 16mm f1.4 DC DN lens this lovely camera sits on a tripod and is my main webcam (I have a Logitech Brio 4K and Microsoft LifeCam for other purposes, which are more related to streaming). I connect it to the PC using an Elgato Cam Link 4K dongle and it is probably the thing people comment on the most, since Teams can handle the high quality. It looks far better than every webcam I’ve seen. Good lighting is important whatever camera you’re using.

On The Go

  • Microsoft Surface Laptop 5 13. When I’m out and about for work, this is my main device. I recently upgraded, coming from a Surface Laptop 3 15. I prefer the smaller form factor of the 13, it’s lighter but still does everything I need it to.
  • Apple iPhone 15 Pro Max. I can get a surprising amount of work done on this, from taking Teams calls, to editing documents, plus it takes great pictures, and the battery life is pretty decent. And it’s USB-C!
  • Poly Voyager Focus 2 / Voyager 5200 Bluetooth headsets. I’ve been a fan of Plantronics/Poly for years now, their kit is great. If I’m not at home, or in the car, chances are I’m using one of these devices. My only gripe is that I find the 5200 doesn’t always play well with my iPhone.

Display & Other

  • 3x 27” monitors; 2x Dell 1440p and 1x AOC 1080p. I prefer multiple monitors over one giant widescreen, and the lower resolution third monitor is great for screen sharing as I can be sure that people can actually see what I’m sharing! No more “can you zoom in on that spreadsheet please” when on calls.
  • Elgato Key light and other LED lighting. Good lighting, natural or artificial is essential for good quality video.
  • My PC! This is a self-build, and it’s due some upgrades. It’s running on an AMD Ryzen 7 3700X CPU, NVIDIA RTX 3090 GPU, with 32GB DDR4 3200MHz RAM.

Until next time…

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