Change Theme:

Cornerstone Evolve Angels Landing
Angels Landing

Delivering a Presentation from Home

Chad Fraughton
Tuesday, February 01, 2022

3… 2… 1… HELLO, I’M COMING TO YOU LIVE FROM MY HOUSE

SIMPLE BEST PRACTICES WHEN DELIVERING A PRESENTATION FROM YOUR HOME

For many of us, the home office pulls double duty as a home recording studio. At Cornerstone, delivering your message with clarity is more vital than ever before, and there’s a number of things you can do to optimize the experience for you and your viewers. Not everything on the list below will be possible for everyone but the more you can do will pay off in terms of professionalism and impact for your presentation.

Be Mindful of your Home Internet

  • We recommend streaming capabilities of at least 10 MBps.
  • Turn off other internet-connected devices around the house—especially streaming devices.
  • Check and tighten all connections.
  • If possible, connect an ethernet cable from your router to your computer.
  • If you must use Wi-Fi, use at least a 5GHz connection for best results. Best practice when using Wi-Fi is to keep your laptop within ten feet of your router.
  • Prior to your presentation, exit all the apps on your laptop that you will NOT be using during your presentation.

Best Practices for Best Presentations

  • Practice, practice, practice! Prior to going live or recording, rehearse your presentation multiple times, incorporating all necessary cues.
  • Make sure notifications are turned off on your phone and laptop.
  • Quiet on the set. Make sure your space is quiet and away from others.
  • Minimize (or better yet, eliminate) distracting noises like drumming fingers, squeaky chairs, cell phones, pet sounds, typing, etc.
  • Stand during presentations. That’s how you’d be presenting before a live audience. However, avoid fidgeting, swaying, or other movements that may distract viewers.
  • If there are technical glitches, you don’t need to point them out; most viewers may not notice.

Best Practices | Delivering a Presentation from Home Tips for Audio, Video and Lighting

  • Light from the front to illuminate your face and the rest of your body that will be showing on camera.
  • Don’t have your back against a window or other light source.
  • If you wear glasses, try to position the lighting so it’s not glaring directly into your eyes.
  • Turn down the brightness of your laptop monitor to reduce glare.
  • In descending order, the best performing microphone set up will be an external USB microphone, webcam microphone, and then laptop microphone.
  • Clean the lens of your camera.
  • Position the camera at eye level.
  • When presenting, look at the camera, not at your computer screen.
  • If you gesticulate, have a wider frame set for your shot so your hands don’t get cut off when you’re using them. Also, pay attention to your headroom— the space between the top of your head and the top of the frame should ideally be 10%–20% of the total height of the frame.
  • Virtual backgrounds can be fun but they can also come off as unprofessional and may result in a poorer quality video of you.
  • Avoid busy or tightly patterned clothing. Solid colors are best, as long as they contrast with your backdrop.

At Cornerstone we are experts at recording professional presentations from home. We have a number of audio, video, and lighting solutions we can provide to make your prerecorded or live presentation from home look exceptional. They come with step-by-step printed and video instructions. We can also facilitate a video call with one of our technicians to help you get set up