 Giving a traditional style academic speech from home can be a real challenge. There are several environmental and technological barriers that need to be overcome. That said, there are a few things that you can do to stoke out your space and set yourself up for success. In this short video, I'll cover how to set up a home speech space. So today, we'll discuss how to select a space, how to fine-tune your lighting and sound, and ensure your technology is set up to record or stream a good take. Let's get to it. Let's talk about selecting a space to give your speech in. You can reduce many of the challenges by picking a space that has less issues to begin with. When choosing your speech location, you need to factor in two key things, size and environment. Let's quickly discuss both. First, when it comes to room space, you need to make sure that you have enough floor space to move around in. The delivery of a basic speech often calls for a speaker to move to different physical spots on the stage as they progress through the speech. You should aim to find a space that is at least eight feet long and three feet deep. Most bedrooms and offices meet these requirements. Slightly larger spaces will give you more freedom of movement and can make it easier when it comes to combining transition statements and stage movement. Living rooms are the most popular choice here, though I've perhaps seen folks make less conventional options work as well. In addition to having adequate room, you should also consider the overall environment. If possible, aim for a space with a neutral background that you can speak in front of. Blank walls are fine, but it can also work to speak in front of more unique backgrounds. Just make sure that there's nothing too distracting or inappropriate behind you. Now that we've discussed picking a space, let's consider some of the ways that you can improve your lighting and sound. First, whenever possible, try to choose a space that has both good front-facing lighting and decent acoustics. During daytime hours, facing an open window is an easy way to get naturalistic light for your video. If that's not an option, you can make artificial light sources work well too. At the most simplistic level, you can offset a single light source, like a lamp, without a shade to light your speech. This setup is called one-point lighting and should work for most situations. Just make sure that the bulb you choose is bright enough to light the room. If you're looking to take your lighting to the next level, you can opt for a three-point lighting setup. Like the name suggests, a three-point lighting setup relies on three lights pointed at the person giving the speech. The first light, known as the key light, should shine directly upon the speaker from a slightly elevated position. This light will serve as your principal illuminator. You want this to be the brightest light of the three. The second light is called the fill light. This one should also shine right on the speaker, but from a side angle relative to the key light. If possible, situate the fill light at a lower position than the key light. Eye level works well. The fill light helps by balancing the key light by illuminating shaded surfaces. This light does not need to be as bright as the first one. The final light is called the back light. Out of necessity, you'll want to set this one up off-camera, lighting the back of the speaker. This helps provide contrast between the speaker and their background. Combined, the three lights should give you an effect not dissimilar from what you would see in a professional video or photography studio. Regardless of the lighting setup you opt for, make sure to avoid standing with a bright light directly behind you. Otherwise, you will be very difficult to see. Once you have your lighting dialed in, you should turn your focus to acoustics. First, make sure to eliminate any obvious sources of noise. Silence phones, turn off TVs, and make sure your smoke alarms have fresh batteries and are not chirping every 60 seconds. If your space is very empty, you may find things can get pretty echoey. If possible, aim for a room with some furniture or other items. If that's not possible, you may want to consider using a body microphone to improve audio pickup. While it can be difficult to control, you also want to try your best to limit external noise too. You might not be able to stop your neighbor's dog from barking during your speech, but you can close the windows to reduce how much of that noise your microphone picks up. Now that we've covered the basics of setting up your space, let's discuss a few important considerations for setting up your recording technology. Let's begin by setting the frame. You want to position your recording device so that it does two important things. First, make sure that you are visible from at least the hip up. This is important as your gestures and movements need to be able to show up on screen. Second, you want to make sure that the top of the frame leaves a little bit of headroom, but not so much that you can see the ceiling. Aim for a little room above your head, but avoid going above the top of the wall behind you. You should also try to keep distracting elements like hanging lights and ceiling fans out of the shot. Third, when setting up your recording device, you want to make sure that the camera is far enough away that you have room to move about the frame between main points. This means that your 8 plus feet of stage space should be visible from your fixed camera location. This lets you move between main points without the need to have a camera person panning the camera to follow you about the speech space. Next, let's look at your camera setup. First, it is important to make sure that your device is set to record in landscape mode. Most computers, camcorders, and digital cameras do this by default. However, if you're using a phone to record your speech, you'll need to orient your phone horizontally to ensure that the full frame is recorded. You may also want to pick up a simple phone tripod to help make this process a little easier. With that in mind, you should also consider the height of the camera. If it is placed too low, it can give the appearance that the speaker is towering over the audience. Aim to place the camera as close to your standing eye level as possible. You may need to place the camera on top of some stacked boxes or use a tripod to get this right. This will help you make good virtual eye contact where the camera lens can be treated like a face in the audience. It also avoids the effect that you are looking down on your virtual audience. During your speech, try to connect with your camera lens as much as possible, or at least as much as you do any other of your virtual audience members. Next, let's talk about your microphone. Most microphones included on computers and phones work well enough to record a speech, but there can be some problems. If you use an on-device microphone, you should make sure that it's not covered up and test it beforehand to ensure that you can be heard. Some laptops, most notably MacBooks, situate the microphone near the keyboard. If this is the case with your computer, placing anything on it during recording can make it very difficult to hear the speaker. Some built-in microphones can also have trouble picking up the speaker if they are not within a couple feet of the device. If your stand is causing you trouble, consider an external microphone or even using a wireless mic. Wireless headphones like AirPods are also an easy way to accomplish this and can improve audio quality. Fortunately, there are a plethora of affordable wireless headphones and external microphones available these days. Once you have your setup dialed in, you should make a short recording to test it out. This will let you diagnose any issues you might have and help you avoid recording a take of your speech that just doesn't work. Well, folks, that wraps up some key considerations for setting up an ideal speech space. Giving a speech-style presentation online can be challenging for a variety of reasons. Dialing in the perfect speech space can go a long way to reduce some of the stress. Thanks for watching.