About a month ago, I asked the subscribers of this channel if I should make a video
detailing the desk setup that I’m using here, and 80% of you said yes. So, with that in mind,
here’s the video. And don’t worry if you’re here for tutorial videos, those will be back
as normal on the next video, I just wanted to try something a bit different for a change.
OK, let’s get into it.
********************The Desk;********************
So the desk itself is a Jarvis sit-stand by a company called Fully. It’s white and it’s
a corner desk with graphite coloured legs, and I wanted a large corner desk as the room that
this desk sits in is quite large itself, and the desk that I had previously always
looked a bit small in my opinion. With the desk being at the heart of where I work every day,
I wanted something a bit more substantial, even though I only really fill out one side
of it at the moment. I’d love to say that I have a plan for this part of the desk here,
but honestly it kind of becomes a bit of a dumping ground when I’m not filming a video like this.
The good thing about this desk is that it performs just as well as a smaller sit stand desk,
even though it’s significantly larger, the team at Fully really do make very
nice office furniture. It can go nice and low if I need it to, or up really tall,
and all of that is handled by the digital control over here, which I kind of hate compared to
the previous one that Fully used to include with their desks which had physical buttons,
this is a touch screen but I find it really difficult to actually get the display to respond
a lot of the time. You can however use this to make manual controls, or set 4 memory functions.
I have tried to do some cable management underneath, but don’t look too closely at it.
****************Desk Furniture****************
Then on the desk itself, I’ve got some desk furniture and this is all by a company called
Grovemade. They’re not sponsoring this video, but the gear by them is one of the few parts of this
desk that have been given to me by a company rather than paid for myself, just wanted to
disclose that. They make really lovely desk gear, and here I’ve got the desk shelf which allows me
to lift some things like my audio interface and speakers up off of the desk itself, but it also
allows me some space to store things underneath. I’ve got a bunch of random things that I sometimes
use here on the desk like drinks coasters, a Leatherman tool, this nice little device cleaning
tool that I got from Paperlike, a physical notepad as I do like to write things down every now and
then, and down at the bottom I’ve got my iPad Pro which is a 2018 model, and a USB keyboard. I used
to do a lot of music production a few years back, and whilst I don’t do anywhere near as much these
days, I like to dabble from time to time, and this is constantly connected so I can just slide it
out, use it, and then hide it away when I’m done. This, in case you’re interested, is a little timer
thing that I bought from Instagram, it’s kind of tacky but it can be a good way to focus sometimes,
you can set a timer that’s constantly visible, and it will beep when it’s done.
**************************************Samsung Integration**************************************
In this little draw here, I’ve got pens and Apple Watch straps and random bits like that, as well as
all of my Samsung T7 drives, which leads me quite nicely to the sponsor of today’s video, Samsung.
This is the T7 Shield, a stylish SSD from their T7 range. Like the T7 and the T7 Touch, the T7 Shield
is portable, compact and lightweight. You can see from this one here, it fits in the palm of my hand
and at 98 grams, it’s lighter than most mobile phones. But what makes the Shield different is,
as the name suggests, it’s durability. The rugged shell provides a solid grip and is
designed to protect it from drops of up to 3 metres. It’s water and dust-proof resistant up
to an incredible IP65 standard, so it’s great for anyone who wants tough storage in harsher
environments, backing up outdoor photography or street filming during a shoot for example.
In terms of speeds, you’ll see sequential read and write speeds of up to 1,050 and 1,000 megabytes
per second respectively - that’s up to 9 and a half times faster than your typical external
drive. And thanks to the built in Dynamic Thermal Guard technology, excess heat won’t be a problem.
Whether you’re using a Mac, PC, or something else, the list of compatible technology is substantial,
so if you want to back up from your phone *and* your computer,
or even a gaming console, the T7 Shield can be your go-to storage. It’s mine whenever
I’m away from the studio. Available in 3 different colours and 1 and 2TB versions,
there should be something for everyone, and I’ve included some links in the description
of this video where you can find out more or look to pick one up yourself.
**************************************Desk
Furniture continued**************************************
The last couple of bits from Grovemade worth mentioning are this felt desk mat,
which is a great surface for working on, I just give it a vacuum every week or so,
and the Magsafe iPhone charging stand, which I actually don’t use on my desk now,
I have this by my bed, and it’s an easy and convenient way to charge my phone at night.
As for keyboard, I rotate between two. I’ve got this Logitech MX Mechanical Mini for Mac,
which I really like but there are some days where, for whatever reason, I find typing
on this a real chore, and sometimes I prefer using the traditional Mac keyboard instead. I
also really like the TouchID function on the regular Mac keyboard, and so if nothing else,
I keep that one up here on the desk shelf all the time, always connected, so that I can always just
reach over and use TouchID whenever I need to. The Mechanical Mini is a really good little keyboard,
the sound and feel and colour of it all remind me of my Amiga500 computer that I grew up with,
and there’s something nice about having that little nostalgia burst each day that I’m working.
I have totally ditched my Magic Mouse, in favour of MX Master 3S mouse, I don’t use all of the
buttons on it, but I find the horizontal scroll wheel really useful when working in Final Cut Pro,
and I just find the overall feel of it so much nicer than the Magic Mouse.
************************The Computer************************
Obviously, the most important thing for a content creator like myself is to have a computer that
can allow me to work quickly and efficiently, and for me, that’s this computer here. This
is a base level Mac Studio, so this has the Max Chip, with a 10 core CPU, a 24 core GPU and 32gb
of RAM. It’s the most powerful computer I’ve ever owned, more than enough for everything that I do,
with the exception of that internal SSD storage which is only 512gb, it does mean that I have to
rely on external storage more than I’d like, so when Apple update the studio with the M2 chips,
I assume next year, I might consider swapping this out for a computer with a few terrabytes
of internal space instead, but otherwise this is a computer that could easily last me a number of
years. There’s plenty of reviews out there about the Mac Studio already so there’s not much I can
tell you about it that you’ve not heard already, but honestly one of the things that I appreciate
more than I ever imagined is the IO at the front here, being able to quickly grab an SSD
card from my camera, or plug in an external SSD without having to go routing around the back is
a huge time saver, and a real gamechanger if you’re involved in digital content creation.
**********The Display**********
The Mac Studio is connected to this, the Pro Display XDR which I got back in June of 2020,
so I’ve had it 2 and a half years now. If you’re unaware, this is Apple’s premium display,
it’s outrageously expensive, I bought it for my business, but even so this is a $5,000 computer
display. But, I love it and haven’t regretted it for one second since buying it. If this were for
personal use, I couldn’t justify it, but having it as a business asset I absolutely can, keep in mind
that I sit here for 8, 10 hours a day working on digital content, and the screen real estate that
you get with a 32 inch, 6K display like this is a game-changer, plus it looks absolutely stunning.
And because it’s Apple made, I can hand-on-heart say that I’ve never had a single glitch or issue
with it at all, when using it with the Mac Studio, or plugged into my Macbook Pro, or even
my previous computer which was an M1 Macbook Air, all of them worked flawlessly with this display.
On top of the display is the Insta360 Link webcam, because of course the Pro Display,
despite costing something like £4,500 doesn’t come with a built-in webcam,
so I’ve got this perched up here. I’ll be honest, I actually find that more often than not,
I grab this little Belkin accessory thing and use Continuity Cam to use my iPhone with my Macbook,
but when I need to jump on a quick video call, this provides great video and audio,
it’s permanently plugged in and ready to go, it’s a million times better than the awful Logitech
webcam that was designed for this display, and you can see a detailed review of it on my channel.
**********Audio**********
To the left and right of that are my Genelec 8010 speakers which I’ve had for around 10 years now,
these are just absolutely perfect little speakers for a small space like this,
where it’s all about getting a clear, uncoloured version of the sound of whatever I’m working on.
As I mentioned earlier, I used to do music production, so these served me really well
back in those days, but I also had a voice over business for about 4 years and these got me
through those days as well, and now they’re used to produce every YouTube video that I
make. Don’t be fooled by their size, these can get insanely loud if you need them to.
They’re powered by this, the Apollo Twin audio interface by Universal Audio. I really
love Universal Audio’s interfaces, I wish they ran just a little bit more smoothly
with Apple’s hardware and operating system, I still find it crazy that we still have to
do all kinds of weird security workarounds to get this to play nice with Mac silicon,
and even then I still have connectivity issues sometimes, but all in all it’s a great piece
of kit. I can connect a couple of microphones to this if I need to, I can plug headphones to this
if I ever want to work that way, although I’ll be honest, in the past year I’ve kind
of switched to using my AirPods when I want to work with headphones, they work perfectly well.
******************************Second Computer******************************
To the right of that is my M1 Pro Macbook Pro, this is a base model Macbook Pro,
so this is the M1 Pro chip, and I use this for a few different purposes. First up,
on a daily basis, it’s a second screen for my main Mac setup, thanks to Universal Control
I can easily use the mouse and keyboard with my Mac Studio to control this laptop,
and so I quite often use the Macbook for any research that I’m doing, whilst I’m editing or
working on my main computer. I also sometimes will use it to help with rendering. If you’ve watched
any of my tutorial videos, you’ll know that in general, I usually make videos where it’ll be,
10 tips about this or 10 ways you can use your iphone for x, y and z, and so typically I’ll
actually treat each of those segments as chapters, and I’ll render out each part separately,
then bring the parts together to render into a finished video at the end. Because I use software
to create an iPhone or iPad render on-screen, those renders can be quite processor intensive.
The Mac Studio is a powerhouse, and can quite happily work through a whole queue of rendering
while I’m working on something else without issue, but sometimes I like to break the load out,
and I’ll render here on the Macbook Pro whilst I’m working on something else on my Mac Studio. It is,
also of course, an entirely capable computer to take on the road with me, so any time I’m
away from home and I want to get work done, this is the computer that I pack in my bag.
Oh and, it’s held on a laptop holder that I got for about £40 from Amazon,
I’ll include links to everything from this tour in the description of the video,
I always get asked about this one, and it’s probably the cheapest thing on the desk.
**Office Lighting**
The lighting in the office is almost entirely Philips Hue, which is what we use across the
rest of the house, this lamp here is an iKea lamp that clamps to the desk,
they’re super cheap, I think it cost me just over £10 for the lamp itself,
and then the bulb is the expensive part as it’s a Hue bulb. I can use my phone or a control over
on the wall to quickly change the light for the entire office, and I’ve got a scene setup
for filming, which is why the lighting is consistent in all of my videos these days.
I’ve then got this Elgato Keylight clamped to the desk over here, which shines up at the ceiling,
and I use that as a kind of diffused light for when I’m recording videos, because when I record
videos, I have a camera that I position over here on a tiny little tripod, and then I use an autocue
to read the scripts that I’ve pre-written for my videos. That autocue is I think, called the
Parrot teleprompter, it’s awesome as you just slide an iPhone in to project the scripts up,
I’m using my 2022 iPhone SE for this, and I use an amazing app called Prompt Smart Pro which I had to
buy separately, the cool thing about it is that it listens as you’re talking and moves the script
along in time with your voice. It’s accurate about 95% of the time, which is a lifesaver because if
I had to manually move the script along, or try and speak to pace, that just wouldn’t work for me.
**************************Video & Audio**************************
So in terms of video, the real workhorse of the setup is this, the Sony A7IV, I bought this almost
exactly a year ago, so everything that you’ve seen in 2022 and beyond, certainly in terms of
A Roll has been shot entirely on this camera, and it’s just incredible. It’s taken me a while to get
totally to grips with it, but I think the overhaul of quality that it brings to the production values
of my videos is immense. This camera came with the kit lens, I’ve then invested in two more
lenses which should cover all of my needs, now and in the future, a 20mm F1.8 G lens, which is
what I use for all my A Roll, it actually looks like this when it’s captured in raw so super wide
and loads of vignetting and reflections from the autocue, and I then crop in by 150%, thankfully
this lens is so sharp that it really doesn’t matter, even for a 4K video. I’ve then got a
24 to 70mm F2.8 GMII, which is an absolute beast, and I now use this for all of the B Roll that I’m
capturing on the channel. I really want to make B Roll more interesting, and more of a focus on the
channel next year and rely a bit less on stock footage, so that’s where this will come in.
Aside from the Sony gear, I do have some Olympus, or OM System as their now known, cameras as well,
and some lenses. These are honestly more for photography than anything else, but both of
these can shoot in 4K, the OM-1 in particular shoots really great 4K footage, although it’s
not amazing in low-light, so both of these are there to serve as backup cameras for me if needed.
In terms of audio, I’ve got 3 methods of capturing good quality sound. In general,
I’ve got a Sennheiser MKE600 shotgun microphone which sits just in front of me,
it sometimes shows a bit in the videos but I don’t really care about it, I’d rather have it close
enough to avoid too much room echo. I’ve also got this Shure SM7B on a low-slung microphone arm,
which I can just grab and pull over whenever I need it, and then I’ve got a couple of lavalier
options which are all Rode microphones. That might all sound a bit extreme, but where we live,
we get battered by wind on this side of the house, especially at this time of year,
and the noise can be so overwhelming that it impacts my recordings, so being able to switch
to a lav mic or the Shure microphone helps keep me working. Audio is so important for videos,
and I’ve also invested in some sound dampening panels, I think I might put
a few more up this year, although I’m generally quite happy with how my videos sound these days.
********************Networking********************
The last thing which, you guys never see in my videos because of where I’ve got it positioned
is this, this an ASUS ZEN Wifi whole home tri band mesh system, essentially it gives
us really fast wifi all over the house. This is a new build property, and as such we’ve got fibre to
the premises here, allowing for crazy speeds, we get gigabit internet into the property, but Sky,
the company that we use for our internet provide these awful wifi hubs that just don’t give the
kind of speeds that they should around the house. For context, we’ve got gigabit coming in, and the
absolute fastest wifi speeds I could get were around 300 megabits, and that was when standing
on top of the router. Any further away or in another room, that would drop significantly. So,
we’ve got one of these downstairs connected to our router, and then this one up here and that’s
what creates the mesh, and between the two my wife and I can get super fast internet all over
the house now, which is actually really helpful for me, if I’m downloading large files for work,
or uploading 5 gigabyte video files to YouTube, having decent internet is a real game-changer.
These aren’t cheap, although they are cheap compared with some of the whole house mesh systems
you can get, and I’d definitely recommend them based on our experience with the system so far.
******End******
And honestly, that kind of covers everything. There are other things in the room,
a storage area with these grey boxes where I kind of dump everything,
I think in the new year I plan to really have a clearout, and these iKea units
which I’m not even going to open, it’s embarassing how messy they already are,
and I kind of use the top as a charging space for my cameras, phones or watch.
All in all, it’s a space that I’m really happy with. It might change a tiny bit more over the
coming year, but I can’t imagine it will change much at all between now and the end of 2023,
I’ve pretty much got this exactly how I want it, and it’s a great creative space for me.
What I will mention, is as much as this might feel like a showoff video, that’s really not
the intention. This desk is essentially the culmination of around 10 years of working,
saving and investing. I’ve only been earning proper income from my YouTube channel since
around April of this year, but much of the gear that I’ve got here is kit from money
I’ve earned from other things that I do, or my previous job, or even things I’ve bought for my
hobbies in the past. And whilst I’m not going to be patronising and say that kit doesn’t matter,
cos that’s not strictly true, you can make better videos with better equipment, don’t
obsess over it. If you’re just starting out, work with what you’ve got, and make the best
videos you can with the kit you own. If you can, upgrade your audio first, then your lighting,
then your camera, so a good camera should actually be the last thing that you purchase.
What do you think of the space? Anything you really like about it? Or anything
you think I should change? Drop me a comment, and let me know.
And as ever, if you found this video useful, do please consider leaving me a like,
and subscribing to my channel for more content like this in the future.
See you on the next video.