President Joe Biden’s Zoom setup starts with a $7,000 rollable touchscreen

Image: @POTUS/Twitter

I had to know everything about Biden's rig after seeing it on Friday. It was not about his video gear, but about thanking himself for the fall in gas prices. I don't want to discuss that The chart next to the screen is so funny that I don't want to talk about it. I want to talk about the big rig in front of Biden as he sits at the White House residence.

Politicians have the best video chat gear. Nobody has more to lose from a dropped call, a low-res camera, or the fact that you can only hear half the words they say than from looking good on video. You have to bring your best game if you want to play zoom diplomacy. High-level government officials have been doing video calls for a long time. They're aware of how this works.

Gas prices are declining at one of the fastest rates we have seen in over a decade – we’re not letting up on our work to lower costs even further. pic.twitter.com/suEKuKXyKP

— President Biden (@POTUS) July 22, 2022

I am pretty sure Biden is looking at a board made by a young Norwegian company. There is a dedicated video and collaboration device with a 65-inch 4K screen, an integrated touchscreen and whiteboard tool, and a 12-megapixel camera. It is similar to Microsoft's Surface Hub and the Jamboard in that it works with both teams and zoom. The White House has been using Zoom for Government for a long time. The entire rig in front of Biden is about six feet tall. He is exercising some fiscal responsibility because he doesn't appear to be using the $760 Scheduling Display or the $760 controller.

Since the inauguration of Biden, the device has been used in the Oval Office to face the couch or Biden at the Resolute desk. The company seemed surprised to see its product in the Oval Office after it was confirmed that it was a Neat Board. The company has yet to respond to my request. The entire setup is impressive, with Biden looking comfortable at his desk and with the camera an ideal distance away so he looks engaged but the participants aren't staring up his nose.

If I can, I have a couple of notes. You need a mic on your desk because you are a long way away from the microphone and you are still going to sound like you are shouting. Maybe replace one of the desk phones with a microphone? The Resolute desk is in the Oval Office. I'm pretty sure that Rutherford B. Hayes would approve. It's not just a flat looking wall behind you if you bring a couple more things into your background. I don't know if it's a plant or a flag that sits behind you. I might clean up the desk a bit. Do you want your coffee cup on a coaster?

Photo by Amr Alfiky-Pool/Getty Images

The White House has a lot of video conferencing equipment. Biden likes to set up a high-end camera and give a standard TV broadcast for the most important moments. Biden seems to always sit at the head of the table facing the camera in the Roosevelt Room. There are microphones on the table. At Camp David there is a camera and a Sharp TV built into the wall. The White House would make a great WeWork.

I tried to figure out how Biden was different from Trump. During the Pandemic, Trump did video conferences from a hulking rig in Mar-a-Lago. There is less evidence of what Trump did than there is of what he didn't do. It seems like he favors the fancy camera approach when he looks at videos and grids. It looks like he preferred regular phone calls.

Image: Trump White House Archive/Flickr

An iPad on a stand is the setup former President Barack Obama used. Obama can be seen in a recent video chatting with an iPad Pro on a desk stand. You can get the Lisen Tablet Stand for $24 on Amazon. Center Stage on the iPad is better than your laptop, but it is not as nice as Biden's setup.

Turn off your self view is the most important lesson you can learn from the president. Biden's own feed wasn't on the screen in most video conferences. It is good for your mental health, it is good for your focus, and it is better than staring at yourself all the time. We don't need to see more of ourselves when we're president.