Marantz AVS

The AVS stacks the three things a live stream actually needs - camera, microphone and light - into one freestanding column that occupies about seven inches of desk. The webcam is a 2MP CMOS sensor shooting 1080p at 30 fps with H.264 compression, automatic white balance and a 70-degree diagonal field of view: wide enough for one presenter and a chair back, tight enough to avoid the fisheye look. Above it sits a 4-inch ring of 30 daylight-balanced 5600K LEDs that dims from the front panel, with diffused daylight, cool and warm filters in the box to change the quality of light on a face.

Audio comes from a boundary microphone built into the base - half-cardioid, 48 kHz/16-bit, better than 60 dB signal-to-noise and good for 100 dB SPL - aimed up at whoever is sitting in front of it, so nothing has to be clamped to an arm or worn. A headphone amplifier puts out 130 mW and has its own mix control between the microphone and USB playback, so the talent monitors themselves with no round-trip delay. One USB-C cable running at USB 3.0 speed carries video, audio and control to the computer, and two USB 3.0 Type-A ports on the unit act as a hub for a keypad or a drive. The column stands 19.1 inches, weighs 2.29 pounds, and runs on the supplied 12 VDC 1 A adapter.