These are as good as it gets, I'd say. Don't do anything on the cheap, Matt - you don't need to, and remember the "buy cheap, buy twice" adage.
I want one so badly but to do it I need a £50 adapter plate to move the vesa then the light and then the camera adapter; think it’s a no from me.
Might look at some cheap 6500k rear lighting LED strip. Have the tv backlit at that kelvin and makes the darks darker and the colours pop, no idea why I haven’t for my office. Or perhaps hue again to go with the rest of the house.
I've got the BenQ eReading Desk Lamp which I find a bit more flexible than the screenbar style fixed to the top of the monitor. Highly recommended !
Wife has the BenQ Screenbar Plus on her iMac, similar to Halo but with a wired Controller if you'd rather not have the faff of batteries for the wireless one. Saves £30 as well.
Slight aside, but I can't believe how poor the performance of the iMac is compared to my Thinkpad T480. She won't change it though ... fully signed up to the Apple Kool-Aid LOL. I think it might be another example of Apple crippling their hardware with software updates to force you to upgrade.
I absolutely love the remote control for the Halo, so have no issues at all in respect of the fact that it needs batteries; in fact, I regard it as a classic case of not skimping to save a few quid when the slightly more expensive option provides so many benefits. I doubt the batteries will need changing more than very rarely anyway as for the most part the remote just sits there untouched.
What are your wife's issues with the iMac? I run an M1 Max MBP and it's absolutely faultless as well as being blindingly fast.
One thing this thread highlights - is the psychological benefit of having a "nice" space to work from home - in.
Starting during covid - there were a lot of people forced to work from 14" laptops on their kitchen worktop - when they had a decent monitor in the office.
If you do have space for a nice set up in your "Study" (now there's a pretentious term) - you are very fortunate.
I have a bedroom that is just a pure office. Not much in the way of 'decoration', but I have a cracking vew of the hills out the window.
Have seen them a few times on social media. Some can’t be cut, so will do some research.
Certainly buying 2m of hue for a 50cm strip across the back (the std hue strips don’t bend well perpendicular to the adhesive surface so just feels a waste.
Will give them a research this evening. Thanks.
Completely agree, and you sound like you're quite well catered for yourself. Any photos of the desk setup and the view from the window?
I think that the medical issues I've faced of late have made me want a kind of new start now I'm home and working properly again. I've thrown a fair bit of money at this project (not totted it all up as yet, but it will be well over a grand), but it's worth it to me in order to get the space absolutely perfectly arranged for my own taste and (of course) use case. I haven't been as excited about a project for a long time, in fact (and there's loads more still to come in terms of physical adjustments as well as kit)!
Aye - I'll not be posting a photo looking out the window.......... someone will track me down and post my address here !
I've just never skimped on IT for work or leisure.
Look forward to seeing your end result.
I think the remote is the same, just wired instead of wireless.
Anything BenQ is probably the best desk lighting option on the market in my book.
Everything is just really slow on her machine ... e.g. a Safari web page takes 30-45 seconds to load, and stuff like that. It's a few years old, but hard drive is only about 50%, and it has same memory as my laptop. I need to take it to a local Apple service guy and get him to have a look at it - it's a terrible advert for Apple products in it's current state LOL :-)
Glad to see you have been improving your home working setup Tony, it makes all the difference. I hope your health improves enough to be able to enjoy it.
I went down this rabbit hole over Covid and upgraded to a sit stand desk and a second hand Aeron chair.
I tried a 34w monitor but realised I needed the height too. Experimented with two 34w monitors but didn't like the frames and angles so went with a taller 44 inch Dell monitor which is perfect. Basically like four 24 inch monitors and no frames. Didn't want to go for an ultra wide as I didn't want to compromise on stereo speaker positioning.
My best purchase though were some Genelec studio monitors, the best AV purchase I have ever made. I use them all day now. Didn't take me long to supplement with the matching low profile subwoofer. Close your eyes and they sound like huge full range monitors! Love them.
I think the curves really match the design of the Aeron too.
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You deserve it, even without the recent challenges, you spend long enough in there to make it perfect for you. No excuses for dark photos now though with the Halo lol.
Screen looks a normal side until you use the Aeron as a reference. Wow.
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Will do. Easter is probably ambitious for building a bookcase to surround the door as I need to build the workbench first so that I can actually use the tools safely and have enough space to cut things safely etc.
Think I’ll target the workbench for Easter…
Planning to pop into Reading to look at the chairs next week.
You’ve already got me thinking of a new solution.
I find even with my significantly smaller screen, if I share on teams, I have to zoom in so much for people on a laptop that I need to be several feet from my screen to be able to see it properly.
Is there something in my / their settings I’m missing to prevent this? Or do my work colleagues just need to man up & stop using a small laptop screen on their salaries?
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Mouse has arrived - now just waiting for the keyboard.
Next piece of the jigsaw arrived today, in the form of a shelf from Oakeywood. It’s absolutely perfect, and I’ll now be able to position the soon to be speakers just where I want them. Just have to decide on the colour!
Anyway, really happy with the shelf, although I wouldn’t want the monitor any higher at all than it is at the moment.
I’m hoping that, over the weekend, I’ll be able to reposition the television and also move my helmet racks over to the other side of the room. Depends on whether my son is available to help, as Bea won’t let me do it on my own, given that I’m not meant to be lifting or straining myself in any way at the moment.
Tony, so did you mount the wall plate centrally for the tv, forgetting it offsets to the side when pushed back? You certainly won’t be the first of last with that.
Shelf looks spot on, making me toy with the base mount for my monitor, but I don’t want to find I am having to dremel it back out if I change my mind!
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No, Matt - I’m hoping to reposition the TV over the weekend but haven’t done it yet. The top of the monitor is just higher now because it’s standing on the shelf (and I’ve repositioned the desk so the TV is an altogether different position relative to the desk than when I started.).
That’s one hell of an upgrade!
I can’t be bothered upgrading my webcam so my peers can see me better, most are using the camera on their laptop & a screen, so they stare at their screen not at the camera; drives me insane given their income.
Our head of ahem, thought leadership, seems incapable of having his entire face on screen, usually like his chair has collapsed, and like he is in a dungeon - it’s darker than your photos lol. Bonkers given he is on a not beginning with 1 salary. He just doesn’t give a sh*t.
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I think one of the most pleasing aspects of a home office/pleasant workplace, is................ a CLEAN desk.
Sadly - I never seem to manage that.
Have the minimum amount of equip you need , and all the cabling tidied as much as is possible.
and have a neoprene mat for your coffee.
This is my place at the moment , it’s in a garden room so separate from the house , around 9m2
thinking of going ultra wide for the monitor, will deffo upgrade the keyboard and mouse to the Logitech ones Tony got and must get some speakers !
table is solid oak , weighs a tonne but very happy with it.
I sit side on to the window which works well!
None of us at work bother with webcams now. Every so often the higher ups try and edict it and then it dies down and then hardly anyone bothers again :-)
good shout on the shelf, the desk is bigger than it looks in that pic, the two monitors are 24" each so its a wide set up!
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mrs cyrus is the brains behind the decorating to be fair!
I cant unsee that misalignment now, doh!
Was one comedic moment where someone forgot they were on cam & lit a cigarette. No issue in your own house, but not the best image on camera. Bloody amusing though!
Where was the desk top from, scanned back through but didn’t spot it? Toying with the upgrade, then remembered I needed new legs as well or the issue of power exists still.
Spent most of today on loooong calls in the Eames, it is so comfy I could easily drift off in it, which is a worry. Walls still bare, but plans in place. Need to record a call with myself as concerned with hard floor & no real soft furnishing I’m boomy, but probably over thinking things, as I tend to!
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It's from here. Not expensive as I know at some point I'm going for a solid wood sit/stand.
On calls with my team, I openly vape (they're used to it). On other calls, particularly long ones, my camera is occasionally off whilst I indulge. I wouldn't let anyone outside my team see me doing it, though.
Cheers for the link, Tony. Will have a good look over the weekend.
Am sure I’d vape internally if I still did. Quite glad I’d quit way before WFH as not leaving my desk to vape would have been way too tempting. I love seeing high end kit like yours and do miss the experimentation.
As I use a virtual background, I find a swiftly applied coaster over the cam allows for a sip of anything after hours as required and looks like a cam glitch. I hope so anyway!
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Thanks
It's from here
https://www.oakstudiodesigns.com/en/...le-kon?rq=Desk