Top, Side or Bottom – Camera Positioning Matters

Guest post by Fabrizio Ghetti

Categories: HD VoIP

March 10th, 2010

[This post is part of our Designing Hardware for HD series. Be sure to check it out!]

[Fabrizio Ghetti, who wrote a very useful post on camera shopping tips had more tips for you about cameras, so here's another post - this time, camera positioning. As you'll be able to see, I assisted with the images.]

So you’ve selected a camera. Great!  Now it’s time to decide where to position it.

This decision should not be taken lightly – you should keep in mind that the image will change if the camera is put over, under or to the side of the monitor. This can be seen in the images below (The camera is at a 2-3 meter distance):

There are two main options here:

1. Have it fixed in a specific position
2. Have it separated from the system and connected with a wire – let the customer decide…

In the fixed scenario, the video camera will usually be positioned above the display itself. Here are a few examples where that is the case:

• Our VC240 monitor, a personal video communication device
• Laptops with built-in cameras
• Videophones such as the GXV3140

Fixed camera position determined by the form factor of the product

The best possible place, in terms of eye contact, is the middle of your monitor. While that might be possible if you are designing the high end of a high-end system (for people with $750K to spare on a telepresence system), this probably won’t be the case.

This means ending up with positioning the camera somewhere around the monitor. The usual suspects are on top of the display or below it, and there’s no clear answer which one is better. It depends on the size of the monitor and its distance from the participants. For example, if you use a 50″ monitor with participants located at around 3-4 meters from it, then placing the camera on top of the monitor will give the best results; but – with the 50″ monitor, if the camera is only 2 meters from the participants, then you better place it below the monitor – otherwise, you’ll be seeing too much forehead.

Room system in one of our meeting rooms: HD video conferencing camera at the bottom and an additional webcam at the top, for use with SCOPIA Desktop.

Of course, if you decide on placing the camera on top of the monitor, you need to check its weight, dimensions, and ease of ability to be mounted on top of the monitor.