Setting up videos and lower-thirds in Zoom Events Production Studio

[DCProud]

I am putting together a webinar in Zoom events that will include a number of short videos mixed among the live presenters. I don't see a way to cue videos for playing in Production Studio other than to screen-share them from a desktop. It would be much better to play the videos directly in Production Studio then to play them outside of Zoom via screen-share. Am I missing something?

The other thing that I am hoping to do is to have overlays (for example, a transparent PNG) that I can show over an active speaker. I see the possibility of creating a scene in which a speaker is overlaid onto a background screen, but what I am looking for is the equivalent of a television chyron or lower-third. Is that option somewhere I am not seeing it?

Thanks for your help.

[eclee]

As far as sharing videos goes, the "best" way I know available to do it is from Share -> Advanced -> Video file. That is a little simpler than having to share the screen of an external media player.

As far as live lower thirds goes, you're starting to get into broadcast TV production with OBS and all that. Zoom doesn't offer this in itself. There are name tags if that's what you want, but that's a little different than general purpose lower-thirds.

[GreenMeeting_ca]

It's a little clunky, but with some experimentation, you can create backgrounds with readable content.

Because there's always the issue of the virtual background 'eating' parts of your head, you need to keep the slide colors pastel and within the same tonal range as your plain clothing. Good lighting that separates you from the background. Don't move around too much - side to side or forward/backward. Keep the contents super simple and sparse (right down to bold, sans serif type). 

I create a folder of PNG's from the slide deck (Keynote on a Mac) with transparency turned on.

You can add a folder of images to the virtual backgrounds popup. Then 'switch' between them while you're live.

I used 20 slides for a workshop on Saturday. Here are three screens to give you an idea of how it works.

The slide with the QR code has an alpha channel and is set to No Fill. The visible content comes up as a jet black background in Zoom with a dramatic effect for the overlay.

Hope that's of some help.

Cheers,

George