As we recognize the 2 year anniversary of COVID-19’s revelation, we have made many changes to our working spaces. Having dedicated work spaces is essential for productivity and mental health and can bring a bit of fun and authenticity to your meetings. While many have chosen to use artificial Zoom backgrounds, a genuine, visually interesting background can give your meetings a new layer of depth and context. For those with the space, this tech can be surprisingly affordable and easy to install, although we do recommend a partner for some of the assembly.
We repurposed a guest room into a larger, convertible office space using the Lori Wall Bed to free up some floor and work space, Govee’s WiFI-connected adhesive RGBIC strip lights to create some ambience, and Elgato’s Wave Panels adhere easily to any wall, ideally at mouth and ear height to reduce reverb on hard surfaces (like walls and hard floors) to improve audio quality. RGBIC means that each LED on the strip can be addressed individually or in segments and triggered with voice command (Google Assistant or Alexa). Recurring schedules give your space a sort of circadian rhythm to prompt your daily routine.
We are huge fans of the Govee product lineup. We also use Govee’s Bluetooth and WiFi Thermo-Hygrometers to monitor temperatures in various areas of the house and ensure devices can continue to operate within specification. The Govee app can send push notifications to phones and tablets when temperature or humidity reaches specific thresholds. If you are putting computers in small spaces like cabinets or enclosed racks, thermal monitoring is essential to keep things running reliably and prevent hardware failure or thermal throttling.