Show HN: Presentations for your webcam, not a projector (opens in new tab)

- https://apps.microsoft.com/detail/9N4066W2R5Q4?hl=en-us&gl=U...

- https://github.com/tom-englert/RegionToShare

I haven't needed to do the same on a Mac yet, but if anyone knows of an app that does the same (i.e., define a "transparent" window that screen cap can then share in a call), do let me know (it's bound to be trickier on macOS due to window contexts, the compositor and privacy, but there might be an app out there for that)

I also have a single large screen. So I put the CueCam window on the right, top to bottom. And the windows I want to share in the bottom left quadrant. There I can make them smaller, with the correct aspect ratio, so that participants with smaller screens can see all the detail they need.

That leaves the top left quadrant for my meeting window where I can see the meeting participants.

I'm also experimenting with the two companion apps: Shoot to use my iPhone camera and control zoom from CCP; and Video Pencil to draw on my video.

Works fine. It's kind of a pain to configure, but it only needs done once and saved as a scene (which can then later be recalled with a keyboard macro or whatever, if one wishes).

(To receive bonus nachos, set the desktop background to include a 16:9 rectangle of the captured area for your own visual reference, and automate it so that this background is displayed when OBS is running. For fancy nachos, have more than one such area with one scene for each.)

[0] https://www.amazon.co.uk/s?k=display+emulator

[1] https://youtu.be/RA-XXvFHgEs

Can you put the stuff you need to share in a Virtual Machine? This, for me, has already solved pretty much everything this software offers.

Whether $120/year is reasonable or not is debatable though. Seems steep for the casual user but for people that professionally do presentations, these sorts of things can be extremely pricey even on purchased licenses.

But it does benefit you in a very real way.

I work alone. I'm very good at spinning up features in a few hours. With a subscription model I can release these changes continuously, so you get new features and improvements on a weekly or monthly basis.

If I had to come up with a release schedule I'd have to make a lot of decisions about cordoning off different features, coming up with names, marketing materials, deciding what goes where. This is a huge mental and technical overhead. I'd be juggling git branches across multiple pieces of software, the website, and beyond. I'd be incentivised to put more and more things behind the next paywall and I'd be getting less and less real work done.

I don't have the marketing clout of Apple or Microsoft. They can take a different approach. I've tried a few and now I'm trying this!

One more thing, I do plan on adding some more cloud-based features as time goes on. I'm already managing a Chat GPT integration, and in future I'm picturing an online content library and search to let teams quickly access decks and slides for demos. But that's future stuff, so not relevant to your question just now.

Short answer: it lets me, as a solo developer, give you more cool stuff.

When a screen share takes over, a conversation turns into a broadcast, which isn't always what you want.

There will always be scenarios where the improved resolution of a screen sharing codec will be necessary (and nothing is stopping you!), but I find a lot of the time there's a big white screen with a bit of branding and one bullet point on screen, and I can't see the face of the person who is talking.

I was on a group call recently where the speaker presented in this way for half an hour as a tiny thumbnail and I found it quite painful, thinking "I've been listening to this person for ages but I wouldn't recognise them in real life".

Sure enough, a couple of weeks later I had an awkward conversation where this exact person kinda recognised me but I didn't recognise her, so I felt pretty vindicated .

If we avoid the overhead of screen shares, the conversation flows a lot better, and everybody can be seen without the host having to turn anything off. And don't forget, if somebody's on a phone screen then they can't see all the detail anyway. This is why I prefer zooming in on important content than sharing my whole screen (I zoom in on my desktop using a pinch gesture in Video Pencil on my iPad and it feels magical).

This reasoning obscures the huge overhead of creating a distinct "version 2" next year. I can do a much better job on the software if I don't have to spend 70% of my time marketing the next version or sectioning off this or that feature for commercial reasons.

But I take your point, I don't love subscription software either, but most of my current users are pretty comfortable with these so it's good for now while I'm working alone. And my hosting / API access fees are not _zero_ so there is a vague justification there too.

I've been thinking on how to do this "non-linear mode for content" but haven't been able to figure out the actual infrastructure for it.

The problem I see is accessing the content in real-time; how does one pull up content in real-time without materially affecting the flow of conversation? Of course, this assumes you know the location of the relevant piece of content. And don't even THINK about combining different pieces of content together in real-time!

> Maybe it would look more like a sound effect board/stream deck/TV Mixer where there is a matrix of buttons to playback videos, add titles, show images, play sound effects, etc. I think you're talking about a Stream Deck! CueCam gives you the other part of the Stream Deck puzzle when you do have structure, but lots of its features can be accessed with the Stream Deck plugin.

It's already possible to deep link to specific cards so you could set that up if you didn't feel like scrolling. But I'm usually fine to scroll (it's a pretty low friction interaction!) and it's less fiddling-about up front.

I have chroma key support already.

Other things may appear over time. If I find myself wanting to do some data-driven motion graphics you can bet that feature will appear within a week

The drawing feature is possible using other apps but it's always a bit of a compromise and awkward to set up.

I help people to do this every day and I know lots of them would prefer something easier!

A lot of professionals pay big money for tools that make their workflow simple.

I have made the comparison table link a bit more prominent on the pricing page so hopefully it's less ambiguous now.

> the scenario where I'm speaking to slide notes is central. Although your introductory video is very good, it's unclear how this works with Presenter View. * CueCam is built around the idea of cue cards. You write your notes on cards and then advance through them when presenting. You see your notes in a window on your teleprompter or using my companion app "Shoot's" built-in teleprompter

> You emboldened "Eye Contact", so are you doing the "magic eye contact" thing that FaceTime does? Not at all, it's all about your teleprompter - putting the text you're reading and the person you're talking to directly in front of your camera lens (or using Shoot, as close as possible to your camera lens!)

> Does CCP integrate with things like Stream Deck to help minimize the need to use the GUI? Absolutely. I have a fully-featured Stream Deck plugin. I have a Stream Deck Mini set up with a "next" button, an "aside" button and a couple more for screen sharing and quickly exiting a share. But it does a lot more, including allowing you select drawing tools on the iPad when you're drawing, with the correct drawing tool and colour being visible on the Stream Deck button (THAT was a lot of work to get right...)

CueCam has a "Teleprompter Window" that you could adapt to this purpose. You can "Include Camera Feed in Teleprompter Window" and then whatever you're sharing will come through. Although it does have window chrome so maybe not ideal. Another option is to fire up a QuickTime window and use "New Movie Recording" and use that as your sharing source window.

You definitely want "Original Sound for Musicians" switched on in Zoom if you're doing any audio sharing with CueCam.

But I would also dispute this as "rentseeking". Am I taking something from the commons and putting a paywall around it, or am I working hard as a producer of value, and trying to find a way to be rewarded for my labour? To me it feels like the latter. I'm not sitting back on the spoils of capital, I'm working for a living.

Well, to a point. I wouldn't have been able to attempt this without a certain amount of privilege - for instance not being rent-burdened for the last few years due to my partner owning her own home - but I'm not exploiting workers or anything here.

I wish I didn't have to spend so much time thinking about how to make money from my work. But that's Capitalism for you. But if it makes any difference, I described how I wanted to run my company (if it ever starts making enough money to support a team) by paying everyone the same here: https://goodtohear.co.uk/changes/modal/social_enterprise (direct link to a modal which usually sits on the product page).

But I think it's correct now?

That said, I'm still too scared to look at the damn hotjar data so I don't even know why I'm using it .