New desk setup for iPad, Logic, YouTubing and Switch

Summary

In this video, Matt Gemmell introduces his newly optimized desk setup, perfect for iPad use, YouTube content creation, music production, and Nintendo Switch gaming. Highlighted by a new 4K Dell monitor, the setup features a thunderbolt hub, multiple HDMI inputs, and innovative audio solutions to create a seamless workflow for multiple devices. Matt shares his journey from an ordinary desk to a tech-laden workspace, highlighting his love for the techy transformation and offering insights into his gadget choices, making this a worthwhile watch for tech enthusiasts seeking inspiration for their own setups.

Highlights

• Matt unveiled his exciting new desk setup, featuring a 4K Dell monitor with USB-C versatility. 🖥️
• A Thunderbolt hub connects his iPad Pro, providing a neat and clutter-free environment. 🔌
• His wife inspired the choice of his new monitor, touting its similar benefits. 👫
• Pebble Pro speakers brought a major audio boost, making him ditch the old V3s. 🎶
• Switching between devices is a breeze with multiple HDMI inputs and smart audio management. 🎛️
• Matt's clever use of picture-in-picture mode keeps his workflow smooth and productive. 🖼️
• Stylish and functional, Matt's setup is a playground for tech enthusiasts. 🎈

Key Takeaways

• Matt's new 4K Dell monitor offers USB-C input and has 65 watts of charging capability, streamlining his workspace. ⚡️
• An organized desk setup helps Matt balance YouTube content creation, gaming, and music production efficiently. 🎮🎹
• Upgrading to Pebble Pro speakers improved his audio experience dramatically. 🔊
• Matt ingeniously uses Thunderbolt hubs and smart cable management to keep his setup tidy and efficient. 🧩
• Despite challenges, Matt loves his setup and shares it with a sense of humor. 😄

Overview

Tech enthusiast Matt Gemmell has revamped his desk setup, introducing a sleek and optimized workspace that any gadget lover would envy. At the heart of it all is a stunning 4K Dell monitor, offering not only crystal-clear visuals but also adaptable connectivity with a USB-C input and charging capabilities. This monitor, complemented by smart cable management and a CalDigit Thunderbolt hub, connects his iPad Pro directly, allowing for a seamless flow between work and play.

The desk setup is a haven for multitaskers, with Matt detailing the versatile use of HDMI ports to connect his Nintendo Switch and crafting content with his Sony Alpha camera. A standout feature of Matt's setup is his new audio configuration. By upgrading to Pebble Pro speakers, he secured a leap in sound quality, focusing on getting the most out of every device and leading him away from prior disappointing choices.

What brings this setup together is Matt's humorous and candid storytelling. From DIY solutions like building his keyboard tray out of old furniture to navigating the complex world of tech setups, Matt is here to inspire. This video is not just a look into his workspace but a testament to the satisfaction derived from creating a space tailor-made for productivity and joy.

Chapters

• 00:00 - 00:30: Introduction The speaker, Matt Gel, excitedly announces that he has reorganized his desk setup. While acknowledging that this information might not be significant to others, he proceeds to share the details of his new setup, emphasizing the changes he has made.
• 00:30 - 01:00: Major New Addition: Dell Monitor The chapter discusses a new addition: a Dell monitor. The model number is S2722QC, also known as Quebec Charlie. The monitor is 4K and accepts USB-C input for video while also providing 65W of charging power.
• 01:00 - 01:30: Connecting Devices and Thunderbolt Hub Setup The chapter discusses the setup and connectivity of devices using a Thunderbolt Hub. The speaker mentions not using the direct charging feature of a USB-C cable as they utilize a Thunderbolt Hub instead. This hub, specifically a CalDigit Thunderbolt Hub, is connected to an iPad Pro via a Thunderbolt 4 cable, allowing the monitor to be connected through the hub as well. The hub is independently powered, eliminating the need for additional charging through the USB-C cable.
• 01:30 - 02:00: Wife's Experience and Common Devices The chapter discusses the usage of the iPad Pro with a monitor that also serves as a charging device. The narrator mentions that his wife has the same monitor, which influenced his decision to purchase it. He also talks about the consistency in his setup with components like the magic Trackpad and Zsa Voyager split keyboard, although some elements have been slightly rearranged.
• 02:00 - 02:30: Nintendo Switch and HDMI Setup This chapter covers the setup of a Nintendo Switch with an OLED display, connected to a device featuring one USB-C input and two HDMI inputs. Various personal items, such as a keyboard, E Ink tablets, a Wi-Fi system, books, and personal pictures, are mentioned, emphasizing the multifunctionality and organization of the setup.
• 02:30 - 03:00: Youtubing Camera Setup The chapter delves into the technical setup for a YouTuber, focusing on the choice and configuration of a monitor that supports various devices. The author highlights the importance of having the right number and type of ports on the monitor to connect multiple devices such as an iPad, Nintendo Switch, and a camera. The setup includes using USBC for connecting the iPad, and two HDMI ports for connecting the Nintendo Switch and a Sony camera used for YouTubing. The choice of this specific monitor is based on personal experience and the satisfaction of a family member, indicating its reliability and functionality for multitasking and content creation.
• 03:00 - 03:30: Speakers and Audio Configuration The chapter titled 'Speakers and Audio Configuration' focuses on the technical setup involving audio and video equipment. It describes the use of a Sony zv E10 Mark 2 camera with a Sigma 16mm f/1.4 lens. Additionally, various attachments like cages and gadgets are mentioned, including a Rode microphone, though it's noted that the user is currently utilizing Hollyland Lark lapel microphones instead. A tripod is part of the setup, indicating a flexible configuration suitable for different recording needs.
• 03:30 - 04:00: USB Audio Integration This chapter discusses the integration of USB audio, specifically focusing on computer speakers. The narrator describes their setup, which involves a monitor mounted on an arm and notes about having boxes, including those for the Pebble Pro speakers. The chapter seems to focus on setting up and configuring audio and display equipment.
• 04:00 - 04:30: Switch Audio Configuration The chapter discusses the user's experience with a particular set of audio equipment they found unsatisfactory. The user criticizes the poor bass and tinny highs and points out the lack of a headphone output, which led them to return the product. They upgraded to Pebble Pros for an additional cost of £25, highlighting the features of the new equipment, including USB audio capability and another unspecified port.
• 04:30 - 05:00: HDMI Camera Use and HDR Settings The chapter discusses the use of an HDMI camera and the configurations for HDR settings. It mentions the presence of an auxiliary power option through a USBC power delivery port, allowing connection to a 30W USBC power delivery charger. This setup enables the device to reach up to 30 Watts RMS and 60 Watts Peak. The performance is notably better than previous versions (v3s), providing significant improvements right out of the box, even when solely running from USB. The discussion suggests these improvements make the option highly favorable, especially when considering similar devices such as the Pebble.
• 05:00 - 05:30: Charging Features and Thunderbolt Hub The chapter discusses the preference for the 'pros' over the 'ordinary Pebble V3s' regarding aesthetic features such as color options. The 'pros' are preferred particularly because they now come in white and black, in addition to the initial racing green option. These models also feature glowing bases, which can be customized by adjusting the dial to select different colors.
• 05:30 - 06:00: YouTubing and Key Light Setup In this chapter, the focus is on the setup of YouTubing, with a particular emphasis on the key light. The discussion touches upon the equipment's features, including the presence of headphone and microphone ports that are noteworthy for their convenience since they utilize USB audio. Additionally, the chapter addresses a common issue with iPad connectivity, where plugging a monitor often disables the built-in volume control, forcing adjustments to be made through the screen’s interface.
• 06:00 - 06:30: Logic Pro on Large Screens The chapter discusses issues related to connecting audio devices through a monitor and how USB audio fixes these issues. It notes that the speakers, although not plugged into the Hub, are connected to the monitor. The setup includes an iPad connected via USBC to a Thunderbolt Hub, with a USBC cable that connects the monitor having a couple of USB A ports to which the speakers are connected.
• 06:30 - 07:00: Recording and Shooting for Social Media This chapter discusses the integration of audio devices in the context of recording and shooting for social media. It highlights how certain devices can directly control one another, like sending feedback to adjust volume sliders. The chapter also notes the presence of speakers within monitors, which are often of poor quality. Thankfully, there's a feature to disable these speakers while keeping the audio output separate, allowing for flexible audio management during recordings.
• 07:00 - 07:30: Camera Power Setup This chapter discusses the setup for powering a camera and managing audio when using multiple devices. The speaker explains how they connect the Nintendo Switch through a monitor using HDMI, while the USB audio from the iPad is handled separately. The audio from the Nintendo Switch is routed through the monitor's 3.5mm jack to external speakers, resolving the issue of audio playback from multiple sources.
• 07:30 - 08:00: Custom Desk Tray This chapter covers how to toggle between different input sources on a monitor using a specific button. The button allows switching between USB, Bluetooth, and auxiliary inputs, indicated by different colors: purple for USB, blue for Bluetooth (5.1), and green for auxiliary. The speaker provides instructions on operating the input toggle, illustrating how to manage connections when using a switch.
• 08:00 - 08:30: Conclusion The chapter 'Conclusion' discusses the use of various cables and connections to optimize the functionality of a camera for different purposes. The author describes using a micro HDMI for video output and USB-C for connecting the camera to a Thunderbolt Hub. This setup enables the use of the camera with an iPad, Final Cut Pro, file transfers, and USB streaming for applications like Zoom.

New desk setup for iPad, Logic, YouTubing and Switch Transcription

• 00:00 - 00:30 good news children Matt gel here again and I have spent quite a lot of time rejigging my desk setup this is something that matters not at all to you uh but is rather cool for me so now I'm going to subject you to a considerable amount of additional detail on it let's do it here we go so still the same desk and most of the same items but the
• 00:30 - 01:00 major new thing of course is this lovely big monitor it is a Dell as you can see from the logo on the front the model number is s 2722 QC that's Quebec Charlie it is 4K monitor and it's USBC so it takes a USBC input uh for a video and it also Supply 60 W 65 w sorry of charging uh
• 01:00 - 01:30 back out of that same USBC cable which is uh fantastic um I don't actually use the charging cuz I've got a a thunderbolt Hub uh it's Cal digit yep down there which the iPad Pro is connected to Via this Thunderbolt 4 cable and the monitor comes out of the Hub uh The Hub of course is is powered on in its own right so uh I don't need
• 01:30 - 02:00 to use it that way but I could just plug the iPad Pro straight into the Monitor and the monitor which is plugged into the mains would charge the iPad Pro at the same time my wife has got this exact same monitor that's why I ended up buying it um some other parts of the setup remain the same but I've been shifted around a we bit I still have my magic Trackpad and my Zsa Voyager split keyboard I still have my musical
• 02:00 - 02:30 keyboard it's an arura key laab essential 61 love that for logic got my e in tablets super noce there that's the DPL link Deco Wi-Fi thing my books picture of my boys in there I've got a Nintendo switch OLED back there which is plugged into here this thing has got as I said a USBC input and two HDMI inputs and I am using all of them another
• 02:30 - 03:00 reason I chose it um aside from knowing it was a fantastic monitor cuz my wife's get the same one with her office downstairs is that is exactly the right number and uh you know configuration of ports so USBC is from the iPad uh the first HDMI is from the Nintendo switch there and the second HDMI I presently use for this uh camera my youtubing camera which is a a Sony
• 03:00 - 03:30 Alpha zv E10 Mark 2 with a sigma 16 mm 1 f1.4 lens on it various H gadgets cages and so on attached they got a road ready micro 2 or go I think there which I'm not actually using at the moment I'm using hly land lar lapel mics like the one I've got on just now but I've got that if I need this sort of shotgun situation like if I take the whole tripod out it is on a tripod so I think they're in behind this laptop thing is
• 03:30 - 04:00 on this big arm and the monitor is on the second arm behind instead of on the very fancy metal stand that comes with it but which is still in the box over there excuse me I haven't TI the boxs away you also see the boxs for the pebble Pro speakers which I have got I just wanted some computer speakers I originally got the pebble v3s and um I
• 04:00 - 04:30 wouldn't recommend them the base is terrible practically non-existent the highs are pretty tinny there's no micro uh sorry headphone out uh so I returned them and upgraded to the peble pros which is another 25 quid it's it's it's not major and the fancy thing about these is that they not only do USB audio but they also and they have a a you know .5 in uh
• 04:30 - 05:00 auxiliary as well but there's an extra USBC power delivery Port into which you can plug a 30 W USBC power delivery charger which I have and then it takes these up to 30 WS RMS and a 60 W Peak and even just out of the box just running from USB they are way better than the v3s much much much better so if you're going for these uh Pebble
• 05:00 - 05:30 speakers at all either for the aesthetic the size whatever it is um I would definitely go for the pros uh instead of the v3s of the ordinary Pebble particularly since the pros now come in white and black as well as the strange racing green uh color that they initially came out with as the only option they do have glowing bases I've got it switched off but you can like you know twiddle the dial to choose colors if you're into all that uh
• 05:30 - 06:00 flashing light stuff I am not and uh they do have a headphone and a microphone port at the side which is pretty cool because the audio is USB uh as you change the volume there it changes on the iPad as well in the system um it's not that horrible thing for you know typically if you plug a monitor or something into the iPad then the volume control on the iPad is just like disabled and you have to control the volume via the on the screen sort of
• 06:00 - 06:30 controls or whatever on the monitor that's horrendous USB audio fixes it and these speakers they're not even plugged into the Hub they're plugged into the monitor so the iPad goes via USBC to the Thunderbolt Hub uh and then there's a USBC cable connecting this and this has got a couple of USB a ports uh and the speakers are just connected to that and the whole like via USB
• 06:30 - 07:00 magic this recognizes these as an audio device it directly controls and vice versa it sort of sends feedback to control the volume slider on that as well and uh that's pretty amazing to me this thing has got speakers as well being a monitor speakers are crap uh thankfully there's a control on the onscreen display to just kill the speakers on that and it's completely independent of the audio out so you could have both running at once
• 07:00 - 07:30 um you may be wondering how then does it work when I'm playing the Nintendo switch through the monitor because of course that's in via HDMI and the USB audio that's part of the big sort of USB Bust from the iPad that's not going to obviously have any of the audio from the switch well I have also connected the 3.5 in Jack from the monitor into these speakers and you you can just hit
• 07:30 - 08:00 this uh button here to toggle between input sources it goes between uh the USB which is there'll be purple light there or it'll change to Blue if you've got a Bluetooth connection which it does as well I think it's Bluetooth 5.1 and uh you press it again and it goes green and it's the auxiliary input for the switch so all I need to do is turn on the switch toggle the mode on the monitor if necessary and uh and hit that button to change the input and I'm
• 08:00 - 08:30 away which is pretty good as I said I use the second HTMI input as the monitor for this camera which does a a micro HDMI out that little cable you're seeing at the bottom there the top one being USBC to connect it to the Thunderbolt Hub so the iPad can use it or into Final Cut Pro or just to pull files off or for USB streaming for Zoom or whatever it is
• 08:30 - 09:00 or even FaceTime these days can support that as a camera which is about a billion times better than the camera on the iPad itself so I can have this whole Blooming Thing it's a massive great big monitor for that which is a little strange because it's huge but what this thing also does is picture and picture so you can either have about an eighth of the screen in each corner or a quarter of the screen in each corner or
• 09:00 - 09:30 you can split it horizontally in half so I can have the second desktop as it is here via USBC but then also say put about that much of it as the output from the camera as a monitor which is pretty fantastic really like this thing you can enable HDR in the settings and then it reports back to iPad OS that is an HDR device and you get the options in settings app and displays and brightness
• 09:30 - 10:00 or whatever the setting is called relating to HDR pretty smart and as I say this thing charges and there's an extra usba a port under here somewhere which uh is also a power delivery charging port so you can plug stuff in to charge up like you know microphones headphones trackpads or whatever have extra uh usba ports on the Thunderbolt
• 10:00 - 10:30 hub for that reason so I probably won't use it but my wife certainly does use that feature in her office so yeah it's all pretty amazing if I don't want to listen to VI the speakers of course got my XM 5S just there and all the rest of my uh youtubing type setup is here got this big key light with a grid on it and bigger tripod if I'm doing stuff in the couch I've got my light bounce I've got
• 10:30 - 11:00 a we white uh white balance setting thing and all of this um Thunderbolt drive for backing stuff up etc etc um pretty damn nice setup I wish that Final Cut Pro scaled up on to bigger screens it doesn't you can drag it across and it just stays at its maximum size from the 13-in iPad Pro if you try and make it bigger it will expand the entire UI like magnifies it
• 11:00 - 11:30 all icons and buttons and Sliders and everything so you don't get any more workspace at all which is annoying but that is not true of Logic Pro logic pro does the proper thing fills the whole screen gives you a massive great big timeline or midi editor huge virtual keyboard not that I need that with the my keyboard there but it's pretty amazing and I can still do my shots to
• 11:30 - 12:00 camera and shots to my desk usually for my supernotes because of this arm that I still got here this is a MAG safe Mount this phone that I'm recording with clonks right on there sends its footage straight into Final Cut Pro whilst I'm doing my two camera pieces using the Sony Alpha there and if for any reason I want to shoot and capture portrait video for social media or whatever at the same time or or even just use a smaller monitor I can put my
• 12:00 - 12:30 phone onto this mag safe Mountain that's right on the camera cage pretty cool oh and the camera itself has got a dummy battery that's this cable coming out just there uh which is a sort of ACDC coupler that runs the camera from the mains permanently keeps it cool and you can stream or record for as long as you blooming like so there we have it um this p tray is one that I made I
• 12:30 - 13:00 bought these sliders that clamp on so they're removable I can take that whole thing off at any time uh I cut this and you know screwed it on and all that sort of things just an old piece of furniture board that I had in the workshed to make that this Des doesn't have a built-in tray or anything I decided to make that on my own and the mysterious black bag under here is just the case for the key light and all of its stuff so it's pretty amazing loving it I'm
• 13:00 - 13:30 very much going to enjoy using that although I have to see that ulyses writing app looks somewhat silly on a 27 in screen running at 4K but at least I can have notes up H besides whatever I'm writing there my books there of course the ones that I've written myself just there so there you have it Fab Fab Fab fa fa fa fa Fab Fab looking forward to using that in this
• 13:30 - 14:00 week another Triumph as always I'm sorry that your personal circumstances have deteriorated such that watching this seemed like a good use of your time I'm sure things will look up again soon thank you in all seriousness for watching it and I hope you join me for the next video although judging by the level of riveting content in this one you probably won I will take care