UNMC at home: PR creates new Zoom backgrounds

If the only quiet place in your house is, say, the bedroom, and the only neat place in your house is “nowhere” (as in my case), you’ve probably already discovered the background option in Zoom.

When I shut myself in the bedroom recently to use my smartphone to get on a teleconference, I found that the headboard of the bed, which was the only place to sit, didn’t project the kind of professional image I was looking for. Unfortunately, when I masked my real background with an image of the Golden Gate Bridge, the first question to open the conference was, “John, why are you hovering above San Francisco?”

Colleague Tom Waples felt my (and others’) pain, and has created a set of Zoom backgrounds with appropriately professional UNMC (and UNMC/Nebraska Medicine) themes. You can find them on the Brandwise site.

They’re easy to use. Just download the background you want to use and save it to your computer.

Open your Zoom meeting, click the up arrow next to “Stop Video” and select “Choose Virtual Background.” Click the “+” next to the Choose Virtual Background to upload your image and set your background. Don’t forget to uncheck the “Mirror my video” box option under Video Settings.

Voila, you have a professional, neutral background (although your hair will flicker weirdly around the edges if you move). Now, just don’t forget to mute your microphone when your son starts yelling at your daughter about which version of “Naruto” they are about to spend three hours watching. (What is “Naruto”? How many version of “Naruto” are there? These things are mysteries to me.)

Happy telecommuting, UNMC colleagues.