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Want to look and sound better than average on a video conference, vlogging presentation, Skype, Slack, FaceTime, FB Messenger? Smith-Victors got you covered–with studio quality light and sound.

Work at home

Home lights add a lot of yellow to the real color, not good for home video conferencing

Do you know how important light-quality is?

Two of the most important factors in quality lighting for video conferencing is CRI, and Color Temp.  Most Smith-Victor video conferencing lights give you studio-quality results featuring:

  • CRI of up to 95 or more
  • Full control over the color temp
  • Soft Diffused light

Most Smith-Victor lights have a broadcast-studio light quality.  Light quality is measured in CRI, the ability of a light source to reveal the colors of people or objects faithfully in comparison with an ideal or natural light source. Light sources with a high CRI (95 and greater) are desirable in color-critical applications such as Cinema, broadcast TV, Video, podcasts, and vlogging–especially fashion/makeup, and photography.  It is defined by the International Commission on Illumination (CIE).

Home lights actually subtract blue and add a lot of yellow to your real color.  And that’s not good for home video conferencing or vlogging.  If this is a problem in your home chose bi-color or variable color control which is available in most of the pro Smith-Victor lights.  Then you can manually adjust the blues and yellows until you look perfect.

Most home and store lighting has a very low CRI, 80 or less, and they do not render color very accurately.  In addition, home lights and store lights are actually a different color.  The lights at your home tend to add a yellow cast (warm).  This is not good for home video conferencing as you might come off looking jaundice. Choose a Smith-Victor light that has color temperature control–bi-color. You turn the color temperature up adding back in the blue cast to balance out the yellows getting you back to neutral.  Store lights and office lights are usually fluorescent and have a bluish cast (cold).  Have you ever bought paint, or clothing from the store and when you got it home it looked different–even changed colors?  Some colors are VERY sensitive to the yellow/blue shift caused by these different lights.  Its called a metamerism shift. What appears to be purple in the store can turn green outside.  The most likely colors to suffer from metamerism shift are mauve, lilac, taupe, celadon, tan, greys, and grey/blues.

Are you a professional broadcaster, or shooting from your home and need a more professional look?  Check out our Work From Home Pro-Broadcaster Lighting Kits

Our top 4 Work From Home Pro-Broadcaster Lighting Kits

Ar you working/shooting from home and need a lighting system that looks more like the studio you usually shoot in? But you also want it simple enough that you can set it up yourself and you don’t need a Hollywood certified gaffer to figure out how to use it? You’ve come to the right place. Smith-Victor has been making simple studio-quality lighting for over 100 years right here in USA just outside of Chicago. Below you’ll see a few of our favorite pre-configured studio/broadcast-quality light kits complete with stands, cords, bag and everything you need to hook them up right in your home.

Three-light configurations will give you the best studio-looking results. Check out this blog on 3-point lighting. And remember, keep the lights high and pointing down at you so you’re not squinting from the brightness, and also creates shadows/darkness on your neck which outlines/highlights your face — highly desirable. And spread them apart wider than 10:00 and 2:00 into your peripheral vision if you can.


#1. The Cool-Lux CL1000: one of our best lights ever

…with a CRI exceeding 96. CRI is a measurement of light quality. In simple terms, CRI 100 is perfect light exactly how you see it. Anything over 90 is very good, >95 is pro/broadcast quality. This light has been used in television stations all over the country since we introduced it in 2014, and will look just as good in your home. It is simple and easy to use. Just plug it in the wall and there’s 2 knobs on the back–brightness and color-temp. Color temp is the warmth or yellowness of the light. Your home is probably lit with tungsten colored LED’s which cast more yellow than you want on TV. Fluorescent office lights add too much blue than you want on TV. The color-temp know lets you fix the color whichever your room has. Features a flat, low-profile design that takes up very little space. The team at the studio will be happy to see you’re using this.


#2. The Orbit 360 Kit is the Editors Choice

…because of its high CRI (95) and adjustable brightness up to 1000 lux. Its a durable, very flattering soft light and being round in shape casts a pleasing circular catch-light in your eyes (round, same shape as the sun). You can also choose an optional battery kit to power it for a couple hours without plugging it in, back yard, out in nature, or a power outage. Features a boom light, key for overhead hair/shoulder lighting. Also a flat, low-profile design.


#3. The Acies is a fantastic choice for special situations

…where space is a premium and the lights need to be out the way. The Acies can be tucked into the corners of the room strategically positioned vertically into corners, and up to the ceiling horizontally where the wall meet the ceilings. With two (2) fully dimmable 48″ strips and one (1) 32″ you will have all the light you need just about anywhere. The color is studio-quality, 95 CRI. Features ‘barn-doors’ to narrow the beam of light when needed. Also a great choice for lighting your green-screen.


#4. The SlimPanel is our value leader

…but they’re no slouch at 95 CRI. They are everything you need to take bring your broadcast up to snuff. Features fully dimmable soft light, very light-weight, and an optional battery kit.