Joining an interview with two cameras

This page is only for subjects where we have explicitly asked you to use this method, that is:

• Interviews for Computer Science candiates
• Interviews for Economics candidates (two cameras needed for the interview with Dr Shvets)
• Interviews for Mathematics candidates (two cameras needed both of your interviews)

Please do not use two cameras if we have not asked you to do so in your invitation to interview.

If you've been asked to join an interview with two cameras, it doesn't matter whether your scheduled interviews are in Microsoft Teams or in Zoom - it works for both, so please ignore the reference to Zoom in the picture below - it is just an example. Please check your invitation to interview to see if we want you to enter both interviews with two cameras, or if this is only for one interview.

See the picture and see if you can get hold of the equipment to make it work? The aim is to suspend a camera over a pad and paper so that you can write and the interviewers can see what you're writing. If you don't have a phone that can do this, is there anyone who might be able to lend you one? At the beginning of your interview, you would join the meeting twice: first with your laptop (or desktop with webcam*) and then separately with a phone or equivalent. Have a play - see what you can manage and do some practice. Tips: It will help if you can use a fairly thick pen so that what you write comes out clearly on the camera. Try to experiment with the height of the camera over your paper, as if it's too high your writing will come out too small. You may need to write a little bigger than usual to ensure it is clearly visible to the interviewers. Important: You may need to turn on 'auto-rotate' on your phone so that the camera orientation changes (if you don't, your image may be sideways or upside down to the interviewers/on your screen - check this). Usually you will need to turn on auto-rotate, then turn your phone landscape, and then place it on your stand over the paper.  Important: don't forget to mute the microphone on your second device (e.g. phone) and turn the volume off on it - otherwise you'll get a nasty echo as there are two devices in one room!

Other equipment you could use

Tin cans as shown in the picture above work fine and have the advantage that you may already have them at home (you don't need to buy equipment for this), but if you prefer, there are other ways to hold a phone camera in the right place as long as you've done some practice and made sure it works well.

• you could use a pile of books in much the same way as the tin cans (practice first as books are often bigger and don't always work as well in the space you have).
   
• there are phone holders that are designed to clamp to a table at one end and grip a smartphone at the other so that you can suspend and angle a phone camera as you want to. If you are interested in this, look up Gooseneck phone holder or possibly Overhead phone mount - they are quite common now so you should not have difficulty finding them in online stores, or you may know someone who has one already and can lend it to you.

This film by Churchill College shows both a pile of books and a Gooseneck phone holder being used for interview set up (please don't try the tilting a laptop screen thing shown in the film though!)