What's a docking station?
06 Mar 2021
A docking station is a piece of hardware meant to be permanently-ish installed at 1 location, to facilitate plugging a laptop into accessories that are also permanently-ish installed at that location.
Keyboard, mouse, wall power, monitor, speakers, microphone, etc.
A docking station can help tidy up the wires at a desk when you frequently sit down there with a laptop.
Sadly, a docking station does not allow 2 different computers to share the same set of accessories. That’s a switch box.
In the context of digitizing audio-visual production: a docking station might help you organize cables in a studio or at a desk if you won’t be moving them around a lot. For example, perhaps it helps you plug your laptop into a larger monitor & keyboard for long audio-visual postproduction situations.
However, if the whole reason you have a laptop is to record on the go, it’s not really meant to be part of your mobile equipment bag. If you find yourself constantly using the same 5 peripherals on location, you’re probably better served by a USB hub, some velcro ties, and a small bag to keep them organized.
Posts In This Series
- Part 1 - Intro to streaming and recording concepts
- Part 2 - Recording an Audient iD14's sound in Windows
- Part 3 - Listening to computer sound through an Audient iD14
- Part 4 - Using a Behringer UCA202 with Windows, Android, or iOS
- Part 5 - Record 2 videos using the same microphone
- Part 6 - PiP webcam + screen sharing
- Part 7 - Using your phone or iPad as a webcam
- Part 8 - Using OBS as a virtual webcam for Zoom conference calls
- Part 9 - This Article
