While hybrid work has brought numerous benefits – for example, consistent collaboration between employees (wherever they are) and reducing travel expenses – hybrid meetings are still not as seamless as face-to-face ones. In fact, Logitech’s Hybrid Meeting Survey found that 56 percent of respondents agreed that in-office participants tend to be more engaged during hybrid meetings as compared to those joining remotely. Remote attendees can feel disconnected from those seated in the meeting, resulting in an uneven playing field between them and in-person participants.

The disconnect is often created when virtual attendees do not get good visuals and audio from participants in the boardroom. Behavioural cues – slight frowns that may indicate a lack of understanding, or crossed arms that may indicate differences in opinions – are vital during meetings. However, they can be difficult to pick up when the participants are not in the same room, particularly when virtual attendees only have a bird’s eye view of the meeting.

A lack of ability to pick up these cues can create a sense of distance between remote and in-person workers, limiting productivity and collaboration. The disparity in visibility, engagement, and participation that springs from conversations between virtual and in-meeting attendees contributes to what is known as an inequitable meeting experience.

To address this need, Logitech – a leading provider of enterprise video conferencing solutions – has created a new AI-powered tabletop companion camera called Logitech Sight, that works with front-of-the-room cameras Rally Bar and Rally Bar Mini, to intelligently capture the best perspective of meeting participants and track conversations around the conference room.

With multiple camera angles and 315° video capture capabilities, the tabletop camera maintains a consistent front-facing view of in-person interactions as the conversation flows between them and remote participants. This helps remote workers feel as if they’re seated at the conference table, as opposed to sideline observers.

Research has shown that having opportunities to participate in the conversation is the most important factor in establishing a sense of equity in hybrid meetings. These opportunities are provided when all attendees, no matter their physical location, are heard and seen clearly. In fact, simply turning on one’s webcam during a remote meeting has been found to increase participation, satisfaction, and effectiveness by 20 to 50 percent.

Sight aids meeting participation by intelligently tracking where the conversation is in the room, identifying, framing, and following up to four speakers at a time and broadcasting the best possible view of the main speaker to remote attendees. It makes use of dual lenses that capture up to 4K video resolution, and these crystal-clear close-up shots are key to allowing every meeting attendee to view those all-important behavioural cues.

Sight also has seven beamforming microphones that detect active speakers using the direction from which the voices arrive. These audio and visual capabilities work together to remove any barriers that prevent remote participants from fully engaging in the discussion.

Participants have convenient mic mute controls at their fingertips, allowing them to quickly and easily mute or unmute the microphones in the room as required. The three colored LEDs on the Sight provide clear indications for video on/off, mute on/off, in-call status, power status, and more. Additionally, the magnetic privacy shade offers a simple way to ensure privacy by automatically turning off video capture when slid in front of the lenses.

Sight works seamlessly with leading video platforms such as Microsoft Teams, Zoom, and Google Meet, making it easy to deploy in most organisations, regardless of one’s tech know-how. It is also easily managed using the free Logitech Sync software to update, monitor and troubleshoot the device remotely.

Find out more about the Logitech Sight and how it can level your meeting room table here.

The post Bring everyone to the table: Equitable hybrid meetings with the Logitech Sight appeared first on Tech Wire Asia.

However, the new way of working also surfaces changes to the way we collaborate and meet. Boardrooms are great for large, in-person meetings, but the rise in hybrid working practices means smaller, ‘huddle rooms’ for quick collab sessions and brainstorming with remote workers are now more necessary than ever.

While the ideal huddle room is one that is equipped with high-quality audio and video capabilities, and is simple – and quick – to use, the reality remains quite different. According to data from Wainhouse Research, despite the increased need for room-based video conferencing, smaller meeting rooms are not often optimally equipped for video conferencing. This creates a gap: there’s now an increased need for collaboration in distributed teams, but organizations lack the infrastructure to support it.

Organizations may be reluctant to invest in new meeting room technology due to past perceptions of costly expenses that are not cost effective for smaller rooms. However, video conferencing solutions, purpose-built for huddle rooms, are emerging onto the market that have excellent sound, audio, and build quality. They’re designed specifically to support smaller intimate discussions.

As many organizations adopt hybrid working practices, balancing the meeting experiences between remote and in-person employees becomes a critical business imperative. Workers joining meetings remotely need more than a single, lo-res shot of the room accompanied by muffled audio. Closing the disparity in experience between in-person and remote becomes a significant factor in the success of hybrid work models.

Using latest-generation hardware and smart, AI-aided technology closes this gap in the meeting experience significantly. Multiple, tight-beam microphones and 4k cameras that track speakers intelligently bring the remote attendees right into the discussion. Crisp audio and detailed video, follows the path of the ongoing collaboration, making remote attendance a first-class experience.

In the Rally Bar Huddle from Logitech, for example, sound is captured by six beamforming microphones, and optimized by RightSound AI-powered audio optimization that automatically removes background noise. Audio from remote attendees is projected into the huddle room through a full-range ported speaker for crystal-clear incoming sound.

The hardware’s camera produces 4K image quality videos, and pans, tilts and zooms autonomously – just like watching a high-budget production. The system offers two viewing modes: Grid and Speaker Views (see below) help immerse remote attendees as if they were present in the room.

In Speaker View, the camera detects and zooms in on the active person speaking, yet with an omnipresent wide-angle view of the whole room. Alternatively, Grid View captures the head & shoulder view of all meeting attendees and displays them in a “traditional” grid familiar to anyone who’s used video conferencing software.

The 55 cm-long bar is suitable for a meeting of up to six physical attendees and can be attached to a display, table, or wall, depending on the room’s layout.

It’s important that such technology, however impactful, is easy to install. It should also be fast and simple to use. For the Rally Bar Huddle, initial setup takes only minutes, with the unit powered and networked via a single cable.

For end-users, the system integrates seamlessly with Google Meet, Zoom, and Microsoft Teams, so meetings can be up and running in seconds. The system becomes an extension of existing workflows for all meetings, chats, brainstorms and pitch meetings.

For IT teams, the solution is easily managed, maintained and controlled by any Windows PC (Chrome OS is also supported). Accompanying cloud-based software, Logitech Sync, makes fleet management simple – updates can be deployed remotely, and provides helpful room-use insights for the organization. (An optional extra touch comes in the form of the touch-screen Logitech Tap IP)

In smaller huddle rooms, getting in-person and remote personalities in a virtual (or real) space is now a critical element of modern working practices.

Request for a demo of the Rally Bar Huddle here.

The post Hybrid meetings: How dedicated audio-visuals level up your huddle room appeared first on Tech Wire Asia.