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Working from home is convenient, but when you have to analyze a crowded meeting room, things get difficult. Logitech Sight places additional cameras on the conference table to
Working from home is convenient, but when you have to analyze a crowded meeting room, things get difficult. Logitech Sight places additional cameras on the conference table to further engage home workers.
Hybrid working has become an established way of working in many places since the pandemic. Why not: You get more work done at home, while you can use your working days for face-to-face brainstorming with your team or a chat at the coffee machine.
Ideally, everyone is physically present at an office meeting, but in practice this is rarely the case. This is not a problem for those present in the office: they see all participants physically at the table and only have to take into account a few virtual participants on the screen.
Anyone who works from home quickly feels less tied to the meeting because they have to sense and understand those present from a camera at the front in a kind of tunnel vision. According to Logitech, this could be better.
The principle of the Logitech Sight (2,399 euros including VAT) is simple: place additional cameras in the middle of the conference table to literally sit in the middle of those present. If you work from home, you no longer have to recognize people from a distance, but rather see them directly in front of you.
Along with a front-facing camera that shows the entire room, another key hurdle for remote workers has been removed to show more engagement with those in the room.
The only requirement for the Logitech Sight is the presence of a Logitech Rally Bar or Rally Bar Mini. Anyone who uses other hardware in the office cannot use the intelligent camera at the conference table. Why the two Logitech cameras? Both run on the Android operating system and have additional hardware on board to communicate with the Logitech Sight.
Anyone who has the right camera can quickly and easily install the Sight to improve the meeting experience (for people at home).
Installation is fairly easy as long as you know what hardware is being used in the meeting room. You can find an overview of all cable plans here. Specifically, the camera has an RJ45 port for PoE to power the sight and another RJ45 port for connecting to a dongle included in the scope of delivery.
You can connect the dongle in two ways: directly into the Rally Bar or Rally Bar Mini or you connect it to the Table Hub. The latter is in turn linked to the Rally Bar solution.
The Logitech Sight contains seven microphones and therefore automatically serves as a mic pod. Do you have a longer conference table? You can then connect an additional Mic Pod to the Sight.
Extensions within the Logitech ecosystem such as Logitech Tap, a touchscreen for added ease of use, are all compatible. Everything is plug-and-play and is automatically recognized in the system. There are few systems as user-friendly as Logitech products. Everything is included in the box to neatly hide the visor. The highly available cable routing enables the IT team to work comfortably.
We tested the camera within our Microsoft Teams environment in the editorial office. The only thing we need to check on the Logitech Tap is the Speaker View feature. This tells Teams that it can dynamically switch between present speakers and display the solution up to four at a time. These are the four most recently active speakers.
During our installation, we spent an hour configuring it but couldn’t get the feature to work. The problem? The signer was alone in the room, so Logitech Sight took no action. Since you’re alone, you automatically look at the screen and Rally Bar can zoom in on you to best capture you. Logic aside, but no less frustrating at the moment.
Once this issue is resolved, the Logitech Sight will work perfectly in any video meeting. Compared to the Rally Bar’s main camera, there is no delay in the image. Particularly cool: In addition to four pictures of the participants, people at home also see the main camera to understand the entire room.
The experience is particularly pleasant for the home worker or someone on the go. Since the camera is centrally located between the participants, it appears as if they are talking to you even though they are talking to each other. Are there two people in the meeting room? Then the Logitech Sight shows two large halves. As soon as a third or fourth person joins, the image is shared further.
This division only occurs if the person present actively participates. Anyone who just sits there or hasn’t said anything for a long time is removed from the picture to make space. It takes about a handful of minutes for someone to make room, or a fifth person has to actively join in in the meantime.
The two 4K cameras in the Logitech Sight provide a clear image of anyone near the solution. It is noticeable that Logitech did not opt for four cameras. It seemed ambitious to get everyone in the picture cleanly, but we couldn’t find any faults with the sight in the various settings. The wide-angle lens on each camera does an excellent job of capturing 315 degrees.
At the top of the Logitech Sight between the cameras there is an LED on both sides that provides additional information. For example, the red color is useful to inform you that the microphones are muted. Other colors indicate that the video is off, whether the Sight has power, and whether there is a connection problem.
There is a physical button on the bottom of the visor that allows you to conveniently mute the microphone. Logitech offers a magnetic cover that you can slide over the top of the Sight to cover the cameras for more privacy.
Logitech Sync has little to do with the Logitech Sight, but at the same time it cannot be missing from this test since IT teams will mainly work with this tool. From this cloud platform, you can easily remotely monitor any meeting room using Logitech hardware.
You can see per location or department which cameras are working well, where improvements can be made, or where something is not working. This way you can easily detect if a camera is not working properly or one of the microphones is not working. The most important feature of all is the update functionality, which allows you to easily update all your devices at the touch of a button.
The tool also gives you insights into meeting room usage. The Logitech Rally Bar’s second camera, in addition to the main camera, is particularly practical here. This camera can be used to transmit analytical data, such as the average occupancy of the individual meeting rooms, which rooms are over- or under-occupied and where optimizations are possible. Multi-tenant also helps managed service providers manage the infrastructure for the company.
With compatibility for Microsoft Teams, Zoom and Google Workspace, Logitech is conquering the most important players. In our test with teams, the Sight works very well, with a nice overview of the room from the Rally Bar camera at the front of the room.
There are no real downsides to this camera. Everything works as it should, with no real comments. The only thing that really scares us is the price. 2,399 euros including VAT is a lot of money for an expansion. On the other hand, it is an absolute added value for the people who are not in the meeting room. Video meetings are much more pleasant this way.
Anyone who makes the investment will not regret it. Provided that meetings often take place with enough people. Are video conferences in the office usually occupied by one or two people? Then the Logitech Rally Bar or Rally Bar Mini also works without the expensive sight.
Warranty: Logitech offers a two-year carry-in warranty as standard. When purchasing, you can optionally purchase an additional one or three year warranty.
Source: IT Daily
As an experienced journalist and author, Mary has been reporting on the latest news and trends for over 5 years. With a passion for uncovering the stories behind the headlines, Mary has earned a reputation as a trusted voice in the world of journalism. Her writing style is insightful, engaging and thought-provoking, as she takes a deep dive into the most pressing issues of our time.
