This Jabra videobar solved my team’s meeting room issues with a genius feature

ZDNET’s key takeaways

• The Jabra PanaCast 50 video bar system is offered now for $1,447.
• The PanaCast 50 is dependable, easy-to-use, and offers a stable 180-degree view for small to medium rooms.
• Nevertheless, the audio may very well be a bit louder and it will be good to combine Jabra Communicate mics and audio system.

My engineering consulting firm works out of an older constructing with distinctive structure. It is beautiful, however it’s not optimized for digital conferences. Our three convention rooms have been designed for in-person conferences about 15 years in the past when giant groups have been within the workplace on a regular basis. COVID modified all of that with the incorporation of hybrid conferences as the brand new norm. And, with contributors becoming a member of conferences from all world wide, technical points are commonplace.

Additionally: The best sound systems you can buy: Expert tested

Because the director of operations, one of many objects below my scope was bettering the performance of those convention rooms. With an archaic, proprietary system in place, I made a decision to check out a very new system with Jabra’s new PanaCast 50 videobar system, and realized nearly instantly that this could be the trail ahead.

View at Jabra

Our firm has come to belief Jabra as a dependable model for office-ready units such because the Jabra Speak and PanaCast net conferencing cameras, so we figured Jabra’s latest providing, the PanaCast 50 could be a stable choice to modernize our convention room.

The Jabra PanaCast 50 video bar system consists of three 13-megapixel cameras embedded into the middle of the video bar that present a 180-degree view of the convention room. Moreover, eight beamforming microphones are embedded into the video bar to offer good quantity and clear communication. This {hardware} resolution is designed for assembly rooms as much as 15 toes by 20 toes, which nearly matched the check convention room I began with.

Since this was a check and never a everlasting set up, I used the desk stand accent to mount the PanaCast 50 on a desk. At first, I stored the oval convention room desk the place it was within the middle of the room, however that resulted in marginal microphone efficiency on the far finish so we shifted the room a bit and moved the assembly desk adjoining to the desk stand. The outcome? Nobody has complained about audio high quality for the previous few months. That being stated, I’d nonetheless like to see help for extending the audio again even farther from the PanaCast 50 with Jabra Communicate extendability.

My IT crew was capable of join the PanaCast 50 to our system utilizing an ethernet cable after which to the show unit by way of USB-C. You’ll be able to then join any giant display to the show unit by way of an HDMI twine. If you wish to connect with your laptop computer to share your display, you’ll be able to substitute the show unit USB-C connection together with your laptop computer’s connection twine.

The Jabra system is appropriate with all main video and audio conferencing options whereas it’s licensed for Microsoft Groups Rooms, Zoom, and Zoom Rooms. Given we’re a Microsoft 365 firm, we built-in it into our Microsoft Groups system and its simple of use has confirmed to be a reduction to the remainder of the employees.

Additionally: Microsoft brings a new look to Teams Rooms on Windows

It is great to easily invite a room to the assembly by setting it up in Outlook, after which pop in with a easy faucet of the show unit. Nobody has to scramble for lacking cables, discover a energy supply, or set up updates to host; your complete audio/visible connection has been, in my expertise, seamless.

Jabra’s PanaCast 50 additionally makes use of an Clever Zoom characteristic to dynamically body the entire folks within the room, whereas the Digital Director mode tracks the speaker. The entire options, updates, and settings are managed by IT within the Jabra Direct software program, and the diploma of customization permits for loads of choices and permissions. There’s even a whiteboard characteristic that can be utilized with the system.

ZDNET’s shopping for recommendation

As soon as I used to be tasked with modernizing our convention room methods, I knew there needed to be a greater resolution than the costly, custom-built system we had in place. The Jabra PanaCast 50 and Microsoft Groups Rooms system exceeded my expectations by way of ease-of-use and reliability, whereas I feel there’s some room for an improved audio efficiency. We have been so impressed, that my crew is now exploring implementing the identical resolution to the opposite two convention rooms within the workplace.