Today's hybrid meetings aren't ideal. With the mix of distributed workers and teams, remote participants often feel excluded and unable to clearly see and hear those in meeting rooms, especially in larger or longer rooms.
While most video-enabled rooms capture in-room participants from the front-of-room camera, as people in the room turn to talk to each other or across the table, or move and inadvertently block the person behind them, it's not the best experience for the remote participants. This experience is more than just an annoyance. Company leaders have increasingly been flagging this problem as they adopt hybrid work models and risk their remote employees becoming disengaged.
To better capture the meeting room action, Sight is an AI-powered tabletop companion camera that works in tandem with Logitech Rally Bar or Rally Bar Mini to provide the best, front-and-center view of meeting participants around the table. Unlike standalone tabletop cameras that don't best capture when in-room participants face the front of the room (towards remote participants on the display), through this multicam system, remote meeting participants get both the front and tabletop perspectives so that they can see and hear everyone clearly and get the best, front-facing view.
Sight is packed with advanced technology to facilitate the front–center-experience. Its two 4K cameras capture an all-around view of the action. Seven microphones on top of Sight use acoustic beams and direction of arrival technology to intelligently and accurately triangulate where voices are coming from, and pinpoint active speakers.
And finally, a powerful processor in the device intelligently captures all this audio and video to best frame and switch to the active speakers.
Sight is also designed to be at a height that's both below eyesight level and above standard laptops. Included are also a magnetic privacy shade that can be slid in front of the lens to automatically turn off video capture and provide peace of mind for privacy, and also mounts to secure Sight to the table in more traditional setups, or to a tripod stand for non-traditional U- or V-shaped tables.
By helping remote participants see and hear more clearly, Sight bridges the gap between hybrid teams to make virtual collaboration more inclusive.
Sight was announced in late 2022, and will ship in mid- 2023. As such there are limited real-world reviews and testimonials available at this time.
The vision for this project was not to just try to replicate the in-person experience, but to level the playing field for distributed teams. Our approach to solve the problem of "inequitable meetings" is inspired more by Hollywood than Silicon Valley. When people watch movies and tv shows, the viewers are engaged because skilled directors use multiple cameras and select which angles to present to draw the audience into the action. The same concept applies to Big Sports, with its fancy end-zone and drone cams. Oftentimes, the watch party at home can see the action better than those who paid thousands of dollars to be in the stadium watching the game live. Logitech Sight is a big step toward achieving that "better than being there" ambition.
In early customer beta-testing and product demonstrations, Sight has already received astounding feedback on the quality of the experience of the center-of-table capture and the difference that a joint front and center perspective can deliver for the remote video meeting participant.