Love it or hate it, video calling has gained a lot of momentum over the last year. While in-person communication is slated to rebound later this year, there’s no question that many will continue to embrace remote work even after we’ve made our way through the COVID-19 pandemic. Logitech has already made this calculation, and that’s arguably why it’s launched a bunch of new video conferencing equipment today. Think of these offerings as business-grade Logitech webcam devices. Instead of trying to capture a single person, these 4K units are made with entire conference rooms in mind. Continue reading to learn more.
New Logitech webcam portfolio targets the conference room
Logitech has taken the wraps off a few new video conferencing products: Rally Bar, Rally Bar Mini, and RoomMate. Despite being touted as “cost-effective,” none of these products are made with average consumers in mind. Instead, every solution is clearly chasing the realm of business with prices just as high as one might expect.
First up we’ve got Rally Bar and Rally Bar Mini. The Logitech webcam of the two is built with mid-sized rooms in mind while the more compact solution targets smaller spaces. Standout features include a 4K resolution alongside “lossless image quality up to 5X optical zoom.” It boasts what Logitech refers to as a “video bar” design.
Think of this form factor as something like a sound bar but with a high-quality Logitech webcam in the middle. The company touts this design as having “crystal clear, room-filling sound” that’s ready to span “every corner of the room.”
‘Our goal is to put video in every meeting space in the world. In order to do that, we need to make it easy, simple and cost-effective, which is what we believe we’ve achieved with this new portfolio of products,’ said Scott Wharton, general manager and vice president, Logitech Video Collaboration.
Another one of today’s releases happens to be the Logitech RoomMate. The company describes it sas a “purpose-built computing appliance for video conferencing rooms.” Think of this as the brains behind your conference call. The unit aims to make “it easy to deploy Zoom Rooms Appliances, Microsoft Teams Rooms on Android, and others.”
Pricing and availability
If you’re hoping to pick one of these up for your home office, brace yourself. Pricing starts at $999 and that’s for Logitech RoomMate. The new Logitech webcam devices are much pricier with Rally Bar Mini at $2,999 and Rally Bar for a whopping $3,999. Rally Bar will be released by “the end of this quarter” and the Logitech says availability for the others “will follow.”
9to5Toys’ Take
While I do not doubt that these products will be helpful in the business realm, I can’t help but question the margin Logitech will garner with each sale. The pricing here is bound to take many by surprise, but perhaps like Apple’s Pro Display XDR, it competes in a product category that’s way out of the league of consumer-grade devices. Either way, there’s no arguing that this makes the price of Logitech’s 4K Brio Webcam much easier to live with.
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