Showcasing at InfoComm, North America’s biggest technology exhibition and conference, Neat is thrilled to announce extensive large meeting room capabilities, a new bring-your-own-device (BYOD) deployment, and new Neat App Hub use cases.

Neat continues to deliver simple yet powerful solutions that combat your meeting room challenges and evolve with your business needs. Hence, we are proud to announce several new capabilities that increase the value and versatility of Neat devices.

You can now enjoy even more flexibility and customization with new and exciting experiences supporting large meeting rooms, an additional BYOD-capable device, and a new Neat App Hub applications category. Expanding our devices and intelligent software capabilities allows you to gain a more equitable, high-quality experience across various meeting spaces, including large, crowded, and complex meeting rooms, something that’s top of mind for us.

Addressing the challenges of large and complex meeting rooms

One of the challenges with modern video conferencing is equipping large meeting rooms with technology that provides loud and clear audio and video throughout the room. When up to 30 people are in the room, it’s tough for those on the far end to focus on who’s talking or presenting and stay engaged. How do you deliver audio and video capabilities to large meeting rooms where everyone feels as though they’re seated at the table, facing the person talking? In other words, how do you make those on the far end of the call feel closer and more attuned to those in the room? Neat is edging ever nearer to perfecting such a scenario.

But before discussing what’s new, let’s set the stage with the foundational technologies we’ve delivered for small, medium and large spaces over the past year. Not too long ago, we announced our Neat Center companion device, which is proving hugely popular with many of our customers. Here’s a quick overview:

Ensuring those on the far end of a call don’t miss a thing

Neat Center is a companion device that works seamlessly with your primary front-of-the-room Neat device while boosting the capabilities of our pioneering and patented Neat Symmetry for greater meeting equity. Housing a 360° 3x lens camera, a 16x omnidirectional mic array, and advanced AI that dynamically analyzes the room and everyone in it, Neat Center brings meeting participants on the far end of a call to the center of the conversation so they don’t miss a thing. It enables them to gain a closer, more natural, and engaging audio and video perspective of all in-room participants, even when those in the room are far from the primary front-of-the-room Neat device or facing inward, discussing something among themselves.

But what about larger meeting rooms for up to 30 people? Drum roll, please!

Two Neat Centers for even greater context in large rooms

To help those on the far end enjoy all the benefits above and more in large or complex meeting rooms, Neat is introducing a dual Neat Center experience. Coming later this year, you can pair two of our Neat Center companion devices to the front of the room Neat device to extend the audio pickup and camera coverage throughout the entire room.

Dynamic framing so everyone’s optimally seen and heard

Here’s how it works: The device’s camera with the best angle and view will dynamically frame each person in the room to ensure everyone is always optimally seen and heard. It frames everyone individually for a closer, enriched, equally up-close-and-personal meeting experience. As a single, smooth and synchronized system, it ensures consistent audio pickup, intelligent framing, and a cohesive room experience no matter where participants are seated or standing.

Again, we’ve based this “individual framing” on our patented Neat Symmetry. Still, we’ve taken it further to overcome the challenges of multiple cameras accidentally framing the same person multiple times. Neat’s machine-learning technology frames a person just once and ensures the camera continuously captures them at optimal angles, whether seated, standing, or moving around the room.

Enabling remote participants to feel closer to the active speaker in large rooms

Speaker framing is yet another new and unique Neat feature when using one or two Neat Centers with your primary front-of-the-room Neat device. Speaker framing enables people on the far end to feel closer to the active speaker in the room. Or, if two people are talking, it captures them both.

Here’s a typical scenario: When someone starts speaking, the closest Neat Center camera frames them. If that person stands up and starts walking towards the front of the room to present something while still talking, the camera facing them on the second Neat Center will automatically pick them up and frame them. When that person addresses the people on the far end on the front-of-the-room device, the camera on that device will frame them. Then, when they turn around to address the room, the nearest Neat Center will again optimally frame them.

Using synchronized AI-powered camera technology

This synchronized AI-powered camera technology ensures that people on the far end of the call always see the active-speaking person face-on, so they feel more included and central to the conversation. In short, it’s a bit like having a camera crew in the room, seamlessly following the flow of the conversation. Watch our video below to see how it works.

Defining specific camera zones to prominently present the speakers on screen

If that’s not enough, there’s Neat Focus. Neat Focus is a unique camera control feature that defines specific camera zones, spotlighting the speakers in those areas to direct the center of attention. It lets you set up and configure particular focus zones via one or two Neat Centers and the primary front-of-the-room Neat device. This capability ensures you spotlight the primary speakers and prominently present them on the screen so everyone can see and hear them, be that on one or across two large screens. If that sounds cinematic, it is! Again, watch our video below to see how it works.

New bring your own device (BYOD) deployment offering

Meanwhile, large rooms aside, we are expanding our range of BYOD-capable devices to give you greater choice and flexibility with our Neat Bar Generation 2 without Neat Pad device in small to medium-sized rooms. Neat Bar Generation 2, in BYOD-only mode, enables you to enjoy a simple plug-and-play experience by connecting it to your laptop using a single USB cable. You can deploy it via our online management platform, Neat Pulse, and it comes with access to our Neat Pulse Starter plan, where you can quickly set it up and get going. You can also subscribe to our Neat Pulse Plus or Pro plans, which offer advanced platform features, premium support, and extended warranty coverage.

Expanded Neat App Hub video calling services

That’s not all, folks! We’ve added a significant new category of apps to our groundbreaking Neat App Hub development platform: video calling services. As many of you know, Neat App Hub natively brings essential apps many of us rely on daily to Neat devices. These include workplace experience and shared space collaboration. With the addition of these video calling applications, Neat is giving you even more choice and flexibility in how you deploy and use our devices.

Switch between apps or set up stand-alone for a dedicated kiosk experience

Adding video calling applications to Neat App Hub allows you to use them on our Neat Board devices and Neat Frame with other collaboration apps in the ecosystem. This enables you to switch between apps as needed or set up stand-alone for a dedicated kiosk experience. You can also use these video calling apps as a dedicated kiosk experience on Neat Bar Generation 2 and Neat Bar Pro.

The first wave of supported video calling apps is set to include Airtame, Dialpad, Mago, Private Discuss, Vconsol, Video Window, and Zoho. Beta access on select devices will begin this summer, with access across all Neat generation 2 devices following shortly after.

For more information on all these new capabilities, visit neat.no or booth #3901 at InfoComm, June 11-13.

See you there!