Since the beginning of Neat in February 2019, we’ve described ourselves as “Pioneers of video.” But what does that mean, how does it impact you, and why should you care?

Pioneer: A person or group that originates or helps open up a new line of thought, activity, method, or technical development.

Merriam-Webster dictionary definition

In other words, someone that boldly goes where no one has gone before!

When most people hear the word “pioneer,” they typically think of Arctic explorers bravely trudging across unfamiliar terrain like the South Pole. Or settlers journeying across the Great Plains in wagons en route to Oregon, California, or Utah.

In reality, the definition of a pioneer is much broader than that. It can include anyone who’s the first to do something or arrange things in a newly discovered way. Whether developing a new product, service, or technique or being the first person or group to achieve a specific accomplishment, there are pioneers throughout all walks of business and life.

Take start-up businesses, for example. They’re usually pioneers by nature and willing to take risks as they disrupt established industries and ways of doing things. Consider how Amazon, Airbnb, Netflix, Uber, and so forth first carved a path for themselves. Each uprooted stagnant, outdated business models to make things simpler, more consumable, and convenient for millions worldwide.

Pushing the boundaries to see unique opportunities and potential

Pioneers push the boundaries of what we thought was possible by seeing the potential nobody else sees. They’re willing to try and create new things for the greater good. Like Apple’s famous Here’s to the Crazy Ones ad campaign, pioneers change things. “They invent. They imagine. They heal. They explore. They create. They inspire. They push the human race forward.”

Pioneers never give up, regardless of their failures and setbacks. They don’t stop at conceiving, achieving, or bringing about one remarkable thing. They continuously seek new ways to help, inspire, and empower people. The best companies have a pioneering spirit deeply embedded in their nature or culture, whether innate or instinctual. They excel at finding intelligent solutions and use their goals, creativity, and tenacity to shape revolutionary ideas one after another.

Helping thousands of global teams with pioneering video technology

Like the acclaimed companies mentioned above, Neat is a pioneer with an indelible pioneering spirit and has been from day one. Founded by a team of creative mavericks who, for decades, shaped game-changing innovations for some of the world’s most recognized video communications brands, Neat has steadily helped decrease the physical and virtual divide over video with our pioneering portfolio of devices and their cutting-edge capabilities. We’ve helped thousands of global teams meet, create, and collaborate like never before and continue to do so.

Our dynamic devices, features, and services include some of our industry’s most original conceptions and realizations. In short, we’ve repeatedly upended the status quo to bring about transformative change. Here are just a few video communications firsts we’ve brought to thousands of global meeting spaces, starting with the big guns: Neat Symmetry, Neat Boundary, and Neat App Hub.

Patented features that make video meetings more equitable and engaging

Neat Symmetry: The first-ever device capability to provide complete equity and inclusion among in-office and remote meeting participants.

Our pioneering patented Neat Symmetry was a complete game-changer when we introduced it in 2021. Now, the entire video industry is following our lead. Making virtual meetings feel almost as natural as face-to-face meetings, Neat Symmetry combines advanced AI with a high-resolution sensor to detect everyone in the meeting room. Zooming in to pinpoint, auto-frame, and track each person individually, Neat Symmetry presents them equally up close on remote participants’ screens, enabling all meeting participants to see, hear, and understand each other better.

Neat Boundary: The first-ever device capability to shut out external audio and visual meeting distractions.

Our pioneering patented Neat Boundary lets you set the width and depth of your meeting space to avoid the camera accidentally detecting, auto-framing, and tracking anyone not involved in your video meeting. If you’re in an office with glass walls and someone outside walks past or people are standing around, the camera ignores their presence. Likewise, other activities won’t confuse the device if you’re in an open-plan office. You can create a virtually closed-off zone. The same goes for those working at home. The camera ignores family members or anyone else in the background by setting a virtual boundary.

Revolutionizing how you work, interact, and play in your meeting spaces

Neat App Hub: Other platforms offer some integrations with a select number of room booking and collaboration apps. But we’ve gone further than that to incorporate many firsts.

Neat App Hub is a pioneering development platform that natively brings essential apps people rely on in their daily workflows directly to Neat devices and addresses a broader range of use cases. It’s a cloud marketplace that enables you to centrally deploy, manage, and update your apps via our Neat Pulse online management platform. These include apps dedicated to workplace experience, shared space collaboration, and custom web apps. Custom web apps give you the power to create unique experiences by applying your own web apps, tools, and websites. You can leverage anything with a URL, be it an intranet or internet site, to develop exciting, unique experiences.

Further pioneering feats that set a new video collaboration criteria

Here are some more pioneering feats from Neat:

• We were the first video hardware provider to offer businesses a simple, out-of-box consumer-like experience.
    
• We were the first video hardware provider to install built-in sensors on video devices. This foresight led to our patented Neat Sense feature, which enables people to get accurate real-time room analytics for healthier, safer, and more cost-effective meeting spaces.
    
• We were the first video hardware provider to offer remote device control from anywhere via our Neat Pulse online management platform for Zoom and Microsoft Teams Rooms.
    
• We were the first video hardware provider to enable a 360-degree camera view and audio in a meeting room companion device with Neat Center.
    
• We were the first video hardware provider to integrate mics in a meeting controller with Neat Pad.
    
• Delivering native, integrated, wireless experiences in places where teams come together, we were the first video hardware provider to enable you to bring collaborative apps running on one Neat device into a Zoom or Microsoft Teams call running on another Neat device via our pioneering Neat Share capability. 
    
• Our unique, adaptive Neat Board 50 and Neat Board Pro stand is like no other and offers greater accessibility in one fluid motion while being flexibly mobile.

Innovating with exciting new combinations of known technologies

Despite the above “originals,” being a pioneer doesn’t always mean inventing everything from scratch. There are also exhilarating ways to innovate based on bold, new combinations of already existing components that simultaneously unlock heightened levels of consumer value. Hence, besides our outright inventions, Neat uses known components and technologies in our devices but configures them in new, pioneering ways.

We are persistently pioneering our audio and video capabilities and more because people’s desire for even greater technological freedom and choice in the workplace is never-ending. Everyone at the office must feel increasingly engaged, present, and productive. Everyone working from home on the far end must feel increasingly included, seen, and heard. Like you, we want to experience video meetings and collaborative sessions that enable everyone to feel more connected, present, and understood, no matter how or where people prefer to work.

Creating growing ways to more closely connect, create, and communicate

Like you, we want fluid access to technology that lets us choose how and where we connect. We want to enjoy enhanced well-being, efficiency, and productivity. We want to thrive in a new, modern workplace with advanced tools. Above all, we want a working environment that enables us to perform at our best every day in healthy and inspiring surroundings where our remote teammates or others feel like they’re sitting in the same room.

As Neat accelerates into the future, we have many pioneering innovations, integrations, and configurations up our sleeves, technological solutions we’ve yet to unearth within our field of expertise. Hence, we can stand firm when we proudly say we are “Pioneers of video” and always will be!

See our pioneering devices live in action during our Virtual Demo, Neat Devices and Experiences. For a one-on-one experience, book a demo with a Neat product specialist.