Video Conferencing Equipment

What is Video Conferencing Equipment?

Video Conferencing Equipment is audio-visual hardware that enables video conference calls. This includes cameras, microphones, speakers, remote controls, etc. These are installed in a meeting room with a monitor so that conference participants can collaborate with colleagues in a remote location. Modern deployments may support one-to-many conferences (e.g. a livestream broadcast), or many-to-many collaborations with peers spread across disparate locations able to talk to and see each other.

Meeting Space Collaboration System

“Meeting space collaboration system” and "Conference room system" are other common names for video conferencing equipment. Many vendors in this space offer room system or collaboration system packages that include both the hardware and software necessary to set up a virtual meeting room. Other vendors instead offer web conferencing software and partner with companies that provide the hardware like Logitech, Poly (formerly Polycom), Avaya, Dell, Dolby, Lifesize, and Cisco.

Certain vendors in this category focus primarily on the hardware and audio visual(AV) set up part of room systems. For example, vendors like Logitech, Poly, and Extron provide several different wired and wireless components to help create collaborative meeting space systems.

Cameras: Beyond webcams designed for personal computer or laptop use, meeting room cameras that can be mounted in office spaces are also included in this sub-category. In this case, there are versions of these products which come with remote controls so that camera angles and viewpoints can be adjusted without interrupting a meeting.

Headphones: In cases where you're happy with the microphones in your tech stack, there are enterprise-quality headphones available. A key feature to look for is noise-cancellation, which comes in handy in loud or busy office spaces.

Headsets: Like headphones, noise-canceling headsets are extremely popular. Additional aspects of headsets, given that they combine headphones and microphones into one tool, include background noise elimination so that wearers not only can focus on their personal video conferences, but the noise from their meeting area is canceled out to minimize distractions.

Microphones: Microphones in this category tend to function similarly to cameras, as in, there are those meant to be connected to personal computers, and those meant to act as meeting-room-wide microphones for conference-style calls.

Remote controls: Universal remote controls can be configured to operate with various devices in your video conferencing equipment stack. In some cases, these products also double as laser pointers for presenters.

Room devices (also known as video collaboration systems): Room devices actually refer to a bundle of other product sub-categories. These are designed to make it easy to design meeting rooms for office planners. They typically include cameras and microphones optimized for conference rooms. They're also typically offered by web conferencing vendors so that the room devices easily integrate with your web conferencing software as well.

Smartboards: Smartboards are large, interactive electronic displays for use as a digital whiteboard. These come in a variety of sizes and dimensions. Most double as television or computer screens.

Speakers: Video conferencing speakers are typically designed for meeting room use. This allows for audio streaming from computers to be heard throughout a larger area.

Video Conferencing Equipment Features & Capabilities

While Video Conferencing Equipment is an expansive category which includes the various components that make up digital communication, there are some common characteristics to look for between them. Video equipment may provide the following key differentiators:

• Lifelike HD video quality
• HD audio quality, support for multiple microphones
• Interoperable with web conferencing software
• Interoperable with VoIP services
• Self-diagnostic & easy troubleshooting
• Room booking, calendaring and scheduling
• Scheduled event reminders
• Event recording to software platform, video service
• Dynamic responsive video camera (focus on speaker)
• Multi-monitor (e.g. dual display) support
• Screen-sharing, support for web conferencing type features

Video Conferencing Equipment Comparison

To help you determine where one product differs from the next as you evaluate video conferencing equipment, consider these four key factors:

1. Voice quality, as well as video quality, are crucial. Most vendors strive to make the audio and visual streams as lifelike as possible so that high-quality video conferencing can replace travel/in-person meetings without sacrificing productivity. However, there may be differences in audio and video quality across products.
2. Performance not only impacts the quality of meetings, it also determines how much time IT administrators will need to spend troubleshooting the equipment. Performance may also vary from device to device.
3. Interoperability with web conferencing software, VoIP providers, appointment scheduling functionality, etc. is another key consideration for buyers. The ability to upgrade by adding multiple cameras and/or microphones for larger spaces and groups is also important. Before purchasing video conferencing equipment, check to make sure any software you already have in place will be compatible with the hardware you plan on purchasing.
4. In addition to connecting conference participants face to face, some video conferencing equipment allows users to share content with the group from their mobile device or computer. If the end-users at your business will need this functionality, make sure to check the equipment you purchase has this capability.

Start a comparison between video conferencing equipment products.

Pricing Information

Video conferencing equipment is available on perpetual licensing and presents a single up-front cost. However, device service plans, warranties, or firmware updates are usually available on a subscription basis. Discounts may be available for equipment bundles (e.g. free cables, discounts for multiple cameras, etc.). And because many video conferencing equipment vendors have shifted focus to web and video conferencing software, with their recurrent revenue model, video conferencing equipment is often discounted when bundled with a subscription to a vendor’s conferencing software.