Logitech Brings Videoconferencing to Any Room With ConferenceCam CC3000e
Logitech Brings Videoconferencing to Any Room With ConferenceCam CC3000e by Robbie Pleasant
As the workforce goes mobile, so does videoconferencing. With it comes the need for quality cameras that can also conform to wherever the participant may be, whether they’re sitting at a home office or in a conference room. Logitech’s latest videoconferencing solution, the ConferenceCam CC3000e, is designed to meet that need, providing the flexibility to set up a conference from any room with professional-quality video and sound. Logitech’s goal is to bring video conferencing to the 95 percent of conference rooms that currently lack video collaboration capabilities.
The ConferenceCam is designed to be easy to use and deploy, with a simple USB connection that works on Mac and PC devices, and with most desktop video conferencing applications, including Microsoft Lync, Cisco Jabber, Skype, and more. The functions can be controlled from the base console or with a remote, providing the usual functions required with a touch.
For those who use smartphones or tablets for their work, it is Bluetooth compatible, with a radius the size of a normal conference room to avoid picking up any other nearby Bluetooth microphones. It can also pair with NFC-enabled devices by touching them together, and will remember its last paired mobile device.
The Logitech ConferenceCam CC3000e boasts HD 1080p video quality, with a 90-degree field of view, 260-degree pan, 130-degree tilt, and 10x zoom. For audio, it offers omni-directional mics with acoustic echo and noise cancellation to allow for seamless conversations with high quality video and audio.
The goal of this solution is to turn any room into a videoconferencing room, so even companies without dedicated rooms can still gain the benefits of video collaboration. Many existing conferencing rooms cannot deal with the cost or complexity of setting up video conferencing solutions, but a portable camera with professional quality means they don’t need to.
Sam Feng, Director of Product Management at Logitech, explained, “Existing solutions are often hard to use – people are intimidated by them and don’t know how to set up a video call. There’s a learning curve for video room systems, and it’s often hard for new employees to learn how to use the system.” He added that interoperability is also a challenge, and that walled garden won’t work anymore. “If trying to call someone outside of your organization, it’s difficult. You can’t assume that they have the same room system that you have, and you have to go through network hoops and set up federation to allow different sites to work together.”
According to Blair Pleasant, co-founder of UCStrategies, “Video conferencing is becoming more mainstream, but it’s still out of reach for many organizations due to the complexity and cost. Logitech has been making it easier and more affordable for organizations to add video conferencing capabilities, first with the BCC950 product, which is designed for executive offices and home offices, and now with the ConferenceCam CC3000e, which adds Bluetooth capability, a more powerful lens for enhanced video, and more business capabilities.”
Aimed at bridging the gap between audio-only conference rooms and high-end telepresence rooms, the Logitech ConferenceCam CC3000e is designed for 6-10 person conferences, enabling a PC or Mac environment for group video conferencing through the user’s UC or web conferencing application. The solution, which includes the camera, speakerphone, hub, and remote, costs $999.99.