Board room camera?

Other IT admins, what have you found for your org to do conference room scale zooming / teams?

The reviews are either worthless, or focus on cameras that are for tiny conference rooms where a small group sits way too close together.

I’m looking for a cam to use in a corporate board room, where everyone sits welll apart in their cushy leather chairs. Right now I have a Microsoft Studio Cam zip-tied to the ceiling, and it works OK but looks like ass.

I don’t want to spend kilobucks on a Poly camera, looking for something in the $500 USD or less range. Audio not a factor, I have usb capture setup on the in-room PA system. Super wide angle not needed either, this room is pretty big. Maybe a adjustable PTZ would be nice rather than climbing on a chair to adjust the camera.

Thoughts, comments?

Existing cam and audio are connected along with a big TV to a tiny optiplex that lives in the PA system rack. So this camera would be USB, or networked I guess?

I’m not an IT admin nor I’ve ever setup a conference room, but the things that I can think of are:

  • Logitech Brio 4K which is the best Logitech makes and has a variable FOV if you need to change it. Not too accurate colours thou.
  • USB HDMI capture card with a camcorder attached to it. If you get a generic USB HDMI capture card for 20-30$ you can spend 400+ on a very nice and new camcorder + battery to run it off of wall power all the time.

You have a Conference Room with fancy leather chairs that probably cost a grand a pop, but don’t wanna spend more then 500 on a camera setup that is actually worth a damn? visible confusion intensifies


Anyway… your best bet is probably a capture card and camera with HDMI out. I would not skimp on the capture card though. The cheap cards tend to have issues with certain signals and often only do MJPEG and/or no proper colour formats to get a good quality out of them.
So for a corporate setting either go big or go home. A Blackmagic Decklink Mini or Mini 4K are listed as 150-200$, but they can be had for cheaper as well. Then just look for a good camera with HDMI out and you’re golden.

If you want a full package and/or a camera in webcam format, there is the Huddlecam Pro with ePTZ, which also comes in an NDI format if needed. They also have bigger cameras with big lenses like the 30x. Generally Huddle does not seem to list prices though, so you gotta contact sales.

That’s pretty typical of corporate spending, hence the current camera zip tied to the ceiling grid.

It’s not about what I want to spend, but what funds are available for this project.

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I’ve tried a Sony and JVC full HD camcorder, and a capture device. It worked OK. The issue is both cameras (hard drive recorders) will turn off after 10-20 minutes unless you are recording. The higher ups don’t want any “recording”, even though I tell them they can just erase the recording after the meetings.

I’ll look into the Logitech you suggested.

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Fair enough, I didn’t know that those cameras had that issue while being used as webcams. Maybe it’s an issue of HDD equipped ones to not wear out the drives.
Sure, there shouldn’t be any recording of board meetings and having to delete hours of footage each time is annoying.
Good luck on your search!

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