Logitech ConferenceCam Connect
Good quality and a low price make the eminently portable Connect a great choice for instant video conferences
SCORE ✪✪✪✪✪ PRICE £301 exc VAT from pcpro.link/275log
Logitech’s ConferenceCam Connect is a slimline baton that contains everything needed for professional-quality voice and video calls. Plug it into a laptop and you’re ready to go. And at only 766g, it’s highly portable, so you can easily take it home or to a client’s site.
While the Connect may be small, it’s no lightweight when it comes to picture quality. The upper aluminium half houses a Full HD camera, set behind a high-end Zeiss lens. Audio quality is good too, thanks to dual omni-directional microphones, with a claimed range of 3.6m. And behind the lower fabric-sheathed section lurks a surprisingly powerful loudspeaker – easily loud enough to hear at the other end of our 6.5m-long meeting room.
Note, though, that the Connect isn’t designed for large boardrooms. Rather, Logitech says it’s aimed at “huddle rooms” of up to six people, and its 90-degree field of view should be more than ample in that sort of setting. Its autofocus worked fine during testing, and while the 4x zoom is only digital, we found the picture remained clear and sharp even at the maximum zoom setting.
The included remote also provides pan, tilt and zoom controls; these too are digital effects, obtained by cropping the image rather than physically moving the camera, but they don’t harm video quality too much. Alongside these controls sit buttons for volume, mute and making or ending voice calls. When not in use, the remote slots into the camera recess, doubling up as a lens cover.
The Connect comes with an external power supply, but you may not need it as there’s an internal battery that can be charged via its USB 2 port. This provides enough juice for 15 hours of voice calls or three of video.
The upper panel has a touch power button, with three more buttons around the edge for selecting screen mirroring, Bluetooth and videoconferencing modes. These worked fine, although we found it easier than we’d like to accidentally hit the buttons and inadvertently switch modes when picking the Connect up.
The HDMI port at the back lets you connect a standalone monitor for incoming video. You can also share the screen of your own laptop or smartphone with conference participants; this is handled over Wi-Fi, via the Miracast protocol, so it’ll work with devices running Android 4.3 or Windows 8.1 and upwards – but not with Apple devices.
To test the screen-sharing feature, we plugged an Iiyama 27in Full HD monitor into the Connect. This brought up a message saying that mirroring was available; then, from a Windows 10 device, we used the “Connect to a wireless display” option. The ConferenceCam Connect popped up as a selectable destination, and we were able to connect and transmit without a hitch. Hooking up the Connect to a laptop is even easier: as soon as we connected the USB cable, the device was recognised by the OS, and automatically enabled in both Skype and Cisco WebEx. The latter app placed the viewing window on the right and allowed the host and participants to switch to fullscreen mode and back again. Whichever service you use, quality is excellent. Across all of our tests, our meeting participants found the Connect’s video quality impressive, and had no problems hearing us. While no drivers are required, Skype users will probably want to install Logitech’s free Windows plugin, to enable the call accept and end buttons on the remote handset. You may also choose to install Logitech’s Camera Settings utility, which allows you to preview the camera feed, run diagnostics and tweak contrast, brightness and colour balance. The ConferenceCam Connect is a great choice for businesses seeking a flexible VC solution. It can be set up anywhere in seconds, it’s compatible with all the leading conferencing apps, and it can’t be faulted for quality either.
SPECIFICATIONS Zeiss lens 1080p at 30fps 4x digital zoom digital pan/tilt manual tilt dual omnidirectional mics 360-degree speakers 802.11n Wi-Fi NFC
Bluetooth USB 2 HDMI internal battery remote control external PSU 2m USB cable 75 x 75 x 304mm (WDH) 766g 2yr warranty
“As soon as we connected the USB cable, the device was recognised and automatically enabled in both Skype and WebEx”