Zoom to offer new video device
If you hate having to deal with Zoom invites, passwords and calendar invites, you’ll love what Zoom, the video conferencing company, has coming in August: a 27-inch, dedicated video display unit, solely aimed at Zoom video calls.
The “ME,” made by company DTEN for Zoom is described as “the first ever Zoom for Home” device, and the first of what execs say will be many. DTEN and Zoom will sell the device on their websites for $599 when it becomes available in August.
The intent is for the ME to be “always on,” and thus ready for Zoom calls, aimed at remote workers, with three built-in cameras that can broadcast in 4K resolution, eight microphones for meetings and phone calls, and a touchscreen display that can double for whiteboarding. Zoom says it will sync with your calendar to begin displaying set-up meetings automatically without having to stop and start.
It can also double as a second monitor to your computer.
Zoom is free to users, but with limits of 40-minute meetings, unless you or your company springs for a payment plan, which starts at $14.99 monthly. Zoom says the ME device will work with free accounts, but with the same 40 minute limit.
With the coronavirus pandemic showing no signs of abating, “it was clear that we needed to innovate a new category dedicated to remote workers,” Zoom CEO Eric Yuan said in announcing the new device.
Oded Gal, the chief product officer for Zoom, says the stand-alone unit should make for a “more relaxed experience,” for calls, since it’s designed to be always on.
“People are working from their home offices and looking for an easier way to participate,” he says.
Since the pandemic, stand-alone webcams have become very scarce, as the remote working crowd has looked to them as alternatives to the low-resolution models on their laptops. Dedicated webcams have higher resolution, and thus, can make the worker look more presentable and better looking to their employer in a video call.
But Logitech, the no. 1 manufacturer of webcams, has been sold out of its entire inventory since March, and the models that are out there have seen their prices jacked up dramatically by third-party sellers. The top of the line Logitech Brio camera, which shoots in 4K resolution, has a $199 list price, but re-sellers on eBay and Amazon are selling it in the $300 range.
Video display units from Google, Facebook and Amazon looked to be a potential savior for video calls, but ironically, the companies were not able to cut deals with Zoom to make the service available on the Nest Hub Max, Portal or Echo Show. (Nest can connect to Google Duo, while Portal offers Messenger from Facebook and Echo Show works with Skype.)