Logitech Rally – Improving the Conference Experience
June 2018 – Logitech, who is best known for its mice, computer cameras and accessories, has become a major provider of products for the professional conference room and communication space. Joining this market, they have introduced a new high end digitally controlled PTZ camera for large (20+ person) conference rooms – called the Rally.
Logitech Rally Large Conference Room PTZ Camera
The Rally is designed for professional installation through the reseller channel, and is designed as a modular system for bringing high quality images and sound to these large rooms. The camera has a separate microphone and speaker system that can be either bundled with the camera as a kit, or are available on their own. The camera is designed to be installed in a normal or inverted configuration. When mounted upside down from the ceiling, the remote control for the PTZ functions on the camera are automatically reversed.
The Rally is the first Logitech camera with all glass high end optics for the lens. This enables the 15x zoom to be both smooth and clear even when the camera is setup for 4K 30fps operation or in the workhorse 1080p 60fps mode. The 15x zoom is setup as 10X optical and 5X digital.
As the application is for conference rooms and collaboration, the system has a “zoom aware” pan capability so the PTZ function is fully adaptive to make sure there is not “blur” on the receiving end when the camera is panned while in either an optical or digital zoom mode.
The audio is designed to be an optimized solution for the conference room. That means, on the Rally Speakers, the volume on the speakers does not impact the sensitivity or clarity of the microphone. Additionally the wired speakers are designed to eliminate reverb in the microphone when placed properly.
The Rally Microphone are individually composed of an 8 beam microphone array. While the microphones are independent, there is a full system mute and unmute capability. The microphones, up to 7 microphones per system, form a “beam forming mesh” that talk to each other and support 4 external facing sound beams.
The camera system uses the 4th generation RightLight technology and supports both HDR and WDR images. The Wide Dynamic Range images are optimized for face and people images.
The technology is optimized both the color and lighting on the image.
To go along with the RightLight technology, the Rally utilizes the RightSense technology that was introduced on the Logitech Meetup Camera. This technology “autoframes” the camera on the conference by recognizing “humans” not just faces. This means people standing, sitting, front and back facing, and profile facing as all being objects of importance. This autoframing can be re-performed on-demand or can be set to a dynamic mode or hard on/off.
The new Rally camera is currently available in the professional installation marketplace.
