Neat has released the second generation of its video bar solution. Simon Fourie checks it out to see how it stacks up.

We’re truly in the golden age of video bars. And when I received the Neat Bar 2, I thought I’d just be getting another of the same. But I was pleasantly surprised when the guys at Neat sent me this modern bar with a sleek look and minimal footprint.

If it wasn’t for the research that I had done beforehand and knowing about Neat and its products, I would’ve sworn it was just another BYOD-only camera bar for meeting rooms. This was definitely not the case.

Not only has this Android-based product got it all when it comes to Microsoft Teams Room or Zoom Rooms, but it is feature-rich and full of video and audio quality. The Neat Bar provides an immersive meeting experience that is delivered to your conference room via machine learning algorithms that are always adjusting and adapting to a room’s nuances as well as the people in the room.

Firstly, I’ll touch on the look and feel of the Neat Bar as well as the unboxing experience that Neat has provided. Strangely enough these days, unboxing has become a real indicator of quality products for a lot of people and it’s not often that manufacturers think about this. With purpose-built pouches for the cables inside the box and picture-assisted hidey-holes for the included cables, this experience led me to believe that Neat has a marketing team that is together with the times.

The soft grey cloth of the slimline camera bar contrasts with most monitors in the market today making the Neat Bar stand out in a room. Visitors and staff entering the room will know immediately what they can expect as they enter.

The bar features an internal power supply making it so much easier to install when it comes to placement and space limitations. Normally a large brick of power needs to be hidden somewhere however, with this internal power supply the nerds like me in the room will be asking: “What features does it negate because of this? Surely that internal power supply in such a small space removes some functionality?”

And you know what, it really doesn’t…

Dual HDMI outputs support separate screens in the Teams and Zoom configurations whilst boasting a USB-C and HDMI input for BYOD device connectivity. No more integration or re-plugging cables are required, the Neat Bar has it all built-in.

They could have left this HDMI input off, as these days all you would need is the USB-C connection for video and USB device transfer. I am sure all the AV Integrators will agree with me when I say this HDMI will always solve problems. No matter the advent of USB-C, HDMI will still be around for some years to come and provide more capabilities for integrated rooms. I look forward to eating my words when C takes over (or has it already?).

After all this is said and done, the only sacrifice that Neat has had to make is the power delivery over this USB-C connection. With laptops and batteries as sophisticated as they are these days, I believe that the sleek design decision that Neat has made far outweighs this smaller requirement.

After receiving the unit, I jumped on a video call with two Neat employees to run through all the features of the Neat Bar Gen 2. Not that it was difficult to set up and use, but this is one of those situations where being on the receiving end of a Neat Bar gives you all the perspective that you need, and then some more.

When it came to evaluating the audio performance of this bar, I was pleasantly surprised. The ‘tinny’, hollow sound of camera bars that I have evaluated in the past has always turned me off the all-in-one solutions and onto a more integrated solution where you can tune the audio in the room via a DSP.

However, the performance of the Neat Bar sounded like there was physically someone in the room with me. You can tell a lot about a product’s quality by the fidelity of audio that it achieves with the microphone and speaker setup. Neat have done it! Even the previous generation of products sounded this good.

Any audio engineer will tell you that speakerphones are always some of the most difficult products to make sound good. The reason for this is the proximity of the mic array and speakers are so closely situated that the echo cancellation that is built in normally must work pretty hard.

The video capabilities also proved to be a difference-maker here. With occupancy sensors, smart occupancy detection and reporting, HDMI on board and ultrasonic signalling for wireless sharing, the Neat Bar has it all.

My first setup was in USB BYOD mode and it operated flawlessly. The setup of this feature is made easy by the on-screen display on the small Neat Pad that comes with each Neat Bar, in fact, you require one of the pads to operate the bar in any capacity.

Animations on the screen showed me included accessories and specifically how to connect the mount to the bottom of the camera bar where all the screws go. Anyone who has set these up before (especially with the tilt forward mount) can vouch that this is not the easiest thing to wing it. These animations were detailed and made a world of difference to my initial setup.

To evaluate this bar, I only had a table stand option to mount this camera bar. I doubt very much that this would be used in any scenario because of the sleek look and feel the bar has when mounted under or on top of the monitor in the room.

Secondly, with the assistance of a demo Microsoft Teams Room license, I also had the opportunity to test out the Teams Room on Android functionality. Having done this many times in the past with installations and evaluations of other brands, my experience with the Neat Bar was one of the easiest I had experienced.

The Neat pad is quite versatile, use it as a controller for the camera bar when in BYOD mode, or use the pad as a room controller (or scheduler) in either of the Teams or Zoom Rooms. This pad makes setup easy and idiot proof, and this device only needs to be connected to the network via WiFi or LAN rather than directly to the camera bar, avoiding the dilemma for installers who have a gap from the meeting room table to the front of the room.

The controller gives volume and microphone control to the table whilst allowing the meeting host to turn on and off the camera controls which are:

• Group mode: Auto-framing at its best. The AI is fast and reliable and quickly frames all attendees in the room. Remember that auto-framing can be left on so that when you eventually start your conference, all rooms’ participants are framed already and keeps interaction to a minimum. Neat has really thought of this design for the camera system built into their bar with no ugly viewfinder cameras positioned away from the ePTZ.
• Individual mode: This is by far one of the best scenarios for this camera by which Neat Symmetry (cool name!) individually zooms in on each person in the room whilst outputting a composed view of these people. The Neat Centre (a network-connected camera and microphone accessory) works in conjunction with the AI and camera in the front to individually cut out participants in the room and show them the way they are facing each other as well as the far side of the call. No more staring at someone’s ear while they explain something to you.
• Off: Of course, for an uninterrupted view of the camera you can turn these features off.

The Neat Center is the latest companion device from Neat that is trying to bring inclusivity into the meeting room. For many years we have been stuck with the same old problems with distances to microphones from mouths deteriorating the quality of audio from a room. This companion device attempts to capture audio from a 16-microphone circular array on top of the unit and deliver it to the call.

The companion’s video capture however is where all the magic happens. Using it standing on the table or even hanging from the ceiling with the included pendant mount, the cameras and the appropriate AI to monitor and capture people in the direction they are looking, is flawless and all automatic tracking movement and nuances. There are no settings or setup required, it all just happens automatically out of the box after pairing, one of Neat’s rare traits.

On this same note about manageability, Neat has a “pulse”. A piece of monitoring software from Neat for monitoring assets for longevity and reliability. This has been a key advantage in AV systems for many years now since the progression of security over the net. End users and integrators would like a view of their installed devices no matter where they are installed on the planet.

It has been a pleasure to have this device on evaluation in my office for the last couple of weeks now. I may just keep it…