How to get more control in your BYOD spaces
One Device, Three Use cases
You’ll hopefully know that Logitech’s portfolio of appliance based meeting bars can operate in three separate modes: USB, Appliance, and Bring Your Own Device (BYOD).
USB Mode
In USB mode, a Rally Bar functions as an audio/video peripheral for your Teams Room on Windows, Zoom Room on Windows, or Google Meet Room computing device. Simply connect the USB cable to the computer and manage updates through the Sync app on the device.
Appliance Mode
In appliance mode you run the room application from one of the built-in providers such as Microsoft Teams Rooms on Android (MTRoA), Zoom Rooms Appliance or Google Meet Rooms on Android. These provider applications run directly on the bar itself thanks to the built-in ARM-based processor. You can use Appliance mode solutions with a touch display or with a Tap/Tap IP controller paired with a TV.
BYOD Mode
In BYOD mode, the Rally Bar functions as a peripheral for your laptop. Connect the USB-A or USB-C cable to use the Rally Bar's camera, microphones, and speakers. Connect an HDMI cable to project your laptop screen to the front-of-room displays connected to the Rally Bar. Start your meeting on your laptop. When finished, simply disconnect the cables to return to the default screen.
Continuing with the BYOD theme, Swytch and Extend let you connect your laptop to both USB-C and HDMI ports simultaneously. With just one USB-C or USB-A cable (for Swytch), you can use the bar's audio/video capabilities and displays for your meeting. Learn more about BYOD mode here
Three Framing Modes
Lastly, you should be aware that Rally Bar, Rally Bar Mini, Rally Bar Huddle and Meetup 2 all support Logitech’s RightSight 2 framing modes. These include Group View, Speaker Focus and Grid view. Learn more about framing modes here.
Until now the only way to switch between these framing modes in BYOD mode is to use Sync or the on-device settings. Sync can be installed on the connecting laptop, but this won’t be the case with “typical” users. If the device is connected to the network you could potentially use Local Network Access (LNA). However, LNA is only used by admins, not standard users. If your device is connected to Logitech’s cloud management portal called Sync, you can also use it to change between framing modes. Again though, the Sync portal is only for admins.
So how do you give access to camera controls to any user in your BYOD spaces? Just use Tap.
Connecting a Tap Cat5e Kit to a Rally Bar/Mini or Huddle is nothing new. This has been supported since the launch of these devices. This gave you access to camera PTZ control, speaker volume and microphone mute, but not the framing modes. Additionally, you can pair Rally Bar, Mini or Huddle to complete the Out of Box Experience and give you access to device settings, but that’s where the usefulness ended in BYOD mode.
Everything changes in CollabOS 1.14
Starting in CollabOS 1.14 we introduce some new capabilities for BYOD spaces. The first is that both Tap CAT5 and Tap IP will give you access to change between RightSight 2 Framing modes in addition to manual framing and camera presets, adjust the volume and mute the mics.
The second is that Tap IP can now be paired with Meetup 2 in addition to the Rally Bar family of devices. This means you can use Tap IP for both out of box experience for setup and the BYOD experience.
Whether you use Tap, at idle you’ll see one of the default BYOD screens from Sync on both the Tap and Front of Room display. Additionally, the Front of Room Display can display a custom image you upload to Sync.
However when you plug in either USB-C and HDMI or the Swytch/Extend cables the Tap/Tap IP will show the on-screen controls.
First is manual Pan/Tilt/Zoom (PTZ), along with speaker volume and mic mute on the right.
With the manual PTZ you can zoom in with the control on the left, pan or tilt, then long press the camera preset button to save the position. To recall the preset position just single tap and the camera frame will return to the saved position. You can also change the home position in the same way.
Then you can change between the RightSight 2 framing modes like Group View
Speaker View
And Grid view
Tap IP on-screen controls works on Rally Bars and Meetup 2 provisioned in BYOD mode. It doesn’t work in other appliance partner modes yet. Zoom already has their own on-screen controls for both PTZ and framing in their temporary flip to BYOD mode. Hopefully other providers like Microsoft Teams will follow suit in time, but watch this space for updates.
If you use Tap CAT5 with your Rally Bar, Rally Bar Mini or Rally Bar Huddle in appliance mode you can use these controls even when the bar temporarily flips to BYOD when you connect Swytch or Extend. Tap IP will remain on the Teams control panel screen while it is in use.
Wrap up
BYOD is nothing new, but thanks to Microsoft adding a lot more emphasis to BYOD spaces as an alternative to full Microsoft Teams Rooms, this is sure to grow. I think you’ll agree that adding Tap Cat5e or Tap IP to provide on-screen controls of the camera and framing modes is a big upgrade for your BYOD setups.
Thanks for reading.