Logitech Rally Bar - All-in-one video conferencing camera for medium-sized rooms - White

The Logitech Rally Bar is a professional all-in-one video conferencing camera from Logitech, specially designed for medium-sized conference rooms and spontaneous meetings in medium-sized meeting rooms. The Rally Bar is, if you want to see it that way, a combination of the products of the professional Rally series and the popular MeetUp conference camera. One device, combines all functions and thus fits perfectly into any conference and meeting room. Thanks to appliance mode, you now don't even need a PC nearby, but start apps such as Zoom and Teams directly via the Rally Bar and begin the video conference seamlessly. Experience brilliant visuals, with automated pan, tilt and zoom with integrated audio for meetings that can be heard and seen. The Rally Bar captures rooms 130° wide and 80° high with lossless image quality. Set new standards for video conferencing in medium-sized rooms with the Rally Bar, which can also be used for larger rooms thanks to its numerous extensions. The integrated microphones in the beamforming array detect participants in the room by their position and amplify them if necessary, while preventing distracting background noise. A second integrated lens detects meeting participants and amplifies RightSight autoframing. All conference participants, even those who join later, are automatically detected. The built-in speakers deliver room-filling sound and RightSound enables virtually distortion-free audio transmissions with the highest clarity. The Logitech Rally Bar is more than just a camera - it's everything you need for truly professional video conferencing.

The Logitech Rally Bar is a small performance wonder. The compact housing hides a lot of technology and functions that will make your everyday meeting much easier. The 4K camera from Logitech has a lens with a pan and tilt function. RightSight automatically moves the camera and adjusts the zoom so that everyone present is perfectly aligned in the picture.

While we are on the subject of zoom - a special feature here is that the Rally Bar has a 5x optical zoom and a 3x digital zoom. The optical zoom has the advantage that the image is not artificially processed. So an optical zoom is always preferable and for a system of this size, the optical zoom is a real unique selling point that can make all the difference. But a zoom is only one part of the perfect videoconference. It is even more important that no participant should fall out of the picture, even if they only come into the room afterwards. The Rally Bar has an additional lens for this purpose, which is only intended for capturing the room and its participants. You don't have to worry about anything - just leave this to the integrated AI and concentrate on your meeting instead.

But the perfect alignment of participants is only one important component of a video conference, because in conference and meeting rooms there is more that can have an impact on a successful outcome. In offices, for example, there is always the problem of high room brightness or disturbing sunlight. Even changing light conditions can distract your counterpart, which is why Logitech has developed RightLight technology. The video output remains constant even in changing light conditions, so the view in the background or natural light incidence does not have to be blocked by closed or darkened windows. Many video conferencing cameras have major problems with backlighting in particular, but with the Logitech Rally Bar you now have a solution at hand that is convincing even in difficult lighting conditions.

Let's move on to the topic of sound, because here too the Rally Bar offers a performance spectrum that you would not expect in this compact housing. The Rally Bar has an integrated AI (artificial intelligence), which uses machine learning to recognise the differences between human speech and ambient sounds and can thus focus on the voice. This artificial intelligence is regularly improved by new firmware updates and is therefore available to you throughout the entire product life. The AI is supported by Logitech RightSound. This suite of technologies optimises sound processing that delivers professional sound for business video conferencing. RightSound is optimised for voice transmission, reducing unwanted noise (such as fans and keyboard clacking) and highlighting who is speaking so that every word can be heard clearly. An advanced voice detection algorithm even automatically raises the volume on quiet talkers so no voice is drowned out. The Logitech Rally Bar's built-in beamforming microphones are optimised for up to 4.5 metres, but should you want to extend the range, you can always purchase up to 3 optional Rally Mic Pods....

The Logitech Rally Bar can work with any popular video conferencing software and cloud-based applications you use on your Windows PC or MAC PC. With plug-and-play USB connectivity, the Rally Bar is compatible with virtually any video conferencing application. Currently, the Rally Bar is already Zoom? and Zoom Rooms certified and USB certified for Microsoft Teams. Certifications for Microsoft Teams rooms on Android and other video conferencing platforms have already been applied for. A new feature is the available Appliance Mode. Thanks to this Appliance mode, you can start supported video conferencing applications such as Zoom or Teams directly on the Rally Bar and thus no longer necessarily need a PC in the meeting room. Perfectly thought out.

Setting up the Logitech Rally Bar is very simple: connect your laptop to the Rally Bar at

. The Rally Bar is connected via USB and HDMI:

The Rally Bar is connected directly to the laptop via USB and HDMI cable. Either as a direct connection or, for example, via a table connection panel. To supply the Rally Bar with power and Internet, simply connect the supplied power cable to the Rally Bar and then plug a LAN cable into the back of the camera. To ensure that the image is also output on a display or projector, simply connect the Rally Bar to your display device via HDMI.

Connect the controller to the Rally Bar:

In this case, you use the Logitech Tap as the controller. The Tap is connected to the Rally Bar via USB cable. In addition, connect the Rally Bar with a LAN cable to connect to your network. Plug the supplied power supply into the camera and now you can also decide directly whether you want to connect one display or up to a maximum of 2 displays simultaneously to the Rally Bar. Depending on which scenario applies to you, you will then need to run either 1 or 2 HDMI cables from the Rally Bar to the display(s). You can then use the Logitech Tap to connect notebooks etc. and use the Tap to control and manage them.

Connect your own PC to the Rally Bar:

If you would like to use a fixed PC for the use of the Logitech Rally Bar and then use e.g. Microsoft Teams and Zoom as a platform on it, you can also implement this very easily. Connect the PC via HDMI to one or at most two displays via HDMI. From the room PC, you then go to the Rally Bar with a USB cable. Connect to the network via a LAN cable and plug it into the PC. If you plan to use the Logitech Tap as a controller, you also connect it to the PC. Now simply take the power supply unit and connect it to the Rally Bar and you are ready to go.

By the way, the Rally Bar now also offers another great feature. There is a cover on the back of the camera and a practical cable organisation system underneath. For neat and tidy cabling. Nothing should spoil the perfect overall impression.

Let us point out one more possibility, which should be very interesting especially for managers: room usage data. Via the Logitech Sync Dashboard, you can read out the room usage data that is collected by the people counting function of the AI Seeker. In this way, you can read out afterwards whether the meeting was as well attended as planned and draw conclusions from this afterwards. Such statistics are always useful, for example, if you want to see at what time the room is most frequented or whether a smaller room would be sufficient for certain events. All of this is completely anonymous and DSGVO-compliant and without much effort.

Our opinion:

The Logitech Rally Bar is the perfect solution for medium-sized meeting and conference rooms. We would not have expected such performance and functionality in such an elegant and compact case before our first test with the system. Anyone who has already seen the Logitech MeetUp and Rally in action can already guess what the Rally Bar should be capable of, and in the end that is exactly what it is. We had the Logitech Rally Bar installed in our conference room for testing: 8 people in a room of 40 square metres (of course, in compliance with the current distance regulation with 1.5 m distance per person) and a maximum distance of 5 metres to the Rally Bar. We tested the speech intelligibility of our counterpart via the integrated loudspeakers and naturally also wanted to get the opinion of our counterpart. The Rally Bar was completely convincing, both for us and at the other end of the line. Normally, for such results, one would have to plan for a proper PTZ camera, microphones on the table and external loudspeakers. This is not only much more expensive to buy, but also more time-consuming to install and to use on a daily basis. It's amazing what Logitech's engineers have packed into this really smart case. What we regret, however, is that even such a high-end product still relies on wired speaker expansion. But this would be the only drawback that we noticed in our test. Nevertheless, we can recommend the Rally Bar from Logitech without reservation. Anyone who is looking for a compact solution that is also scalable and attaches importance to professional environmental conditions will be pleased with the Rally Bar. A great product that could convince us in all relevant points.

Plus:

+ 4K camera with 130-degree capture
+ Appliance mode - no PC needed anymore to start video conferences
+ optical and digital zoom
+ a really compact and elegant design
+ compatible with all leading cloud video conferencing systems
+ room-filling sound for integrated speakers
+ the integrated AI works has been significantly improved once again
+ scalability and large selection of accessories

Minus:

- expansion microphones are wired and not wireless
- high purchase price

The Logitech Rally Bar is designed for professional users and is therefore not sold to private customers. We thank you for your understanding.