Crestron Teams With Zoom, Logitech on 4K, Full-Duplex Videoconferencing

Crestron will launch Crestron HomeTime Monday, in collaboration with Logitech and Zoom, to deliver what it calls a premier videoconferencing, home control and unified communications (UC) experience. Designed for socializing, remote learning and working from home, it includes a Logitech 4K MeetUp conference camera and Crestron’s UC Engine to deliver Zoom Rooms, it said. Users can host and join Zoom meetings without a laptop, using “one-touch join” from a Crestron remote or mobile app; they can use a TV to see participants in larger video windows. The camera has a wide-angle lens to capture a group in the frame. The camera's full-range speaker is said to deliver high-quality, “intelligible” audio, and a full-duplex, advanced beamforming microphone enables natural conversation, Crestron said. HomeTime was created to overcome challenges families are experiencing as they try to socialize, learn and work from home, said John Clancy, Crestron vice president-residential. “It’s time to end the awkward conversations. No more crowding around a laptop and talking over each other because you can’t follow who is speaking,” he said. Zoom’s Jeff Smith, head of Zoom Rooms, said the Crestron solution “raises the bar” of videoconferencing from home. It will be available exclusively through Crestron residential dealers.