In our rapidly evolving landscape of remote work and digital collaboration, video conferencing technology has been pushed to keep up with our growing needs for more impactful virtual environments. The rise of multi-camera video meeting spaces is a response to those needs, enhancing the way teams interact and communicate virtually.

As organizations increasingly embrace remote and hybrid work models and as the need for globalized communications becomes the norm, understanding the growth and potential of multi-camera video meeting spaces is increasingly important. To that end, here are some ways that the industry’s leading products are innovating multi-cam technology to help organizations unlock productivity and maintain seamless communication across distributed teams.

These more sophisticated virtual meetings setups strategically position multiple cameras to offer dynamic views of meeting participants, enhancing engagement, and helping create a more immersive virtual environment.

But the growth of multi-camera video meeting spaces isn’t just a response to shifts towards remote work, but a reflection of the growing demand for richer and more interactive virtual experiences. Beyond the conventional single-camera setup, these upgrades let users switch between perspectives, mimic in-person interactions, and even incorporate augmented reality elements.

From boardrooms to classrooms, the versatility and flexibility offered by multi-camera setups are reshaping the way meetings and presentations are conducted in the digital age.

Cisco’s Cinematic Meetings

There’s one key problem with multiple cameras: how do attendees know where to look when they talk? Cisco’s new Cinematic Meetings offering — directed by RoomOS — aims to solve that and provide more lifelike experiences through multi-cam structures and intelligent framing.

To help participants engage more naturally, Cisco’s automatic framing technology adjusts based on the number of attendees, ensuring everyone stays visible within the frame. Plus, Cinematic Meetings enhance audio quality by focusing on the speaker, reducing background noise, and delivering clearer sound, helping create an organic virtual environment that’s as flexible as the meeting itself.

Cinematic Meetings can even accommodate varying room sizes and layouts so organizations can leverage the product regardless of their infrastructure. As a bonus perk, the integration of in-meeting AI can enhance efficiency by automating tasks like note-taking and transcribing, freeing up participants to focus on the discussion. Overall, the integration of Cinematic Meetings into RoomOS represents Cisco’s dedication to creating a meeting experience that’s truly immersive and seamless.

Poly Studio E360

What’s unique about HP’s Poly Studio E360 is that it offers an entire multicam experience in one unit. Rather than having to set up an entire network of cameras around a room to capture front-facing video for every attendee, you can simply place this piece in the center and get 360-degree video from its four 8MP cameras. Paired with those cameras are four MEMS microphones, keeping the meeting’s recording devices at the center of the conversation.

On the backside, like other multicam solutions, the E360 also features built-in AI that ensures attendees are automatically getting the best possible recording angle. Admins and IT teams can also access meeting data and security features through a single cloud-based dashboard to help manage and connect multiple devices at scale. Meanwhile, all users can update software and edit meeting settings through the E360’s convenient mobile app.

Is the Poly Studio E360 right for everyone? Probably not. It does have some inherent limitations since it must sit on a flat surface in the center of a meeting. While it does have great range, it may not be the best choice for big rooms or more dynamic settings that would benefit from multiple mounted cameras.

Neat Center

Like the Poly Studio E360, the Neat Center sits in—as you probably guessed—the center of a meeting room. With 360-degree video and audio recording capabilities, it brings remote attendees a much more engaging experience that helps them feel more like they’re seated at the same table. Meanwhile, its omnidirectional 16x mic array ensures full, consistent, crisp sound from every attendee positioned around the device.

Currently in a pre-order phase, the Center requires a main Neat device. But to give users a little more flexibility with placement, the Center can also be mounted to ceilings or attached to tripods to be positioned in any part of a room.

The Center has only three 8MP cameras, compared to the E360’s four, but similarly it has a strong feature set and should represent a simple way for Neat users to gain multicam meeting capabilities.

Crestron’s Sightline Experience

While it isn’t the only multicam solution out there, the Crestron Sightline Experience stands out by blending smart video technology with multi-camera speaker tracking and offering multiple in-room displays, ensuring that every participant, whether remote or physically present, feels fully engaged and involved in the discussion.

Starting with its handy touchscreen interfaces, Sightline allows users to check schedules, jump into meetings, or start new ones across devices with the tap of a finger. Its pivoting, auto-tracking cameras set up around the room give remote users an immersive yet natural viewing experience by keeping all speakers facing their screens, no matter which side of the table they’re on.

For those in the room, multiple monitors keep everyone’s attention, so they’re locked in to the same view no matter where they’re positioned in the space. This keeps everyone engaged while also freeing them to interact while focusing on the meeting without having to think about whether they can be seen or heard. The Sightline Experience is truly a rich and natural one for all users.

Logitech Sight

Similar to Poly Studio and Neat, Logitech’s tabletop multicam meeting companion represents a great opportunity for users to enhance their virtual meeting experiences. Competitively priced at under $2,000, it’s also cheaper than Center and has similar AI functionality to the E360 for automatically detecting and following participants.

One big shift for Logitech’s competing product, however, is that it only offers a 315-degree field of view with its two 4K cameras. This means it leaves a relatively narrow blind spot that users will have to position intentionally. But where it lacks in visual power, it gains in audio, with seven beamforming mics. It also has three setup options: table, grommet, and tripod for added flexibility.

Meeting Owl 3

From Owl Labs, the Meeting Owl 3 is a flexible option with style to spare. This attractive center-of-room dual-camera device is further enhanced with the Owl Bar, which offers an additional camera, mic, and speaker.

Paired with its AI-enabled speaker recognition, this system is something of a hybrid. Offering premium functionality but only two speakers in its flagship tabletop device, the Owl Bar makes it a multi-station solution that could be useful for spaces with more dynamic setups.

Huddly Crew

Those who want a truly premium option can consider the Huddly Crew. With three 6K network cameras directed by AI, it’s inspired by TV and movie production techniques to make video conferencing not only intuitive, but highly interactive and immersive. It’s also Teams-certified for dedicated Microsoft users.

Closing Thoughts on Multi-Camera Meeting Spaces

As organizations continue to dedicate more resources to improving their virtual meeting experiences, we’ll continue seeing more products to help meet those needs. Expect many major brands in the space to create competing multicam devices, or to produce multi-device systems that more strategically create immersive, dynamic video meeting environments.