Google has today announced a new Chromebox for meetings hardware upgrade, which will now allow larger meeting rooms to connect together on video conference calls. Google says the new Chromebox will allow groups of upto 20 to connect seamlessly over the latest hardware upgrade.
The new Chromebox, apart from obvious hardware upgrades, also has certain new additional features coming along with it. The communication mech however remains to that same instant face-to-face meeting functionalities as the original bundle.
The latest upgrade now features a new Logitech Pan-tilt-zoom camera. The new image capturing device is a USB-enabled 1080 HD camera which is aimed at delivering professional video quality for larger conference spaces. It offers 10x lossless zoom with a 90° field of view and a mechanical 260° pan coupled with 130° tilt angles. The smaller Chromebox features your usual 1080p HD Camera.
The latest Chromebox upgrade also features an additional onmi-directional microphone/speakers, which is a rather obvious addition considering it is meant to capture double as many people as captured by the original Chromebox.
The biggest addition to the new Chromebox though is the support for getting your video conferencing on dual screens. You can now connect two monitors to the Logitech PTZ camera and dual microphone and speakers, so your participants can get the richest video conferencing experience.
Apart from a new hardware, Google announced certain feature additions to the original Chromebox as well. Both Chromebox devices now support a new Full-Screen Mode, which allows your device’s camera to capture and show as much visibility area as possible. Google has given a more detailed explanation of the same in a FAQ answered here.
Chromebox admins will now also have access to larger management controls. Admins can remotely monitor the health of their Chrome devices in one simple view to see which devices are online or offline. Chrome management also lets admins delegate administration of devices to other users besides the super admin.
The upgraded Chromebox starts at $1,999 (which includes the first year’s management and support fee) and is currently available to buy in the U.S. Google says it will expanding the availability to other regions later this year.
