One of the pain points of video conferencing is having to worry about all the different devices. Are they good enough? Will they work together? Will they work with my platform?
What if you could wipe away these worries and just start collaborating?
That’s what Logitech Rally Bar offers you: worry-free video conferencing of the highest standard. This all-in-one video bar combines 4K Ultra HD camera, dual 70 mm speakers and a six-element beamforming microphone array in one device.
Logitech Rally Bar comes in two different colors:
There’s also a Rally Bar Mini, which packs much of the same technology into a smaller unit. We cover Rally Bar Mini at the end of the blog.
As you’d expect from Logitech, Rally Bar is an incredibly versatile device, working with many platforms, including:
- Zoom Rooms Certified for Windows and macOS
- Microsoft Teams Rooms Certified for Android and Windows
- Google Meet Certified (in USB Mode)
- Tencent Certified
- GoToMeeting, Pexip and RingCentral Compatible
Let’s take a deeper look at Logitech Rally Bar.
Logitech Rally Bar
Logitech Rally Bar is an all-in-one video conferencing bar for use in medium to large conference rooms. As a video bar, it combines camera, speaker and microphone in one device. In fact, it can also act as a video conferencing codec, too.
If you’d like to know more about video bars in general, check out our Video Bars Buyer’s Guide.
Rally Bar runs Logitech’s CollabOS, which is the unifying operating system for certain Logitech video conferencing devices. CollabOS ensures seamless integration of multiple devices, regular updates to improve functionality and interoperability and a lot of other stuff, too. It features gold-level security technology to protect your communications, including hardware-level encryption, application sandboxing, TLS encryption and 802.1x authentication. Manage Rally Bar using Logitech Sync.
As a video bar, Rally Bar has a 4K Ultra HD camera with motorized pan-tilt-zoom capabilities. It also has a secondary AI Viewfinder camera, which aids in automatic framing. The multi-element lens unit enables 5x lossless optical zoom. It can pan 25° in either direction and tilt 15° up and down. In other words, you get complete coverage of the room. It can zoom in on faces, adjust if someone’s standing on the side of the conversation and so on.
For audio output, it has dual 70 mm speakers. These ultra-low distortion speakers are backed by noise reduction technology so every word can be heard clearly. It has port tubes to improve low-frequency audio, plus an anti-vibration suspension system.
For audio pickup, it uses a six microphone array. Intelligent beamforming technology means the microphones home in on voices, amplifying the important discussions while reducing ambient noise. The microphones have a reach of up to 15 feet. If you need more coverage, you can add up to 3 additional Logitech Rally Mic Pods (not included).
Logitech RightSense technologies
Rally Bar features RightSense technologies to improve the video bar’s audio/visual performance. There are three of them.
- RightSight
- RightLight
- RightSound
RightSight means highly accurate automatic speaker/group framing. It operates in two modes: Speaker View and Group View. In Speaker View, the active speaker is framed and the other participants are shown in a secondary view. In Group View, the whole group is dynamically framed, so if someone arrives or leaves, the framing and zoom will adjust to accommodate them.
Rally Bar has a secondary camera that allows it to monitor the entire scene, helping the video bar detect meeting participants more accurately, improving RightSight performance.
RightLight means automatic, dynamic video setting adjustment. The goal is cinematic quality video with every participant’s skin tone looking natural, no matter the lighting conditions. Because video conference rooms aren’t exactly known for their movie-worthy lighting, having technological compensation makes an enormous difference to the video call experience.
RightSound improves audio quality using AI. It distinguishes speech from other sound, then levels voices for improved comprehension and richness of quality. It also suppresses background noises, clearing the audio experience from distractions.
USB Mode vs Appliance Mode
You can use Rally Bar in either of two modes:
- USB Mode
- Appliance Mode
In USB Mode, Rally Bar becomes a USB video bar. The advantages of a USB video bar are many but here are two big ones: 1) interoperability and 2) simplicity.
As a USB peripheral, Rally Bar becomes usable with basically every video conferencing service and platform on the market today. You just need to select it under audio/video settings, like you would with a webcam or a headset.
In Appliance Mode, you can run video conferencing applications directly on Rally Bar, no PC or laptop required. These applications include Zoom Rooms, Microsoft Teams Rooms, GoToRoom and RingCentral Rooms.
Logitech Rally Bar Mini
For small to medium conference rooms, check out Logitech Rally Bar Mini, which also comes in graphite or white:
What are the differences between Logitech Rally Bar and Logitech Rally Bar Mini?
Rally Bar Mini contains most of the same technology as Rally Bar with a few exceptions due to its smaller size. The primary differences are three:
- Camera. It supports 4x digital zoom (rather than 5x optical zoom); it has the same pan and tilt ranges
- Speakers. It has one 70 mm speaker and two mid-range speakers (rather than two 70 mm)
- Expansion Microphones. It supports two expansion microphones (rather than three)
It may be “mini” but it’s no slouch!