Owl Bar

The Owl Bar is the most recent new category device from Owl Labs. It is a front-of-the-room camera with an integrated speaker and microphones. The Owl Bar is designed to integrate with the Meeting Owl Pro or above. The Owl Bar mounts to the wall (below an in-room display) or can stand on a tabletop. The Owl Bar features a speaker that pairs with the audio output from the Meeting Owl to create a fuller sound experience. The 4K video sensor in the Owl Bar can integrate with the video from a Meeting Owl as well.

About this Device

The Owl Bar has at its center a high-quality 4K resolution (30MP) camera, with a 114° field of view. It also features high-fidelity audio with four integrated microphones and one integrated speaker. The Owl Bar is powered via a DC power adapter. The bottom of the device features several ports, but at the time of writing for this article, only the USB-C port is functional for a computer connection to the Owl Bar. We speculate that these ports (1 HDMI in, and 2 HDMI out) could enable the Owl Bar to function as a type of media hub for local displays with video passthrough, but as of now, no timeline on any sort of HDMI functionality has been released.

Innovative Features

Before the Owl Bar’s release, the Owl Labs’ Meeting Owl could be paired with an additional Meeting Owl to expand the active speaker tracking to a larger space. This functioned well for round table meetings in which in-person participants needed to be seen and heard by remote participants. However, this posed a challenge when the in-person participants were trying interact with the remote participants. If participants were looking at the in room display, they would not be looking at the camera in the middle of the room, disrupting the illusion of eye contact, if they participants looked at the meeting owl they would no longer be able to see participants or content on screen.

The Owl Bar resolves this issue by providing a front of room camera, that is often placed below in-room screens. This allows in-room and remote participants to have a more natural experience so that wherever the in-room participant looks toward the display the camera captures their face. The Owl Bar can still be paired with a Meeting Owl to provide the unique 360° view from the Meeting Owl (please see TTAC’s review of the Meeting Owl). This also has the added benefit of extending the microphone range as the paired devices can switch off mics as needed.

The active speaker tracking is achieved by the powerful peer-to peer network created between the Owl Bar and Meeting Owl and the use of embedded AI speaker tracking to intelligently switch between the Owl Bar and Meeting Owl to capture the best angle of the in-room participants. In addition to a Meeting Owl, the Owl Bar can also be paired with the White Board Owl to capture white board drawings in the meeting space. The AI integrations across the Owl Lab devices is quite impressive and features a new mode: Presenter Enhance. When the Owl bar is used as a standalone device, it features Auto-Frame Everyone which is similar to the Meeting Owl’s 360° view and crops the Owl bar’s video to show everyone sitting in the room in one frame above the active speakers.

A Note on the User Experience

In a paired device setup, one devices will need to be physically connected via USB, while the second device can then pair wirelessly to the primary device. Either an Owl Bar, or Meeting Owl can serve as the connected (or primary) device. This means that you cannot connect wirelessly to the Owl Bar as a standalone unit, but you can connect wirelessly if your primary device is a Meeting Owl. The included 6ft USB-cable seems short when trying to use the Owl Bar as the primary device, and almost necessitates the use of a paired Meeting Owl as the primary. Owl Labs recommends that in room participants be at least 2.5 feet away from the Owl Bar, further making the included 6ft cable even less practical.

Additionally, we found that the volume output of the device limited to the output of the Meeting Owl. This is good for balancing audio output when using the devices in a pair, but left total output something to be surprisingly underpowered considering the size of the Owl Bar.

Use Cases

1. Teleconsultations: Doctors can use the Owl Bar for video consultations with patients. Its wide-angle lens and microphone array allow for clear, inclusive interactions where both parties can see and hear each other well.
2. Group Meetings: In medical facilities where team meetings or multidisciplinary rounds are held, the Owl Bar can capture everyone in the room, making it easier for remote participants to join and participate effectively.
3. Remote Training and Education: Medical training sessions, workshops, or educational seminars can benefit from the Owl Bar’s ability to stream high-quality video and audio to remote participants, enhancing engagement and understanding.
4. Patient Education and Counseling: Healthcare providers can use the Owl Bar to deliver educational sessions or counseling to patients and their families remotely, ensuring that crucial information is conveyed effectively.
5. Collaborative Healthcare: Specialists located in different geographic areas can collaborate on complex cases using the Owl Bar, providing real-time advice and consultations without the need for travel.
6. Medical Conferences and Symposia: The Owl Bar can be used to broadcast or participate in medical conferences, allowing healthcare professionals to attend sessions remotely and participate in discussions.
7. Research and Case Presentations: Researchers or clinicians presenting cases or research findings can use the Owl Bar to share their work with colleagues or at conferences, enhancing visibility and collaboration opportunities.
8. Multilingual Services: In diverse healthcare settings, the Owl Bar can support multilingual services by facilitating communication between patients and providers who speak different languages.

Product Specs:

Summary

The Owl Bar solves a niche issue that is created by using a Meeting Owl with a large shared display. If everyone is using their own laptops, the need for the Owl Bar is negligible. However, if you are using screens in a conference room to view remote participants and also have a Meeting Owl, then the Owl Bar is a welcome addition to the AV setup. While the Owl Bar added significantly to the video experience of a standalone Meeting Owl, we did not find that it did much to improve the audio performance as its maximum volume is the same as the Meeting Owl. If you have the budget, already have a Meeting Owl (Pro model or higher), and use a dedicated in room display, then you might want to consider adding the Owl Bar to your conference space.

From time to time, TTAC will choose a piece of technology to show or demonstrate in the “Innovation Watch” section of our website.  No endorsement of any products or services is expressed or implied by any information, hyperlink text, product, service, material, or content referred to or included on, or linked from, or to the TTAC website.

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From time to time TAC will choose a piece of technology to show or demonstrate in the “Innovation Watch” section of our website.  No endorsement of any products or services is expressed or implied by any information, hyperlink text, product, service, material or content referred to or included on, or linked from or to the TTAC web site.