Owl Labs is committed to making hybrid work a more natural and inclusive experience for everyone through our ecosystem of innovative solutions like the Meeting Owl 3, Whiteboard Owl, and Expansion Mic. Our award-winning products give you the tools you need to stay connected with your colleagues, even if you are unable to physically be in the office with them.
We are constantly working to help you achieve hybrid meeting equality through consistent updates to our products, and looking forward to what the future of work may look like. We know that hybrid work is here to stay, but barriers to true hybrid meeting equity still exist. Barriers like a lack of eye contact, poor image quality, and limited microphone range can quickly derail a hybrid meeting and frustrate attendees on both sides of the camera. Our newest product, the Owl Bar, is designed to change all of that.
Together, the Meeting Owl 3 + Owl Bar deliver natural hybrid meeting experiences that are truly the next best thing to being together. That’s why we are so excited to bring our latest product, the Owl Bar, into your hands.
On May 23, 2023, the world was finally able to see the Owl Bar in action during our Owl Bar Launch Webinars. Let’s take a closer look at what we showed off during those webinars, who attended, and what the future of the Owl Labs ecosystem, and hybrid work, look like.
Meet the future of hybrid work
The Owl Bar is a front-of-room video bar that wirelessly pairs with the Meeting Owl 3 to facilitate natural-feeling hybrid meetings by capturing every angle of a room in 4K. A meeting room equipped with a Meeting Owl 3 + Owl Bar brings you closer to achieving meeting equity by making sure everyone can be clearly seen and heard, no matter where they are.
We know that many hybrid meetings suffer from a lack of eye contact between remote and in-person attendees. That type of face-to-face communication is intrinsic to human connection and essential for inclusive and effective meetings. The Meeting Owl 3 + Owl Bar work together to automatically frame speakers to show the best view of in-room speakers and improve eye contact between remote and in-person participants. The result is meetings that are more engaging and effective for everyone.
The Owl Bar has technical specs that will get any AV professional excited. Here is a closer look at what makes the Owl Bar shine:
- Powered by the Owl Intelligence System™ (OIS), which uses AI to intelligently auto-focus on in-room attendees as they speak and move
- Multi-camera ecosystem scales to support spaces of any size
- Wirelessly pairs with the Meeting Owl (3 or Pro)
- High-quality video: 4K video output resolution, 30MP camera, 114° field of view
- High-fidelity audio: 4 integrated microphones + 1 integrated speaker. Pairs with eight smart mics on the Meeting Owl
- 18 ft audio pickup radius. 36 ft total pickup radius when paired with the Meeting Owl.
- Plug and play USB connection with the host computer
The launch webinar
We offered two webinars on May 23, 2023, where attendees were able to see the Meeting Owl 3 + Owl Bar in action. They heard from our co-founder and CDO, Max Makeev, who explained what the Owl Bar is and why it’s an essential addition to any hybrid meeting space.
“The whole purpose of the hardware in the room is to help people connect…it’s about making you feel engaged,” Max told attendees. “In the office, you don’t have control over the AV equipment [like you do at home]…if you get the wrong seat, it’s going to capture the wrong side of you, and no one feels comfortable in that scenario.”
The Owl Labs ecosystem of products is specifically designed to solve this issue. All of our products use the Owl Intelligence System (OIS), our AI-driven software that is constantly learning and improving the efficacy of our products.
“Think of it as a camera director in the room in real-time, deciding who to show and when, and what microphones to use to make sure the highest quality version of you is being broadcast to everyone joining the call on the remote end,” said Max.
“We believe in this…” he continued. “But it’s also wonderful when our point of view is validated by third parties. He then pulled up a quote from market research company Frost & Sullivan which reads:
“Center-of-table cameras that work in sync with the front-of-room camera, along with intelligent audio and visual switching, will allow for greater meeting equality.”
At the end of the webinar, we opened the floor up for questions from attendees. In total, we received nearly 400 questions. We’re thrilled to receive such a response and believe that it shows how necessary a front-and-center video conferencing solution is to achieving meeting equality in the modern workspace. Here is a summary of the most common questions and answers discussed during the webinars.
Q & A
Q: Is the Owl Bar available for sale at this time?
A: Yes! You can purchase the Owl Bar here or through an authorized reseller partner. The product will ship within 8-10 weeks of your order.
Q: Can you use the Owl Bar with the older Meeting Owl Pro in addition to the Meeting Owl 3?
A: Yes! The Owl Bar is 100% compatible with the Meeting Owl Pro, but it is contingent on keeping the devices on the latest firmware. This is a big part of the Owl Labs' experience with our products. We’re committed to consistently updating our devices and keeping them relevant long after the point of sale.
Q: Is the Owl Bar available in Canada?
A: Yes it is.
Q: What does the remote view look like when you’re using the Owl Bar on its own? Do you still get the top panoramic bar, like you do with the Meeting Owl?
A: If you are using an Owl Bar on its own, you will not see the panoramic strip at the top of your screen like you do when it is paired with a Meeting Owl. However, you will get the active speaker tracking UI that highlights speakers. The Owl Bar also has a mode that frames everyone in the room, providing you with a more traditional front-of-room camera view.
Q: Does the Owl Bar work with Microsoft Teams?
A: Our Owl Bar operates via a USB plug-in. That means it doesn’t matter what video conferencing platform you use; if it supports a USB camera and microphone the Owl Bar will work with it.
Q: Is Owl Labs going to support pairing three devices in the future?
A: The vision is to have all of our products work together to fit the needs of any meeting room. This feature will be coming via a software update, but we do not have a specific timeline that we can provide at this time.
Q: Is there an extension mic to extend the audio pickup?
A: We offer an Expansion Mic product accessory that can be plugged into the Meeting Owl 3 to expand the audio pickup range by eight feet. The expansion mic cannot work with the Owl Bar alone. The Meeting Owl 3 has an 18-foot audio radius on its own, which expands to 26 feet with the Expansion Mic.
Q: What is your return policy?
A: We want you to be able to experience our products for yourselves and have the opportunity to use, touch, and feel this technology. That’s why we offer a 30-day return policy. For more questions reach out through this form.
Q: What is the maximum distance that you can set up between the Owl Bar and the Meeting Owl?
A: The recommended maximum distance between the Owl Bar and the Meeting Owl is eight feet.
What’s next
The Meeting Owl 3 + Owl Bar are available for purchase now. We hope that you are as excited as we are to get your hands on this next-generation piece of hybrid technology.
This is just the beginning. One of the best parts about all of our products is that they consistently improve over time, not just as our AI-driven software, the Owl Intelligence System, learns, but as we learn through our consistent product development. New features are constantly being introduced through regular firmware updates. If there is a particular feature you feel that our products are lacking, let us know! You might just see it come through in a future software update.
If you missed the webinar, and want to watch it for yourself, you can find a full recording here.
Be sure to let us know what you think of the Owl Bar by sending us a message @OwlLabs on Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn or, Instagram. Together, we can make the future of hybrid work better for everyone.
