Hybrid work is here to stay — but how can we make it better? When calling into a hybrid meeting, watching in-office teammates brainstorm on a whiteboard has never been an inspiring experience. Either someone’s blocking the view of the whiteboard as they write, or, even if you do have a clear shot at the board, the fine lines of dry-erase marker simply don’t translate well over video. “What was that scribble at the bottom? Hope it wasn’t important!”
Whiteboard brainstorming used to leave remote meeting attendees out in the cold. But that’s no longer the case.
The Owl Labs Whiteboard Owl™ camera is here to help make whiteboard brainstorms truly collaborative and accessible to all meeting participants. It’s a dedicated whiteboard camera that pairs with the Meeting Owl 3 and helps create more productive, more inclusive meetings — and it’s now available in Canada and the EU.
“The Whiteboard Owl automatically detects the presenter and makes them transparent, creating a hybrid meeting experience where you don’t lose the content and you don’t lose the context,” said Mark Schnittman, Co-founder and CTO, Owl Labs.
The Whiteboard Owl is defined by its AI-powered technology — Whiteboard Enhance, and Presenter Transparency.
Whiteboard Enhance improves the visibility of writing on the board by increasing clarity and contrast and reducing shadows. Every word on the board will be legible by all participants, so there won’t be any interruptions asking for clarifications, and everyone will be able to stay in the flow of the meeting.
The Whiteboard Owl doesn’t just make the board easier to read with sharper lettering — it also removes physical obstacles for remote participants. With the power of AI and computer vision, the Whiteboard Owl makes the presenter transparent when they’re writing on the board so it’s never blocked from the view of participants.
When paired with the Meeting Owl 3, the Whiteboard Owl enhances and sharpens everything written on the whiteboard so all remote participants can follow the discussion and stay engaged in the conversation without confusion or distractions. The whiteboard becomes a participant in the meeting with its own window, instead of just a backdrop.
The Whiteboard Owl camera, mounted so it has a clear view of any magnetic whiteboard, is activated and controlled by two Whiteboard Tags, placed in two corners of the whiteboard. The tags can be flipped over too quickly and easily toggle between views of the whiteboard and the meeting participants.
The Whiteboard Owl has helped educators, professionals, and leading organizations improve their hybrid collaboration, including The Pennington School, an innovative secondary school in New Jersey. “Our teachers loved the Whiteboard Owl, particularly our math teachers who were lost without the whiteboard during the previous school year,” said Kenneth Coakley, Director of Technology at The Pennington School. “The Whiteboard Owl is easy to use and doesn't disrupt the lesson, and students liked being able to still see the teacher while they were writing on the board with the Whiteboard Enhance feature."
The Whiteboard Owl is now available for purchase in the United States, Canada, and the EU.