How to conduct a conference away from home? – Poly Sync 20 and Poly Studio P5
Unfortunately as a society we live in a constant state of flux. Digitalization has also contributed to changing the mode of work. Many of us have seen the convenience of remote working, and for some, the spaces of personal life and work have begun to merge into one. Of course, work-life balance is important, which also reaches Polish employees, but what about when the company collapses or we forget about an important call? Poly brand, also known as Plantronics will provide us with the right equipment for such occasions!
The above quoted situations are a form of extreme, although life is more interesting than movies, so they can also happen to us. As the film industry says, life itself writes the scripts, so it is worth stocking up for different occasions. While the reason for purchasing a camcorder and speakerphone may not involve preventing a huge crisis. The desire for appropriate technology may be quite different and the reason more pragmatic. After all, we all know that those with which our portable computers are equipped are usually, as if to put it lightly…insufficient?
Plantronics Audio Legacy
Plantronis equipment deserves our attention! Headphones in particular, which are highly valued in office work, especially in call center departments where they play an essential tool for. Experienced CC leaders usually supply their employees with headsets of this brand. I personally happened to work with the Blackwire C3220. Headphones that are lightweight and have good noise-canceling properties. The callers do not complain about the quality of calls, and they are not heavy, which supports the comfort of work.
I also recently got my hands on some headphones BlackWire C725. You can feel the difference in quality between these kits, although at first I wasn't convinced by the C725 design. What bothers me is the fact that you can hear everything going on inside the membrane outside, which is not the case with C3220, or at least not on this scale. However, the padding on the head frame actually makes them less tiring to wear than the first headphones. In addition, the sound quality itself is phenomenal, with the microphone picking up ambient sound perfectly. Both are great, but the position Blackwire C725 definitely wins my office headphones ranking.
Video conference with Poly
It is quite obvious that the two components of a meeting are the people and the equipment. Of course, online meetings, because we are talking about such videoconferencing. Delving into the audiovisual technicalities, we will divide the "conference hardware" itself into two aspects, namely audio and video, just.
The camera, the action!
Camera setup Poly Studio P5 This is probably the easiest task anyone can perform. Just plug it into the USB port on your laptop. We check to see if the device has configured itself correctly and depending on our computer settings, in some applications we have to indicate the use of the native camera or Poly P5, of which I strongly recommend choosing the latter option. Why?
The picture is great, I've tested it so far in low light and artificial light, in which many cameras could not catch the white balance and focus, and this camera did it without any difficulty. Yes, the image wasn't as stunning as with a DSLR camera, but comparing to the capabilities of the webcam built into a laptop or some phones and taking into account the light conditions of the so-called "camera in the sky", we were able to use the Blackwire C725. if you find yourself in a situation, you can really surprise yourself in a positive way.
Fortunately, there are tests circulating in the Internet showing the possibilities of the image Poly Studio P5, but in general it is 1080p camera with 4x digital zoom. The expense of 600 PLN may seem expensive, but the device is worth its price, especially if the image and its reception are important in our work.
Time for audio!
Headphones are versatile when it comes to being able to talk and listen to audio anywhere on Earth. In space, they'd probably work just as well. The problem for them is not the place, but the amount of DB, which drowns out the audible sound when their level is too high. Not assuming that we are running by the highway or sitting on the platform it is worth to consider having a hands-free set. Choosing headphones is an important consideration when you want to hear better or make your meetings more intimate or private.
However, it is not always necessary, and headphones may be limiting, for example by the length of its cable or poor sound quality in its absence.
OK, now that we're seen, are we heard?
First, let's never ask similar questions of our audience in official situations. This automatically distracts participants and shows our slight lack of professionalism and prior involvement in checking these details. With that formal issue behind us and the discussion of this great camcorder over with, it's time for a little more argument, or rather louder argument!
GPoly Sync 20 USB-C Conference Carrier You can take it anywhere and its battery lasts approx. 19 hours. It is 3in1 as it is a speaker, microphone and powerbank in one. 3in1 is also ways of connectivity, because you can connect here using adapter, USB cable or Bluetooth network.
Poly Sync 20 looks good (better than in the picture) and is equipped with intelligent features. Very designer looks this LED backlight that blinks while using the device. The design is dustproof, and in the box you will find a pouch and a cord that makes it easy to carry the speaker and tie it, for example, on your wrist or the suspenders of your backpack. Built-in ma 3 microphones that pick up sound from a distance of up to 2 meters.
I would give the final rating of the speaker five stars if it weren't for the fact that I had some problems with it.
During the first video calls, during faster and more rapid speech, my listeners found the sound muffled and could barely hear me. Interesting, because the device comes with noise reduction function, so it probably didn't like my voice. It is possible that it changed its mind during the meeting, because later I did not encounter similar problems.
It also got weird when I wanted to turn on sound from a youtube video, and the whole Google Meet refused to serve me in terms of receiving sound from microphone, which was Poly Sync 20. This problem was solved by screen sharing, in which the microphones began to cooperate, deafening my interlocutors with loud music.
It's hard to say how much of this is the device's fault and how much is mine, but it took me all of 7 minutes to get to this solution, which I could have spent on 10 slides in that time. I also had a hard time finding a use for the button circled with the microphone icon, as listeners couldn't hear any difference when this option was turned on or off.
While we're at it loud music we are the device is powerful in this respect and it plays really loud, and in a good audio situation I didn't hear a single distortion.
And here's another issue, when you step away from the device and try to speak from a distance, yes the sound is picked up and heard, but not every time in a loud manner. Frontally moving away from the device we are more likely to be heard, but I guess that's what it's all about, to be seen, too this issue is not so problematic. Anyway, even it disappeared after two days.
I was most intrigued by these intricate Poly Sync 20 smart speaker features. In the "microsft" version, the set supports the Teams platform, during which the logo button of this application glows purple, in any other situation it is not even visible, well, unless it is simply not there then it also will not be visible.
In all seriousness, the rocket button, which I associate with the logo Rocket Jobs. Intelligent functions are quite an enigma, until we realize that they exist dedicated application, that allows you to use it. All my shortcomings and dissatisfaction disappeared in the situation of understanding that you can control the functionality from a software application. The problem is that it is impossible to find her through an organic search.
On the site, fortunately, we find it easily, and for more system versions than Android.
At the end I'll say something that I haven't seen and I regret that I didn't have a chance to test this solution.
The directional microphone on the Poly Studio P5 clearly picks up your voice, but you can pair it with a headset or hands-free Poly!
Poly company offers an interesting ecosystem of audiovisual devices, which is worth taking interest in if we think about professional equipment and a good job! Maybe at some point we'll focus on the capabilities of the Poly app, but when it comes to user experience, despite a few slip-ups, I don't have any big reservations and I highly recommend!
