Logitech Group Review - Review 2022

Logitech is eyeing the pregnant center footing betwixt webcams and enterprise-level video systems with conference cameras like the Group ($999). The successor to Logitech's ConferenceCam CC3000e, it offers excellent sound and video quality for employ in medium to big rooms, even if its specs aren't as robust as some competitors, including the Editors' Pick AVer VC520 Video Conference Camera Arrangement. It'south still a great selection for distributed workforces, as PCMag's far-flung team members found out during testing.

What's in the Box?

Dissimilar the more portable Logitech ConferenceCam Connect ($499.95 at Amazon) , the Grouping is designed to stay put on a conference room tabular array. It includes a PTZ (pan, tilt, zoom) camera, a four-mic noise-canceling speakerphone, and a connector hub. You also get a wall-mounting bracket, all the required cables, Velcro for cable direction, a power adapter, and lots of international power plugs in the box.

The microphone on the Group reaches a twenty-foot radius, while the AVer VC520 reaches 30 feet. Optional extension microphones that increase the Logitech organization's achieve to 28 feet are bachelor for an extra $299, or every bit a packet with the residual of the system for $1,249. Y'all can extend the AVer VC520 with an additional speakerphone unit, merely that volition set you back an extra $399.99.

At 7 by 5.1 by 5.4 inches (HWD) and 1.3 pounds, the Group'south photographic camera is smaller than the VC520's, which measures a couple of inches deeper and weighs 3.3 pounds. But its footprint isn't as big as that of the Logitech MeetUp ($749.99 at Amazon) . The speakerphone measures 9.five by 2.v by nine.v inches and weighs ii.vi pounds (so you'll want to let some room for information technology on your conference room tabular array), and the hub comes in at 3.8 by 1.3 by 2.ix inches and 3 ounces.

The Group shoots in 1080p at 30fps (frames per second), compared with the VC520's 1080p at 60fps. It sports a wider field of view, however, at ninety degrees (the VC520 captures 72.five degrees). Panning and tilting are identical betwixt both cameras, at 260 degrees and 90 degrees, respectively. The VC520 zooms a bit more than (12x) compared with the Group (10x). For a super-wide angle suitable to smaller huddle rooms, the MeetUp is unbeatable, with its 120-degree field of view in 4K resolution and 170-degree panning, though it only offers 5x zooming.

While the Group'south camera specs are identical to those of its predecessor, it adds face detection and v position presets, which are convenient if meeting attendees sit at set places. This characteristic negates the demand to pan and tilt to capture regularly placed participants during recurrent meetings. That said, the VC520 has twice the number of presets.

The bonny speakerphone unit shares 1 cool design feature with the ConferenceCam Connect. The remote command conveniently fits into its chassis for storage. The Grouping's remote rests in the speakerphone, though, while the Connect'south snaps in. The MeetUp offers no storage for its ungainly square remote (which we misplaced).

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Simple Setup

Setting up the Group is straightforward, simply a bit more involved than for the MeetUp. No setup guide is included; in that location'southward merely a diagram on the inside of the production box, a reference card showing controls and connections, and the warranty and condom pamphlets. After connecting power to the hub, you need to connect the speaker and camera to information technology via USB 2.0 and PS/two plugs; the colour-coded plugs get in hard to become the connections incorrect, and Velcro ties help proceed the cables neat. You lot can as well connect a laptop or smartphone to the speakerphone using Bluetooth.

The devices are compatible with Windows 7, 8.1, and 10, and with Mac Bone Ten 10.10 or later on. One time you plug the unit in, the photographic camera and speakerphone come to life. The drivers automatically downloaded and installed on the Windows 10 laptop I used for testing.

Neat Sound and Video

Autofocus with face detection performed admirably in testing, and panning is much more fluid than on the initial beta hardware of the Group I used, though zooming is still not perfectly smoothen. The remote's buttons worked well in testing, though it is IR-based, so you need line of sight for it to piece of work, unlike the MeetUp's RF remote.

The Group captures H.264 video with Scalable Video Coding (SVC) and UVC 1.5 compression to salvage on bandwidth, which sometimes results in a pixelated epitome. Using Windows 10's congenital-in photographic camera app, without streaming video over a network, showed the Grouping to exist capable of very sharp detail, and Skyping with a good connection also produced smooth video quality.

The sound from the speaker unit of measurement is natural and clear, on par with the VC520, equally long as participants on the other cease of the call are using decent mics. We tested the claimed radius of the speakerphone mic, and at a distance of 20 feet, remote listeners were able to hear my voice loud and clear.

Echo cancellation, double talk enhancement (which keeps one party from cutting off another while talking), automatic gain control (making soft-spoken folk more audible), and beamforming are built into the Group. That concluding enhancement uses the mic assortment to choice up the person speaking, rather than extraneous racket. I tested this by playing music in the room while using the Group; I positioned myself farther away from the speakerphone than the music source, and my voice withal came through clearly on the other side of the connection.

Diverse Compatibility

Equally with the Logitech ConferenceCam Connect and the AVer VC520, at that place's no video-conferencing software included with the Group—in contrast to professional systems like Cisco's TelePresence and Polycom'south RealPresence. Instead, it works every bit the video and audio peripherals for simply almost every video-conferencing service, including Adobe Connect, BlueJeans, Skype for Business, Vidyo, WebEx, Zoom, or whatever IP-based video-conferencing service you're using on your continued computer.

Earlier yous can utilize the speakerphone'southward Phone call Answer and Hang Up buttons when using BlueJeans, Broadsoft, LifeSize Cloud, Vidyo, and Zoom, you need to first install a software plugin, available from support.logitech.com. Annotation that, since the Windows 10 Store app version of Skype doesn't support plugins, you'll take to install Skype Classic. Users of enterprise-level conferencing services similar BlueJeans, Skype for Business, and Zoom get the additional ability to control PTZ from remote locations (again, later on downloading a plugin).

You can as well employ the Group with Logitech's SmartDock ($699.97 at Amazon) . This is basically an embedded Surface Pro that acts equally a permanent hub for a conference room, and uses the Skype Room Systems control software.

Perfect for Your Group?

The Logitech Group boasts sharp HD video, total sound, and a microphone with a 20-foot radius, making it a good fit for utilise in medium to large rooms. And it offers superior value compared with traditional business video-conferencing systems, which can come with v-figure toll tags. The camera's PTZ functionality is a smidge less shine than the Editors' Option AVer VC520, which also sports slightly higher specs for the same price. For smaller conference and huddle rooms, the Logitech Meetup is another Editors' Selection. But the Group is an admirable alternative for far-flung teams looking for a reliable conferencing arrangement to stay in touch.