The Record - Issue 21: Summer 2021

84 www. t e c h n o l o g y r e c o r d . c om I NT E R V I EW C ommunication is more than just sound. It is made up of intonation, body language, gestures, eye contact and more. Jabra under- stands this and has built its new videoconferencing device to capture all forms of communication. “When we look at the world with our eyes, we see a lot and we use that visual context to natu- rally understand what’s going on around us,” says Aurangzeb Khan, senior vice president of intel- ligent vision systems at Jabra. “While we talk, we look at the body language and how the person is responding. All of that happens so instinctively that we don’t even notice it. “If you look at traditional video conferencing in a group context, it didn’t work,” says Khan. “The field of view of a conventional single cam- era is about 70 degrees, which leads to a situation where you have long narrow conference rooms, or people are just off camera. If you’re off camera, there is this cognitive dissonance which causes people to feel that they aren’t a full and equal participant in the conversation.” This is why Jabra created Panacast 50. The device features three cameras that provide a 180-degree field of view. It also uses stitching technology to create a seamless visual experi- ence that prevents the distortion of speakers and “makes it easy for your brain to focus on the con- versation,” says Khan. Solutions like Panacast 50 will be an integral part of the workplace going forward, as many organisations are showing a preference for hybrid working, where employees may work in the office and at home. “We believe that going forward at least one, if not many or most, meeting participants will not physically be in the room,” says Khan. “So how do we give everyone the best experience?” Khan believes there are three major factors to consider: voice quality, visual quality and artifi- cial intelligence (AI). “Other organisations are trying to patch up their solutions to deliver all of these things, but we developed a next-generation architecture that features nine processors, three cameras, eight microphones, four speakers and two AI pro- cessors,” says Khan. “Customers want to buy an experience and the more easily that the technol- ogy fades into the background, the better.” The Panacast 50 can also facilitate working methods that aren’t typically associated with dig- ital solutions, such as whiteboards. “I like to think with my hands,” says Khan. “I’ll get up and start sketching on the whiteboard during a meeting. But for those who don’t use our technology, that can be a bad experience because they can’t see what I’m doing. With our multi-camera array, you can identify the white- board in it and the back-end technology will extract, rectify and present that whiteboard as if you were standing directly in front of it. Jabra’s Aurangzeb Khan explains how the firm is transforming videoconferencing hardware with AI and intelligent visual displays, and how this will benefit meeting participants Broadening virtual horizons BY E L LY YAT E S - ROB E R T S “Customers want to buy an experience, and the more easily that the technology fades into the background, the better”