So, who knows about conference cameras?

Since you guys know everything....

Recently, I got a new job in the IT field. I love it! Our company is a small but forward thinking company, and our owner recently expressed the want for some modern conferencing gear. We just built and opened an addition to our office, and now we have 2 medium sized 10 seat conference rooms, and he wants to modernize some new gear, namely a couple of modern conference cams.

After doing some research, I'm leaning toward getting a couple HuddleCam HD PTZ (pan, tilt, and zoom) cameras (not sure which ones yet) and a couple HuddlePod Air wireless microphone speakers for voice. Right now, one room has a small fixed camera of ancient origin, and the other room has nothing.

Has anyone on here set up conference camera gear before? I'm conflicted as to what camera would be the right choice. Both rooms are rectangular, and the owner mentioned something about having the ability to focus in on whoever's speaking with the camera. I don't think an auto-tracking camera is the way to go here, because everyone that will be talking will be sitting around a conference table. Also, will I need a PC to run each camera installed in the room?

What I'm currently looking at:

HuddlePod Mic/Speaker

HuddleCam 10x G2 Camera

I'll have to check and see what the unit we have at work tomorrow is but its a pretty slick setup that can auto track even in a conference room where everyone is around the table.

First, does the company already have a VoIP system? If so, it would be best to use something that could tie into it.

In reply to GameboyRMH:

Yes, we do have a VoIP system in place. In addition, everyone here loves using Google Hangouts for conferencing. Our meetings never exceed the max users, and it's easy and it just works. Anything very large usually moves to GoToMeeting.

OK, what VoIP system do you have?

In reply to GameboyRMH:

8x8.

I know my boss has used his laptop to call people for conference calls, so I'm assuming that his laptop is connected somehow to the VoIP. For video conferencing, they use GoToMeeting or Hangouts.

Never set them up, but I have USED them plenty. Here would be what I would want.

1. EASY TO USE. Like an iPhone, anyone in the office should be able to turn it on and dial in in less than 15 minutes.
2. STRONG SOFTWARE AND UPDATES. I don't want some fancy features that phase out and are no longer supported in 18 months.

Assuming you already have ultra-good sound (clear, loud, many microphones, etc) and that the sound is staying separate, those would be my desires over any resolution/tilt/zoom/add-free-cat-pictures/etc features.

Huh, hosted VoIP, you must have a lot of bandwidth Anyway, for doing videoconferencing (vs. video calls on a phone) with 8x8 VoIP it looks like your only option is to use their software-based system that requires a PC on each end:

https://www.8x8.com/web-conferencing

By using a system that works with your existing VoIP setup you can easily bring in callers just like you could for an audio-only conference.

This is an off the wall question BUT what kind of releases do you have to get from employees and what kinds of disclosures are needed for the use of camera's in the office place?

The reason I ask is some of my clients do not want to be on camera at all and we have purposefully kept a low tech conference room.

In reply to dean1484:

That's a good question. Since this stuff isn't recorded, I'm not sure if you have to get any releases. This is just so people can teleconference. Our company has people all over the place all over the world, and they teleconference all the time, and no one has ever brought this up. Most of our teleconferencing that is done with a camera is done company internal.