Crestron Electronics, a global leader in workplace technology, has announced enhancements to the Intelligent Video portfolio, through the Automate VX multi-camera speaker tracking solution, to create a more immersive and engaging collaboration environment.
Automate VX directs the cameras to capture a speaker from multiple perspectives depending on where they are looking so that key moments are always captured to enhance virtual collaboration. In a recent report, Frost and Sullivan forecasts that by 2029, one in six medium and large-sized rooms will have a multi-camera solution.
The latest Automate VX update brings new features such as Visual AI Direction, which is designed to enable more fluid interactions during meetings as cameras switch to capture speakers based on the angles of their faces. With this enhancement, Automate VX intelligently selects the camera that shows the clearest view of an active speaker’s face.
Crestron says that in-person attendees can act naturally to glance around the room to content on the displays or other attendees in the room without worrying about how those moments are captured for virtual attendees. The Visual AI Direction feature leverages edge AI to understand the angle someone is facing to switch from one camera to another so that the speaker remains well-framed and centred while avoiding less optimal shots of the side, or back of someone’s head.
Brad Hintze, EVP of global marketing, Crestron, said: “We continue to invest in leveraging Visual AI auto-framing and presenter tracking to deliver the most compelling meeting room experience on the market so that participants can contribute and engage with their peers without interruptions. By introducing Visual AI Direction technology, we create a dynamic experience where cameras are automatically adjusted and switch flawlessly in real-time, to ensure speakers are highlighted at the right moment and at the right angle for virtual participants.
“These smooth transitions remove the obstacles of poor camera angles that result in disjointed collaboration from disruptions such as when presentation content is being blocked, or a presenter is facing a different direction.”
Automate VX also provides software tools that enable rooms to be configured ahead of time with simple drag-and-drop functionality. The latest update brings in the ability to add furniture directly to the Intelligent Video Room Designer software making it simple to add tables and chairs to room layouts. Crestron says these pieces can be scaled and moved around the layout as needed to make space planning more efficient and accurate before finalising designs.
Another new feature introduction, called Breadcrumbs, is designed to enable faster deployments and fine-tuning of the system to accommodate unique acoustic characteristics within a space. Chairs may move, or presenters may move more freely around the room as they speak. To account for these variations, this feature collects the past 100 audio pickups from the microphones in the room to provide important positional data for room usage.
