Meeting-room hardware can be difficult to get right. Organisations want a reliable experience for remote participants, but they also want to avoid the cost and complexity of fitting every smaller space with a full room system.
That is why the new Meeting Owl 5 caught my attention this week. It follows the Meeting Owl 5 Pro, launched earlier this year, but is aimed at teams that need a simpler way to equip BYOD rooms without moving to a fully integrated room system.
The other stories this week look beyond the meeting room. Navori wants workplace screens to become connected surfaces for live information, while EssilorLuxottica’s numbers show that AI glasses are becoming a more significant device category.
Owl Labs Re-Engineers the Meeting Owl
Owl Labs has launched the Meeting Owl 5, a centre-of-table collaboration device designed for BYOD meeting rooms. It is available in the US now for $1,499, with European availability due in early November.
The new device combines 4K, 360-degree video with AI-powered speaker tracking and eight beamforming microphones. Owl Labs has partnered with Fraunhofer IIS for its upHear Microphone Processing technology, which is designed to improve speech pickup across the room.
The deployment story is as important as the specifications. A single USB-C cable carries video, audio and content sharing, while HDMI pass-through provides another connection option. The device uses a standard UVC interface, giving it broad compatibility with Microsoft Teams, Zoom and Google Meet.
The Meeting Owl 5 sits alongside the Meeting Owl 5 Pro, which Owl Labs introduced in February. The Pro model is the more enterprise-focused option, with Microsoft Teams certification and support for fully integrated room systems. The new model is intended for organisations that want to standardise smaller or more flexible spaces around a simpler peripheral setup.
“Meeting room requirements have dramatically shifted since we introduced the first Meeting Owl,” said Frank Weishaupt, CEO of Owl Labs. “The Meeting Owl 5 takes everything we’ve learned and re-engineers the experience around what organizations need today: better video, audio, reliability, simpler deployment and flexibility to work across more spaces.”
The product is a reminder that there is still room between a laptop webcam and a fully installed Teams Room. For organisations with a mix of huddle rooms, project spaces and temporary collaboration areas, that middle ground remains important.
Navori Turns Workplace Screens Into Connected Surfaces
Navori Labs has launched Qompose, a digital-signage platform designed to connect content, data and third-party applications across screen networks.
The platform is available now and is aimed at moving digital signage beyond scheduled playlists. Organisations can use it to connect live data sources, automate content based on changing conditions, manage advertising and track what audiences see on screen.
For workplace teams, the useful application is corporate communications. A screen in a reception area, office floor or shared space can pull in live business data, operational updates or location-specific information without someone rebuilding a slide or manually updating a schedule.
