A month (or maybe two months) ago Logitech sent me their new BCC950 ConferenceCam to review. From the time the package arrived until the camera was up and running was less than 20 minutes. It only took so long because I stopped top read the manual (something developers don’t often do).
First let me explain that while I do a lot of Lync conference calls I am the only person on my side of the call as I work remotely from a home office so I haven’t really tried the phone as someone would in a conference room setting with several people sitting around a table. That being said, the ConferenceCam has become my everyday desk phone and is used multiple times everyday.
installation was as simple as connecting the camera to the base (mini usb connector) and then plugging in the power and usb connectors. There are two modes for connecting the camera. One is the stalk that you see in the image above and the other method that I used is to connect camera directly to the base. I’ll have to say that it looks awesome sitting on my desk just to the right of my iMac. it is hooked to my PC and someday I may try hooking it to the iMac but I’ll wait until some rainy day when I ma bored and looking for something to play around with.
But looks isn’t everything (I wonder who first said that?), and the real issue is how does it work. The call quality is great and I love using the remote to zoom or move the camera and especially to mute the call. I was afraid that since this is strictly a hands free conference phone that it would sound hollow or have echoes but it doesn’t I have gotten nothing but great reviews from people I have talked with on my audio quality. I even tested it my self by using the Lync client Check Call Quality function.
Summary Impressions
- Very slick looking phone/camera that will look good on any desk or conference ro0om table.
- Easy to setup and get working.
- Looks awesome.
- When I push the phone button without a call present I get a dial tone. it would be nice to have a dial pad on the phone instead of having to switch to the Lync Client to dial. But it is nice that when I dial from the Lync client the phone/camera takes over the call.
- When I am in an IM chat with somebody in Lync (using the client software) it would be nice to be able to just take the phone off hook and have the phone dial the person I am IM’ing with. Kind of tough with no dial pad but if I’m already IM’ing someone it would be nice to transition to a call from the phone.
- It would be nice to use the phone to put a call on hold but you have to use the Lync client for that.
- Basically, the less interaction I have with the Lync interface the better and this phone does a pretty good job but if it could do just a little more for you it would be great.
- I like the fact that when I mute the call from the phone the Lync client changes its microphone icon to show the call as muted. This was something that aggravated me with my old headset.
- I especially like the zoom feature as it allows me to zoom in and eliminate background clutter.
- The camera has awesome video quality and I like the fact that I have control of it from the remote
- The remote controls call pickup and hang up, speaker volume and mute. For the camera the remote allows you to pan up/down, left/right and zoom. All the panning features are very smooth.
In summary, I am extremely satisfied with this conference camera/phone and I would recommend it for anyone needing a phone for Lync. Yes, there are a few features that I would like to see Logitech add but they are not show stoppers.
