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What’s New in Poly VideoOS 4.1?

On August 24th, Poly released our new Poly VideoOS software version 4.1. This release includes several new features, as well as updates and improvements to existing features, that are designed to optimize the hybrid meeting experience by addressing common challenges that our users run into.

How Poly VideoOS 4.1 Helps​

Defeat the Glass Wall​

Poly VideoOS 4.1 introduces new features designed to help you overcome challenges that glass walls present when video conferencing. Beyond rooms with glass walls, these features can also be beneficial in other challenging environments that you might encounter while hybrid working.

  • Poly DirectorAI Perimeter (Preview Feature): We know that a glass wall represents a boundary, but our cameras might not. With DirectorAI Perimeter, you can provide important context to Poly VideoOS devices about what area should be included in framing decisions for your meetings. Just input the dimensions of your conference area, and only faces detected within that perimeter will be used for framing. This is also useful in conferencing “areas” that don’t have any walls, or rooms with monitors on the walls that show pictures or videos of people.

  • Sound Reflection Reduction: Glass walls might look good, but when it comes to audio conferencing—they don’t sound good. These hard surfaces create significant reverberation of sound, which comes across to the far end as echoey, hollow, and generally hard to understand. Sound Reflection Reduction removes those strange audio artifacts caused by reverb so that speech comes across as natural and clear. This reduces the need for complex, expensive microphone arrays or significant acoustic paneling.

Improved Speaker Framing Experience​

Different types of video productions can deliver different types of experiences. The type of experience that is needed in the modern hybrid meeting is one that is predictable, even in uncontrolled environments, and non-distracting, so that the focus is always on the conversation.

In order to deliver this within Poly DirectorAI speaker framing mode, we’ve implemented a few updates:

  • Looser Framing: When it comes to reducing distractions during a meeting, limiting the number of reframes is crucial. One scenario where we can do this is when there are several people sitting close together. By providing a looser frame in situations like this, we eliminate the need to reframe if someone else already within the frame starts to speak, while still providing an up-close shot of each speaker.
  • Deliberate Framing Decisions: Hybrid meetings are generally considered uncontrolled environments where anything can happen; but we know from experience that there are patterns in the way people communicate. Considering those patterns, we’ve created very deliberate framing rules for most scenarios that are designed to mitigate unnecessary reframes and encourage a productive meeting.
  • Non-Distracting Transitions: There are some things we can do to reduce the number of reframes, but of course there are many situations where a reframe is necessary and contributes positively to the experience. In those cases, the transition should be quick, simple, and predictable so that meeting attendees don’t have to spend time thinking about what is occurring with the framing and can use the energy instead to focus on the communication.

Flexibility and Scalability with IP-Connectivity​

We love to see more and more video-enabled rooms in the workplace, but what this means for our users is that they need solutions that are flexible, scalable and cost-effective to satisfy a large range of meeting spaces. IP-connectivity of conference cameras is a great way to provide that, and is now available for Poly Studio E70 when connected to G7500 running the Poly Video or Zoom app.

Other Updates and Improvements​

  • SCEP: Support for Simple Certificate Enrollment Protocol to help admins manage deployments.
  • Scheduled Auto Restart: Ability to schedule your systems to automatically restart on a weekly or daily interval can reduce the workload for IT administrators.
  • Studio X30 2nd Camera Support: Studio X30 now supports selecting USB cameras as secondary camera for Studio X30, which can be particularly beneficial for more flexible health care deployments.
  • Zoom Recertification for Studio X-Series and G7500: As part of our ongoing partnership with Zoom to provide the best experience to our users, we have recertified our products.
  • G7500 Audio Output Updates: Users can now choose a specific audio output configuration for G7500 HDMI and 3.5mm audio output, providing them with more flexibility and customization.

Touch Controller Updates​

  • Microsoft Teams on Android controller support on TC10: Our newest touch controller, TC10, is now available for use with our Poly VideoOS devices in Microsoft Teams mode.
  • Platform update to Android 11: Following the Poly VideoOS platform update to Android 10 in our previous 4.0 release, our touch controllers TC8 and TC10 have been updated to Android 11 to provide users with the most modern, up-to-date Android experience.
  • Camera Control Button on Touch Controllers in Device Mode: To ensure our devices provide the best experience, however you choose to use them, we have added a camera control option to the touch controller screen when in Device Mode.

For more information and technical details regarding the Poly VideoOS 4.1 release, see the PolyOS Release Note.