As the hybrid workplace emerges, Microsoft and Google beef up video tools

As businesses work to reopen office buildings, not all employees are keen on a return to the pre-pandemic status quo — forcing companies to adopt a “hybrid” approach to remote work. With some employees in the office, and others still at home, collaboration application and hardware vendors are now looking to support both in-office and remote workers.

With that in mind, Microsoft and Google both touted updates last week designed to connect workers more effectively, regardless of location.

Microsoft Teams and the ‘intelligent’ camera

Microsoft, for instance, unveiled several new intelligent camera features for its Teams Rooms platform to better support hybrid meetings. Among the new capabilities is “active speaker tracking,” which enables meeting room cameras to detect who is speaking in a conference room with several colleagues present. It does so by tracking audio, facial movements and hand gestures, allowing the camera to zoom in on the speaker.

Microsoft

Additionally, each in-office participant can be placed in their own video pane, in the same way remote colleagues are presented, and facial recognition can identify participants and display their profile name.

The aim is to put remote workers on the same footing as those in an office conference room, Microsoft said.

The intelligent camera features will be available over the next few months in meeting room devices made by hardware manufacturers such as Jabra, Neat, Poly, and Yealink,” Microsoft said.