VUC #472: Vaddio’s Huddlestation

While it’s true that I live in Texas where football is elevated in status beyond almost everything else, in this case the “huddle” is not about football. Vaddio is a manufacturer of audio & video conference hardware based in Minnetonka, MN. Best known for their range of PTZ cameras, they have a diverse product offering that addresses media applications from broadcast to places of worship and corporate meeting spaces.

This coming Friday, January 17th, Vaddio will be joining the VUC to introduce us to their new Huddlestation. The Huddlestation is a new product that aims to address the needs of smaller meeting rooms for video conference capability, while also tapping into the BYOD trend. It’s essentially a USB-attached camera+sound bar+microphone module for use with a HDTV. You may recall that I have mentioned it once before.

The Huddlestation serves as the I/O for whatever application the user desires.  It’s equally well-suited to Google Hangouts as Skype, RealPresence or Scopia Desktop. They tell me that it works with an iPad as easily as a laptop.

Setting aside the BYOD-ness, it has an on-board SIP stack. That makes it a freestanding end-point with respect to SIP calls, even SIP calls using video.

This sort of gear is an area of concern to all the major players in video conferencing. It walks the line between desktop or executive end-points and small room systems. It does so at a potentially attractive price point.

Vaddio staff will doubtless join the Hangout from a Huddlestation. That means that, to some degree, we’ll be able to see for ourselves that value of the product. It should prove an interesting hour.