On October 26th, 2022 Poly announced that their Studio X series of video bars will be the first Android based video appliances for Google Meet. Read on for Bryan's take of the story.
From the press release:
"The entire Poly Studio X family, including: Poly Studio X30, Studio X50, Studio X70, and the TC8 controller (an intuitive 8" high-resolution touch display that lets Google Meet customers access meetings with ease) will be the first Android-based appliances to offer a native Google Meet experience and deliver a streamlined, purpose-built experience for any meeting room."
Bryan's Take
"More is better" - Bryan
The X Series was announced in late 2019 with the X30 and X50 initially and now includes the X70 for large rooms. The UC Test Lab has significant experience with the X30 in Poly's native video mode, as a Zoom Room and as a Microsoft Teams Room. The lab also has experience with other Google branded Meet-based kits, as well as other Zoom Room and Microsoft Teams Rooms kits. What I like about this new ability with Google Meet is that it reduces complexity and parts. Compared against a prepackaged kit of a separate camera, microphone, speakers, compute device and controller, streamlining things down to two pieces (one if you have a touch-enabled display you can eliminate the controller) for those using Google Meet makes perfect sense, reduces points of failure and significantly reduces installation time. Plus, it leverages all the great tools that Poly brings to the table, specifically their framing technology with Director AI and their excellent audio features of NoiseBlock AI and Acoustic Fence.
What I am unsure of at this time is the allowance for fast switching between modes. Going from Poly Video mode to a service provider mode requires a device restart (or did when we tested it in early 2020), but if the user wanted to traverse between another service provider mode and Microsoft Teams Rooms, it required a device reset per Microsoft requirements/specifications. The faster the device can switch between operating modes, the better and I hope one will be able to traverse modes without too much wait time or re-authorization/login issues. Overall, the more native applications a device has, the greater its usefulness and Google Meet users should be excited over this announcement.