Optical vs. Digital Zoom for Non-AV Folks - FYI

[bstrelko]

Just thought I'd post a great video I came across today illustrating the difference between optical and digital zoom in conferencing cameras. Please think about this when designing Zoom Rooms!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=E-8oGqcu330 (please be sure to watch in 1080)

Those of you who have been in the game for more than a few years know all of this already, but this simple comparison is a great primer for IT/facilities teams that have fallen into the roles of traditional AV/UC teams to understand why the digital-zoom cameras being touted as 'revolutionary' often fall short in the image department, despite inflated-resolution specs.

While digital-zoom can be a more scalable solution, my team and I personally feel that any space larger than a small/huddle room needs a true optical-zoom camera in order to compete with the quality of a standard MacBookPro webcam. Grainy video from conference rooms is a terrible look, and it's unfortunate that products costing thousands of dollars with 'AI digital zoom' do not have the image-quality of an inexpensive PTZ camera with optical components.

Go optical, and let your hardware vendors know that conferences should look GOOD!