Close your eyes and imagine the ideal hybrid meeting room. What do you see? And more importantly: what do you hear? At ISE, several specialists are advocating for more focus on the latter.
Without video, you have a poor video meeting; without audio, you have no meeting at all. It’s a cliché, but no less true for it. With that mindset, we navigate the Integrated Systems Europe (ISE) trade fair in Barcelona, looking for a perspective on hybrid meetings that doesn’t start with the eyes.
At ISE, companies from all over the world present their devices to facilitate hybrid meetings, all coming from different backgrounds. Some parties bring software expertise (Microsoft and Google), others specialize in displays (Samsung and LG). Then there are the manufacturers who were already facilitating hybrid meetings before it was cool, such as Logitech, which has webcams in its DNA.
We must not forget the computer specialists, of course. Lenovo, for example, wants to provide the brain of your meeting room, while HP has acquired the necessary expertise through its purchase of Poly, the spiritual successor to Plantronics.
Jabra and Sennheiser
Recalling that cliché, however, we are focusing on two other companies vying for a spot in your meeting room, both of which put audio front and center: Sennheiser and Jabra.
Sennheiser has been around for a long time: the German family business celebrated its eightieth anniversary last year and has been making microphones all that time (alongside other audio equipment later on). Jabra, born in the US but now headquartered in Denmark, is slightly younger. Nevertheless, this firm already has 43 years under its belt. Jabra has historically specialized in headphones and headsets. Both parties approach the post-COVID world of hybrid meetings from an audio perspective.
From clunky PanaCast…
Jabra has grown in the market. An expensive and somewhat clunky PanaCast 50, running its own operating system, evolved in 2023 into the PanaCast 50 Video Bar System (VBS). That somewhat clumsily announced solution set the tone for the further development of the portfolio: Android as the operating system, many high-quality microphones, and of course, video.
In recent years, Jabra has further expanded its portfolio with the recent PanaCast 55 VBS (the successor to version 50), and before that, the more affordable PanaCast 40. With both solutions, Jabra could cover small to medium-sized meeting rooms, but not large ones.
…to a total solution
That changed at ISE 2026. On the video side, Jabra partnered with Huddly and launched the PanaCast SpeakerMic. The name of that round device says it all. The SpeakerMic contains four microphones and a speaker. You place the device on the meeting table when it is further away from the PanaCast 55 VBS, ensuring that participants in the room are not only more audible but can also better hear the people on the screen.
The SpeakerMic’s speaker works in tandem with the one on the PanaCast VBS. If you stand between the two, it sounds almost as if you’re wearing headphones, we were told during a demo at ISE.
Love for headphones
The link to headphones is never far away. Half of the stand is dedicated to the new Evolve3 headsets. Based on a short test at the loud and busy trade fair, these provide both excellent clarity for the speaker—with background noise being spectacularly filtered out—and outstanding active noise cancellation that even manages to erase loud voices. If there is a common thread running through the two halves of the Jabra stand, it is certainly clarity and sound quality.
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Customers who choose Jabra for meeting rooms usually already know the company from the headset side. Based on personal experience, they are happy with the quality of those devices and hope for a similar experience in video meeting rooms. All too often, however, people are unaware that Jabra also has a meeting portfolio.
TeamConnect
Clarity is also the focal point for Sennheiser. The audio specialist has also developed a meeting portfolio in recent years centered around a video bar. At Sennheiser, the device is called the TeamConnect Bar.
The company is working diligently on its ecosystem and recently announced a partnership with Barco. For device management, Sennheiser launched a new cloud platform at ISE.
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However, it is the TeamConnect Ceiling solutions that steal the show, specifically the Sennheiser TeamConnect Ceiling 2. This is a device the size of a ceiling tile, equipped with microphones. These microphones can follow a speaker using beamforming.
Voice amplification
Sennheiser pairs this capability with what it calls TruVoicelift. This is functionality where the speaker’s voice is picked up and amplified without background noise or other audible changes. The speaker’s voice is then sent through speakers where needed, without very obvious amplification.
TruVoicelift adds three to a maximum of six decibels of volume on top of the speaker’s own voice. The intention is that people in a slightly larger meeting room don’t actually realize a speaker is being amplified.
As if there’s no amplification
It works: during a presentation in a demo room at ISE, it turned out halfway through that TruVoicelift had been switched on the whole time, while we thought we were listening directly to a clear-speaking presenter in the compact space. Only when TruVoicelift was switched off did we notice the difference.
We were struck by how pleasant the system is. Because the voice is not noticeably amplified, it still feels as if we are listening to the presenter themselves. This provides a calm and natural experience. In its own unique way, Sennheiser makes it clear here what the impact of sound quality is on the meeting experience.
Cameras in second place
The fact that the demo room is also equipped with cameras that alternate based on the source of the sound is a nice bonus, but feels much less spectacular than what Sennheiser does with the audio.
In a trade fair full of cameras and screens, it is two audio companies that are working their way into the virtual spotlight by focusing on crystal-clear recording and reproduction of speech, building on years of expertise.
Where does the priority lie?
There is much to be said for the audiophile approach. Screens attract more attention, especially at a trade fair like ISE. Anyone familiar with the practice of hybrid meetings knows that smooth intelligibility is by far the highest priority.
Jabra opts for relative simplicity. The PanaCast 55 VBS forms the hub. The system can connect up to five Huddly cameras without any configuration required. Jabra likes to look to the fellow Scandinavian company Huddly to handle the video component. The cornerstone for using Jabra’s solution in larger spaces is the SpeakerMic. It ensures that you can hear and be heard.
Sennheiser has a grander vision. TeamConnect Ceiling 2 is intended for larger meeting rooms, although there are also slightly smaller variants in the range. In this case too, audio plays first fiddle: the strengths of the solution lie purely in the audio quality.
Audio first
Fortunately, anyone charmed by this audio-first approach doesn’t have to go hungry today. Both Sennheiser’s and Jabra’s solutions exist within the context of partnerships. Everyone works with almost everyone else, as Samsung has also mentioned.
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The approach of Jabra and Sennheiser certainly gives pause for thought. Screens, such as Samsung’s impressive LED walls, seem to be the center of gravity for hybrid meeting solutions. They certainly steal the show and, consequently, a large part of the budget. The audio parties ask you to reverse that reasoning: when designing your meeting room, think about the sound first.