Logitech recently moved into a new office in Utrecht. The office spaces are a playground for those who love hybrid meetings. ITdaily gets a tour.
Logitech wants to set up your digital workplace, both at home and in the office. The company shows concretely what this entails during a tour through the new offices in Utrecht. There, Solutions Engineer Joost Brinkers passionately presents a collection of solutions for large and small meeting rooms.
The office is located close to the train station and Hoog Catharijne shopping center, in a modern building. We are welcomed, along with a handful of fellow journalists, with a cup of coffee and some giant cookies in a pleasant open space. On the left, we see a demo corner with keyboards, mice, and other Logitech solutions. Among the gaming mice and business keyboards, the colorful lifestyle range of Pebble hardware particularly catches the eye.
Digital Twin
Brinkers takes us on a tour through the office, starting at the reception. There’s a screen displaying a kind of digital twin of the Logitech office environment. This is the Logitech View platform in action.
“We work here with 22 bookable desks,” says Brinkers. “You can reserve them a week in advance with us, but companies can also configure the system differently. You can also reserve meeting rooms via Logitech View. Everyone can then see the current bookings on the screen, with live updates. The perfect solution for this didn’t exist yet, so we developed it ourselves.”
The system is linked to the Logi Tune app. This can be used not only for booking spaces but also for managing headphones. This way, employees can manage their workspace and headphones in one place, without needing an extra app. We see how Brinkers reserves a desk and the screen at the entrance hall immediately shows an update.
Cramming
The tour continues through a variety of office spaces. Hybrid working means that teams are often spread across different locations. Therefore, Logitech’s office is not only functionally designed but also serves as a showroom. In the office, multiple spaces are set up for video conferences, equipped with touch screens that function as digital whiteboards.
We see meeting rooms both large and small. Brinker shows with visible pleasure how each space was designed, and what considerations were involved.
“In this small meeting room, we work with a Meetup 2 and a cable,” Brinkers explains to the journalists who have crammed themselves into the smallest room of the office. “At first, we had provided a small table, but that wasn’t so comfortable for meetings.” Now there are just two chairs, oriented towards each other and a screen.
Same Hardware, Different Vibe
Other spaces are larger, and therefore arranged differently. It’s noticeable that most spaces are much cozier than what we’re used to in a classic office environment. We see meeting rooms with a digital whiteboard, rooms that look like small lounges, and of course also more classic meeting rooms.
I Have Three Meeting Setups in a Lab in My Dormer at Home
Joost Brinkers, Solutions Engineer Logitech
“These three rooms have the same technology,” Brinkers explains. “But we’ve designed them differently. You can stand, sit, or have meetings as if you’re in a living room.” The Solution Engineer knows all about home-based meetings. “I have three meeting setups in a lab in my dormer at home,” he laughs. “Those are connected to smaller screens, though.”
BYOD or Not
The meeting rooms include a variety of connectivity solutions. Some work according to the Bring Your Own Device (BYOD) principle. Employees can then connect their own laptops to the screens via USB-C or HDMI. This increases compatibility and makes it easier to collaborate.
For larger meeting rooms, this is less convenient. They work with integrated solutions from Teams or Zoom. This way, a meeting can be ready when you’ve booked it in advance, and you can start it with the push of a button.
Let’s Roll
The tour continues through an open space where Brinkers enthusiastically showcases the new Rally Board 65. It’s an all-in-one device with a screen, microphone, camera, and speakers. Given that it’s readily available with its own stand on wheels, in our opinion, it’s the first product from the Rally series that lives up to its name.
The multimedia bar is located above or below the screen, which can be rotated 180°. When you do this, even the Logitech logo flips along with it.
“The Rally Board 65 is full of sensors,” says Brinkers, “including depth measurements so the device can intelligently blur the background.” The interested journalists are dynamically displayed with constantly changing distributions, and other people getting the spotlight. It all looks very dynamic.
The Rally Board 65 is Logitech’s current showpiece. “The device is aimed at customers who prefer a neat solution. You can move the device to wherever you want, and then have a meeting,” Brinker explains.
Microphones Everywhere
The tour ends in a very large meeting room, where Brinker prepares for the grand finale: a substantial presentation. The room itself is again beautifully arranged, with a multitude of cameras, microphones, and speakers. We’re not meeting hybrid today, but we have no doubt that a remote participant would feel very included.
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Logitech creates digital cocoon and detects environmental conditions in meeting rooms
Sustainability is an important theme for Logitech, Brinker explains during the presentation: “We use PCR (recycled, ed.) plastic for many of our products and the packaging is made from FSC-recycled paper. With a few exceptions, cables, for example, are no longer delivered in plastic bags, but wrapped in paper.”
10 Years of Support
Software support goes hand in hand with sustainability. “Our products run on ColabOS,” Brinkman clarifies. “It’s based on Android, although we avoid that comparison. Our version is completely locked down. However, Microsoft is going to discontinue Teams support for Android 10, so we’re upgrading all our devices to Android 12. We call the operating system ColabOS 2.0.”
This has a positive impact on the lifespan of the devices, some of which have been on the market since 2020. “Microsoft will certify devices with Android 12 or 13 until 2027 and support them until 2029,” Brinker knows. “Purely in terms of certification, our solutions will last for ten years.”
What You Have, and How You Place It
We have to admit: in Logitech’s office, hybrid meetings look more exciting than ever. In our opinion, the manufacturer demonstrates two things here. First and foremost, the portfolio is of course important. Logitech knows what it’s doing, and has developed large and small solutions with an eye for sustainability, so that’s well taken care of.
Next, we see that a successful hybrid meeting room is more than just a room with the right hardware. The positioning of the screens, the cameras, the investment in the right chairs, the choice for a table or not… These are the details that make the hybrid meeting inviting.