Credit: Google
Google Cloud and Lenovo have partnered up to launch meeting room hardware kits for Google Meet.
Named the Google Meet Series One, the kits consist of a smart audio bar with eight beam-forming microphones, a Meet compute system powered by a purpose-built Chrome operating system, a mic pod, a 10.1” touchscreen controller and a 20.3 megapixel 4K camera with 4.3x zoom in charcoal and chalk colour options.
Kits can also be expanded with additional mic pods and an add-on audio bar for stereo sound.
The compute system and audio bar utilise a number of the same same technologies used in Google’s data centres. This includes its Coral M.2 accelerator modules with Google Edge tensor processing units (TPUs) for artificial intelligence (AI)-powered video and audio process for privacy preservation.
Also contained within the kits is TrueVoice, Google’s multi-channel noise cancellation and voice amplification technology, and access to the Google Assistant for voice-activated commands.
Detailed in a blog post by TJ Varghese, group product manager for Google Meet hardware, the timing means it is “more critical than ever” to support social distancing measures as companies start to return back into offices and redesign meeting spaces to accommodate the collaboration between remote working and in-person employees.
The kits are available in three sizes, with small priced at A$3,704.92/NZ$4036.79, medium at A$4,116.73/NZ$4485.48, and large at A$5,489.43/NZ$5981.14.
Preorders will be available soon, with organisations interested in expressing early interest can do so through Lenovo.
Those interested in purchasing the Series One kits can do so through Lenovo.
