A Closer Look at the Neat Bar Gen 2 With Neat Pad & Center

September 25, 2024 by David Danto

Next up on the TalkingPointz Tech Bench is the Neat Bar Gen 2 and Neat Center.

Neat is known for its design excellence, and testing out this solution for small to medium-sized meeting rooms definitely revealed why. There were countless little touches that kept me repeating “that’s really cool” in my mind.

I’ve tested dozens of videobars, and usually find they’re much larger and heavier than I expected. Not the Neat bar. I couldn’t believe how light it was when I picked it up, especially considering that it uses no power brick – the AC connection does right into the bar. Whatever transformers they may use are part of the assembly – which should make it even heavier…but it doesn’t.

The set-up of the devices required a number of updates, and got stuck a few times, but power-cycling everything got past any hiccups.

Form Factor In Detail

Neat Bar Gen 2 Specifications

First Impressions

I set up the Neat Bar Gen 2 and Neat pad first, then, after ensuring that everything was working correctly, paired the Neat Center to the devices.  The process was smooth and easy.

The Neat bar is not a USB video device (but can be used for pass-through), but rather an ‘all-in-one’ unit with an Android codec built-in. It uses an accompanying Neat Pad touch panel on the same network to function. The Neat Pad is powered by PoE. The box comes with everything needed – components, cables, mounting brackets, and power supplies.

The bar is full of I/O connections.  It supports dual displays but it has only one network connection, so the Neat Pad can’t connect through the bar.

As part of the setup, Neat wants you to enroll in their Neat Pulse management system. While they have a free version (as well as paid higher tiers) it took about 36 hours for my enrollment to be approved via an email message. This could easily put a crimp into the installation of a first device from Neat. Luckily they have a “skip this step” button on the Neat Pad, or I would have had to shut the process down until I received the email.  Once the Neat Bar and Neat Pad were ready to go I had to go to the settings submenu and pair the Neat Center. As soon as I remembered my settings password for Zoom Rooms the process was extremely easy.

As I started running it through some testing on the bench, one of the first things I noticed was the camera settings screens on the Neat Pad. Unlike most of the bars with pads I’ve tested, Neat has a visual interface to show you the result of each setting:

This is another one of those little things I mentioned that Neat seems to be exceptional at.

The Sensors

This is the point in a review where I usually discuss the camera, but in the case of Neat, I have to refer to a larger group of sensors of which the camera is only one. The Neat systems absorb many stats from the rooms they’re installed in. They do people counting (in and outside of meetings) read the temperature, read CO2 levels, and much more. In my opinion, the ability to be the one and only in-room sensor far outweighs the need for capping a camera to help provide an illusion of privacy. After all, the video camera is only showing what anybody walking past the room can already see, making privacy shutters a joke.

The camera module on the Neat Bar Gen 2 has a 50-megapixel sensor with a 113-degree field of view. It also does some…ahem…neat…distortion correction all on its own. If you’re sitting off to the side of the camera where you might get a bit of a “fisheye” effect, the Neat Bar Gen 2 will automatically realize that and correct for it. It takes a second or two, so you do see the distorted image first, but it is quickly updated and improved on the screen.

The Neat Center is an optional companion accessory meant to sit on or hang over a table. It sports three cameras that can provide 360-degree coverage, and it has a 16-microphone array. It connects to the system over ethernet and is also powered over PoE.

I must admit that I’m not a huge fan of center-of-table cameras or the hype that the industry has placed on them – that they are improving the meeting equity with in-person participants. There are many opinions about this, but mine is that you don’t see dead-on shots of people’s faces when you’re sitting in a meeting in person, so showing them to remote participants is not really a way of emulating the in-room experience.  I’ll leave that argument for another day, but will point out the many other good outcomes of using Neat Center. First of all, having a 16-microphone array in front of everyone (not 10 feet away embedded in the ceiling) dramatically improves sounds for the far end.  In addition, Neat has the ability to dynamically switch to the best microphone during calls. So if you’re closer to the Bar it will use that one, and if it’s the Center it will switch…and switch again as often as necessary.  There are also microphones in the Neat Pad, making the combination of all three (Bar, Pad, Center) something that extends the reach of the system into larger rooms. This is before all of the terrific AI audio processing Neat does which vastly improves the audio to the far end.

The other major advantage when using the Neat Center is in situations when someone stands up and presents from the front of the room. In years past, users would either have to deal with seeing the back corner of a person’s head, or mount an expensive to install and integrate camera on the back wall to see the presenter. The Neat Center with its one ethernet connection by the table now takes care of all of this for you. That alone is worth more than the price.

The Practical Testing

I was extremely impressed with the results of the practical tests in my simulated conference room.  The camera had a wide range of modes and could produce a wide range of shots. (Here is a link to the video unboxing, walkthrough, and testing .)

The only complaint I have was that there was a striking imbalance between the colorimetry of the Bar vs the Center. They obviously had different white balance and chroma settings. I don’t know if there is a step to correct that or if it was due to the fact that my room had both tungsten and daylight light sources confusing the devices. I’m still investigating the root cause.

Device Management

The Neat Bar Gen 2 and Neat Center can be managed by Neat’s Pulse, an online management system.

Neat offers three options depending upon which warranty support features you’d want. The basic plan that offers only management and monitoring is free.

The Pros and Cons

The Neat Bar Gen 2, Neat Pad, and Neat Center make up a very formidable collaboration solution with several terrific features and attention to detail. (I asked for and as of publication have not received data about the bar’s speakers. I’ll update this table if the data comes in.)

The Bottom Line

The Neat Bar Gen 2, Neat Pad, and Neat Center make up a powerful and elegant solution for small and medium-sized meeting rooms. Many of the small details have been well thought out to impress both the users and the system administrators. In addition, its ability to act as a versatile room sensor makes it a very powerful tool for collaborating in enterprise environments.