With companies moving away from custom videoconferencing systems from the likes of Cisco and Polycom that cost tens of thousands of dollars, devices like Altia Systems' PanaCast 2 ($995) find themselves in a desirable position.
They're feature-packed enough to serve your meeting needs, but come at a fraction of the price.
While there are many competitors in this lower price range, such as Logitech's ConferenceCam line, the Panacast sets itself apart by offering a full 180-degree field of view, created by stitching together images from multiple cameras in real time.
We appreciate the wide angle of view, but the device is missing a few key features, including speakers.
What's Included in the Box
The PanaCast, which comes in black or silver, includes either a wall mount or table stand.
An extra stand or mount will cost you $50.
At 1 by 2.9 by 2.4 inches (HWD) and just 0.3 pound, the main camera unit is easily pocketable.
That's not something you can say about the AVer VC520, which weighs 3.3 pounds.
The stand is 10.8 inches high, which was a good height for the low table in our office huddle room.
It's also high enough to be above a laptop screen.
However, it's a bit flimsy and lacks the ability to tilt.
A power adapter and cable and a 3.3-foot USB 3.0 cord are also included in the box.
There are no international power adapters as you get with the Logitech Group.
The system comes with a one-year limited hardware warranty.
Hardware Specs
The PanaCast's camera array unit includes three cameras that deliver a 180-degree horizontal image at a resolution of up to 3,840 by 1,080.
That's double the Logitech ConferenceCam Connect's 90 degrees, and half again as wide as the 120-degree Logitech MeetUp ($869.99 at Amazon) .
Note that both of those options include excellent speaker systems, which you don't get with the PanaCast.
Though Altia labels its 3,840-by-1,080 resolution as 4K, it really isn't, since 4K resolution is actually 3,840 by 2,160.
That lack of height, along with its 54-degree viewing angle and lack of tilting ability, sometimes caused users who were too close to the camera to be cut off in our testing.
The resolution and focus were not as sharp as on other devices like the true 4K Logitech Brio ($199.00 at Logitech) .
Getting Started
After you screw the camera onto its stand or to its TV bracket, you'll need to connect it to a computer, run the PanaCast utility, and update the firmware.
The utility is quite bare-bones, and doesn't even show a display of what the camera is seeing.
The PanaCast has simple requirements for linking to your PC: Windows 7 or later, Mac OS X 10.9 or later, a USB 2.0 or 3.0 port, and support for a USB video class (UVC) driver.
USB 3.0 can power the unit, but if you connect to USB 2.0, you'll need to plug in the power adapter.
There's also an option to bundle the PanaCast with an Intel NUC Skull Canyon PC.
Next, fire up your videoconferencing software, be that BlueJeans, GoToMeeting, Hangouts, Skype, WebEx, or Zoom, and you're good to go.
When I used Skype, it was easy to choose the PanaCast as my video and mic source.
In addition to updating the driver, the Panacast utility offers several configuration options, including Field of View, Intelligent Zoom, LED Lights, Line Frequency, Orientation, PanaCast Vivid, and Video Mode.
(Intelligent Zoom and PanaCast Vivid are add-ons that will cost you an extra $149 each.) Unfortunately, the tool doesn't include a video preview window to show you the results of any changes you make.
And I couldn't use it to change settings during a Skype call.
Another software option is PanaCast Vision.
I installed this on my Surface Book laptop, where it took up a modest 9.26MB of disk space.
This app not only offers the controls of the utility, but also shows the actual video feed.
It also lets you control virtual PTZ (pan, tilt, zoom), use PTZ presets, and enable the whiteboard and people-recognition features.
Using the PanaCast
By using the three-camera system, the PanaCast avoids the distortion that a very wide-angle single camera produces, especially at the sides of the image.
The 180-degree field of view was indeed useful for our small conference room; it enabled remote participants to see everyone in the room—something not possible with any other camera I've tested.
While it did work, the automatic pan and zoom took too long to engage.
When someone entered the room on a side that had been cropped out, it took more than 20 seconds for the system to re-zoom.
The same occurred when I moved from one side to another.
Left side is with Vivid turned off, and right side with it turned on.
It's just slightly brighter and more saturated.
In an interior room, the PanaCast Vivid effect simply oversaturated the colors in the video.
This feature is designed to work with bright backlit situations, for example, in an office with windows behind the participants.
When I tested under these circumstances, it worked very well: My face was perfectly lit even though there was a bright sky behind it.
Audio and Microphones
As mentioned, the system includes no speakers.
A representative from Altia told me the PanaCast has two microphones with audio DSP.
DSP, which stands for digital signal processing, is used to eliminate echo and focus on voices rather than ambient sound.
The company representative also said the audio is sampled at 16KHz and the camera has embedded DSP to improve signal-to-noise ratio and beamforming support.
Pickup range is about 12 feet.
The sound quality from the PanaCast mics is acceptable in a small room.
I recorded audio using the Windows Voice Recorder app.
At a distance of 20 feet, normal speaking levels were audible but sounded compressed.
The microphones produced usable sound, but not as good as the Logitech MeetUp's.
Additionally, there are no extender mics available for the PanaCast like those you'll find with competitors, including the Logitech Group, which lets you extend pickup range to 28 feet.
Special Features
Altia offers some innovative options for the PanaCast, one being the PanaCast Whiteboard.
This lets you place a square target on your whiteboard, which it then displays with no distortion, correcting perspective regardless of whether the board is directly in front of the camera.
I can see this being useful for meetings, though the Microsoft Surface Hub ($8,999.00 at Microsoft Store) offers a similar feature, albeit at nine times the price.
Another interesting option for the PanaCast is its people detection and counting API.
This can count participants even if their heads are partially occluded.
Its data can be piped into, for example, conferencing management software such as VisibilityOne.
The Best Angle
The Altia Systems PanaCast 2 is an appealing option for those looking for a huddle room videoconferencing camera.
However, it lacks the speakers you'll find on competing videoconferencing systems, meaning you'll have to rely on the PC it's connected to for sound.
But maybe the most telling thing about the PanaCast is that during our team meeting in a small huddle room, after removing the wide-angle camera for testing elsewhere, some team members said, "Bring back the good camera!" Though it's not perfect, the PanaCast fills a need for teams doing videoconferencing in small spaces.
Our Editors' Choices, however, remain the Logitech MeetUp and the AVer VC520.
The Bottom Line
The Altia Systems PanaCast 2 delivers class-leading wide viewing angles with little distortion and has some intriguing features, but it's not as complete of a videoconferencing camera solution as its competitors.
