Google unveils new Hangouts Meet videoconferencing kit and it’s not cheap

Google has unleashed a new hardware kit for Hangouts Meet which promises to deliver everything you need on the hardware front when it comes to holding high-quality video meetings via Google’s videoconferencing software – but it isn’t cheap at $1,999 (around £1,500).

For that outlay, you get a hardware kit comprising of four main components: an Asus Chromebox, touchscreen controller, speakermic and a 4K camera.

The Asus Chromebox mini desktop computer provides the engine here, running alongside the touchscreen controller, with Google promising an intuitive interface with the latter.

All the controls you need to easily manage meetings are present, like pinning and muting team members, or controlling the camera.

Speaking of which, the 4K camera has a 120-degree field of view to allow it to take in more folks who are sat around the meeting table, and it automatically detects meeting participants (using machine learning routines), also cropping and zooming people to frame them correctly.

Crisp audio

As for the speakermic unit, this is designed to be able to shrug off background noise, and also get rid of any pesky echo, so theoretically, the end result is a clean audio feed for your meetings.

Meet has also been boosted with new features, and now G Suite Enterprise users can record a meeting straight to Google Drive if they so wish. You can also hold meetings with up to 50 members.

The Hangouts Meet hardware kit is available from today and as mentioned it will set you back $1,999 (around £1,500).