Use a Bose VB1 Videobar for a Meeting

Several conference rooms have the Bose VB1 Video Bar.  If the soundbar in your space looks like this, these instructions will apply.  If it does not, ask the department that is in charge of the meeting space for instructions on their specific hardware.

The Bose VB1 Videobar

Connecting to the Videobar

You connect to the videobar the same way you'd connect to any other webcam.  A USB cable should be available coming out of the videobar.  Plug it into your computer and it should see it as a USB camera, microphone and speakers.

Your computer may not see the videobar by default.  When connecting to your meeting, you should select Bose Videobar VB1 in the settings for your camera, microphone and speakers.

Select Bose Videobar VB1

Controlling the Videobar

Unlike a regular webcam, you'll control the videobar with a remote control.

bose remote control

Controlling Audio

You can control the speaker volume with the volume keys on the remote.

remote with volume keys highlighted

You'll see a white flash on the right side of the videobar when increasing the volume, or on the left when decreasing the volume.

soundbar with white light on right

To mute or unmute the microphone, press the microphone mute button on the remote.

remote with mute button selected

A mute indicator will appear on the soundbar if the microphone is muted.

lit mute indicator

Controlling the Camera

The arrow keys on the remote will control where the camera is pointing.  Keep in mind that left and right are mirrored, so press left to make the camera go right and right to make it go left.

arrow keys on the Bose remote

You can zoom the camera in with the zoom buttons on the bottom right of the remote.

zoom buttons on the Bose remote

To return to the default camera view, press the Home button on the remote.

home button on Bose remote

Speaker Tracking

The Bose videobar has speaker tracking capabilities.  To turn speaker tracking on press the auto frame button on the remote.

autoframe button

The green light at the bottom of the videobar will become wide, indicating that speaker tracking is active.

green bar across the soundbar

Keep in mind that speaker tracking takes some time, and you need to be reasonably close to the camera for it to pick you up.  If you aren't being picked up, move closer to the videobar.

To turn speaker tracking off, hit the auto frame button on the remote again.  The light at the bottom of the videobar will decrease in width.