How to choose a ClickShare Bar for a meeting room

This material is based on official information from Barco.

ClickShare Bar is an all-in-one video bar: camera, microphones, speakers and a compute module for video calls are packed into a single housing mounted above or below the screen. The question isn't whether it's good on its own, it's which meeting room it actually fits.

What the all-in-one format gives you

A video bar removes the need to separately buy and configure a camera, an audio system and a computer for video calls: the device connects to the screen and the network, and participants start a call from a laptop through ClickShare or directly via the USB host built into the bar. This cuts the number of separate devices on the wall, simplifies installation, and reduces the risk of camera-microphone sync issues that show up when a system is assembled from different vendors.

What room size a Bar fits

A video bar is built for rooms where every participant sits within the field of view of one camera and within range of the built-in microphones, that is, small to mid-sized meeting rooms. For rooms like that, a Bar is the simplest and most compact option: one device covers both video and audio, with no separate controller or extra microphones on the table.

When you need a Hub or a Conference kit instead of a Bar

In larger rooms where the table stretches across several metres, one built-in camera and the bar's microphones aren't enough: you need a system with add-on microphones and possibly multiple cameras, built around ClickShare Conference. If the task is less about video calls and more about presenting content from laptops without a built-in camera and audio, ClickShare Hub is the more sensible choice. A Bar covers one specific scenario: a compact meeting room with regular video calls.

• A small to mid-sized room where video calls are the primary scenario is best served by a Bar.
• A large room with a table far from the screen needs a separate system with add-on microphones.
• A room without regular video calls, where only presenting matters, is fine with a simpler solution without a video bar.

At Infra Technologies we always confirm the room's actual usage scenario before recommending a specific model, because overpaying for functionality that goes unused and running short of microphones in a large room both leave the customer equally unhappy with the finished solution.