The battle for a place on the information worker’s desk (or kitchen table given the work from home trend of late) rages on.  In recent months, Cisco and DTEN have released personal collaboration appliances designed to offload the video conferencing experience from the user’s PC (desktop or laptop).  Industry heavyweight Crestron and industry newcomer Neat have also announced that personal collaboration solutions are forthcoming.

In September 2020, Recon Research completed a round of hands-on testing of the Facebook Portal+ smart video calling device (see our From the Lab note).  At that time, the Portal+ supported only Facebook collaboration apps, including Messenger, Workplace, and WhatsApp.

Recently, Portal apps for BlueJeans, Cisco Webex Meetings, GoToMeeting, and Zoom have made their way onto our Portal devices.

This “From the Lab” note focuses on the Zoom for Home experience on the Facebook Portal+.