Equipment: Meeting Owl Pros

• Power the Owl and plug the USB-C into the device’s base. The Owl gives a hoot when it’s ready for action!
• Center the Owl among the in-room attendees. See further advice on positioning the Owl. 
• Connect the USB cable to the laptop or device which will run your video conferencing session.
• Project the laptop to a screen or monitor.
• Open your video conferencing software (Zoom, Google Hangouts, Facetiime, etc.). Turn off any virtual backgrounds. 
• Set the software’s video, audio and microphone to Meeting Owl.
• Start your meeting.

A panoramic view of the in-room meeting displays consistently. Video tiles for in-room attendees appear dynamically, based on speech frequency. Tiles for remote attendees appear as normal for the software.The video conferencing software otherwise functions as normal.

Control the speaker volume and mute the microphone with buttons near the Owl’s base.

The Meeting Owl streams its audio and video to your computer via USB. The Wi-Fi and bluetooth connections are not involved in the streaming, and the Owl does not record, collect or transmit any video or audio data. The Owl detects and logs anonymous meeting metadata. See Owl Lab's full Privacy Policy.

If you want to control the Meeting Owl’s camera—to override the automatic operation—download the free Meeting Owl app on a Phone, iPad, Mac, Android, or Windows device. The app can run on the same device that’s running the video conference software, or on a different device. 

Using Bluetooth, the app connects to any nearby Owl that’s powered on. 

When a meeting is in progress, the app provides the following controls:

1. Lock the view on a person or part of the room, such as a whiteboard.
2. Exclude a zone from being highlighted on the stage, such as a monitor or a humming fan.
3. Follow a moving presenter
4. Turn off the panoramic view 

You can also use the app to wirelessly connect to a second Meeting Owl Pro, extending the range of the primary Owl by 8' in any direction.

Hamersly Library's Checkout Desk has accessories that can help you use the Meeting Owl Pro:

• USB extension cable
• Adaptors: USB to USB-C or to Micro-USB
• Tripods on which to mount the Meeting Owl Pro

See the Owl Lab's Knowledge Base articles for Meeting Owl Pro and Meeting Owl App. Their live chat feature--on those pages and on the app--is staffed weekdays until 5 p.m. Pacific time. 

Purchase of Meeting Owl Pros was made possible in part by the Institute of Museum and Library Services through the Library Services and Technology Act, administered by the State Library of Oregon.