Review: Barco ClickShare Bar
Barco’s hotly anticipated foray into the videobar market ups the ante.
25 November 2024
Review:/ Christopher Holder
Things are never as quick to set up as promised. That’s my experience. Quick start guides are generally misleading works of fiction. So when I powered up the brand new Barco Bar; connected an HDMI lead to a display; popped a Barco button into the USB-C port of my laptop; and pressed it; and my screen started sharing; almost instantaneously… well, it was almost a transcendental moment. No downloads, no noodling around in settings, no mysterious incantations… it just worked literally straight of the box. This is what Barco is famous for and rightly so.
Of course, the Barco ClickShare Bar is much more than a wireless collaboration device – that’s obvious by just looking at it, but I was immediately reassured that I was in safe hands, and I was immediately inspired that leaving all my collaboration and UC needs to one platform could be a good plan.
Which is the big idea of ClickShare Bar.
BAR TOUR
The Barco Bar essentially combines all the most powerful aspects of Barco’s current generation Clickshare Conference with a video bar. All the Clickshare hardware resides in the Bar.
There are two variants: ClickShare Bar Core and Bar Pro. The Pro version provides double-screen capabilities, and two buttons for double sharing, all of which we’ll take a look at in a moment.
Let’s quickly whip through the in and outs: you’ll find a network port, a USB-A port and an HDMI port for the in-room display. The Pro version has a USB-C port for a hardwire connection to the room PC, the Pro version also has an additional USB3 connection for a second screen. Neither has an audio output for a hearing augmentation system, which seems like a common omission in products like this. The cable stay is handy and a magnetic cap neatly conceals all the ins and outs.
On the side of the unit is the power button, volume controls and another USB-C port for pairing buttons.
The 4K camera offers 120° field of view, which seem pretty standard with this type of product and three-times digital zoom. While on the subject, the Bar has a few smart auto framing modes which you can access from the on-screen menu.
The speaker system is based around 2 x 10W speakers – which sounds good for the intended use-cases – while a six-element mic array takes care of the audio pickup. There are some noise reduction features, as you’d hope, and a quoted range of 4.5 metres.
UNDERSTATED LOOKS
The Barco Bar a good-looking unit in a ‘don’t notice me’ understated way. There’s no splash of Barco red anywhere, except the cable management clip around the back. The glossy ring on the top is a discrete nod to Clickshare branding while also providing a safe, magnetic spot to stash the lens cover.
The Bar can be mounted above or below the in-room display or it can sit on a credenza.
ON THE BUTTON
For wireless sharing, Clickshare Bar works in the same way as every other Clickshare system, with the Bar concealing the hardware.
When people think of Clickshare, they think of the Button and it’s still a ‘no explanation required’ way of presenting. Simply press the button to present. Press and hold to take over the presentation. Click the smaller button to call up the on-screen menu. The Button remains a very elegant and straightforward means to wirelessly present.
That said, the Clickshare app does the same job but offers more features. There’s a Mac or PC desktop version and a iOS or Android mobile version. If you feel more comfortable using AirPlay or GoogleCast you can do that too. Miracast is a more recent addition to that list.
If you have a office with multiple Clickshare systems then Barco offers a feature called PresenceSense that sniffs out the nearby rooms and allows you to select the correct space.
DOUBLE UP
With Bar Pro you can wirelessly share two participants’ content simultaneously. If you have just the one in-room screen, then Clickshare will resize the content to fit on the one display. If you have two screens then each presenter will get their own display. This is a new feature that comes with the latest firmware and is a powerful addition that puts Barco ahead of the pack.
What’s also nifty: if one of your in-room displays is touch enabled then touchback functionality is possible.
ADD VIDEO
ClickShare Bar promises more than frictionless wireless presenting. It’s a fully-fledged video bar.
This is new territory for Barco. That said, Barco is an engineering-led outfit and no one doubts its ability to get this product right.
Incorporating the Barco Bar into your VC is, as you’d expect, as easy as selecting it as your audio and video device from Teams, Zoom or your favourite VC codec.
The Bar’s special sauce is combining wireless presentation with UC. While on a call you can share content to the in-room display. Bar Core will split the screen – the VC on one side and the clickshare content on the other. Bar Pro has the capability of sharing content to a second display. This is the limousine service – not something you’ll currently get elsewhere.
PROPS FOR BAR
Barco’s Clickshare conference systems have made a feature of being able to harness the in-room USB peripherals for a superior collaboration and conferencing experience. Part of Barco’s frenetic behind the scenes technical paddling has been to ensure ClickShare Conference plays nicely with the main UC camera and microphone systems you find in most meeting rooms. As one Barco operative once lamented to me, ‘there’s nothing universal about the universal serial bus’, and conflicts are inevitable. Barco created the Clickshare Alliance Program to do its best to guarantee performance of its product. As it happens, here’s another way of guaranteeing performance: build your own ClickShare video bar. Little wonder then, that the ClickShare Barco Bar immediately has the AV world’s attention.
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