IT and facilities teams now come across AI features in many conference-room products, from video bars and microphones to multi-camera systems. However, AI does not describe one standard capability.
Depending on the product, AI video conferencing may involve framing participants, choosing which camera should be live, or cleaning up the microphone signal before it reaches remote attendees.
Therefore, if you’re considering AI-powered video conferencing for your organization, one of the most important questions to think about is how each function fits into your meetings and room design.
A smaller room may need a camera that adjusts as people move, while a long boardroom may need microphones and cameras to work together to follow the discussion. Therefore, knowing how AI is changing commercial AV systems can help you choose an AI video conferencing capability that solves the unique challenges of your conference room.
Not every automatic AV feature uses AI. For example, a camera can move to a saved position without determining which participant is speaking. Two products may therefore operate automatically, even though one follows preset instructions while the other analyzes the room to find the active speaker.
In current AI video conferencing products, AI-enabled processing is tied to a defined task. A camera may use it to locate people or combine audio and visual information to choose a view, while a microphone may use it to process echo, noise, and reverberation.
Camera framing determines what remote participants see throughout a call. The standard systems may use cameras with a fixed wide shot, which keeps the room visible. However, this makes the people appear small if the tables and empty seats fill up much of the image.
With AI-powered video conferencing features, you can use AI-enabled framing, which automatically analyzes the camera feed to locate participants and adjusts the shot around them as they move, enter, or leave.
Even in multi-camera rooms, microphone data can indicate where speech is coming from, while visual analysis locates and frames the person in that area before the system selects a suitable camera angle.
While AI video conferencing can keep participants clearly framed, remote attendees may still miss ideas written on the physical whiteboard. This can be due to the camera distance making the marker lines difficult to read or the presenter unintentionally blocking the board as they write.
A product like Logitech Scribe addresses this gap by capturing the board and sharing it digitally during the call. Its built-in AI then improves that shared view by enhancing marker color and contrast, detecting content such as sticky notes, and making the presenter transparent while they write.
The in-room team can therefore continue using a familiar physical whiteboard while remote attendees see the same content clearly as it’s being written.
AI-powered video conferencing also influences the quality and clarity of the audio that remote participants receive. Conference room microphones capture the sound of people speaking, but their signals may also contain sound return from other sources like HVAC noise and reverberation caused by voices reflecting off hard surfaces.
When these unwanted sounds overlap with the main speech, remote participants may hear echo and other forms of noise that make following the conversation unpleasantly difficult. AI-enabled processing improves this clarity by analyzing the microphone signal and reducing those unwanted sounds before the audio reaches the call.
For instance, if you have a Shure MXA925 as part of your AI audio and video conferencing setup, that microphone addresses this problem in two stages.
1. Its beamforming creates directional pickup beams, while Automatic Coverage focuses them on talkers within the seating area.
2. Once their voices are captured, onboard AI Acoustic Echo Cancellation, AI denoiser, and AI Deverb reduce the echo, background noise, and reverberation before the signal reaches the call.
Both stages are important because AI-powered video conferencing can improve captured audio, but it cannot fully compensate when inadequate microphone coverage prevents a participant’s voice from being captured clearly.
Clear audio does not remove every communication barrier. Participants may still need captions, translation, or a record of decisions.
In supported Microsoft Teams Rooms, for example, AI video conferencing features use speech recognition to turn room dialogue into live captions and transcripts. Live translation also translates that text into another language, while the Interpreter agent translates the spoken discussion as it happens.
With compatible room hardware and enrolled voice profiles, Teams can attribute comments to individual in-room participants. That context helps Copilot catch up late joiners, answer questions, summarize decisions, and suggest action items. This reduces reliance on memory or one person’s notes.
Hands-free controls can reduce meeting interruptions, but fixed voice commands are not automatically AI. Supported Zoom Rooms, for example, let participants adjust the lighting, microphone volume, or muting by voice rather than navigating a touch panel.
AI video conferencing systems go further by interpreting activity before acting. Q-SYS VisionSuite, for instance, can use visual or audio information to detect a presenter entering or leaving a defined area, then activate/deactivate microphones, change the lighting, or switch displays.
Because these responses follow what’s happening in the room instead of a preset schedule, the AV system can move between meeting activities with fewer manual adjustments.
Beyond the functions we’ve covered above, AI in commercial AV can also create separate views for people sharing a room, use voice profiles to isolate a speaker’s voice, analyze occupancy, recommend meeting spaces, and more. Other capabilities also keep coming up as the technology advances.
However, since each function depends on factors like hardware, platforms, and room conditions, making the right choice can be a bit tricky, and this is where you can get help from an AV expert.
With more than 20 years of AV experience, Profound Technologies has the team of experts to help you navigate these AI video conferencing decisions. We design pre-engineered and custom Microsoft Teams and Zoom Rooms with compatible cameras, microphones, displays, and controls. Book a remote demo with us to discuss your room and see AI capabilities in action.
Yes, if the new device or platform feature supports the room connections, firmware, operating mode, and licenses.
Camera and microphone processing may occur in room hardware, while transcription, translation, and summaries may use cloud services.
Check what data is collected, where and how long it’s stored, who can access it, and whether user enrollment or consent is required.