This past week, I made my boldest move since the quarantine began, joining a work video call from a different spot than my usual desk perch.
Based on the reaction of colleagues, it was as if I had moved halfway across the world. In the last six months, our video-call backgrounds have become part of our identity. We notice when co-workers move furniture, paint walls, or make their beds. And now that we’ve had time to work out the technical kinks, it all feels fairly normal. I’ve noticed a sharp decrease in the number of “Can you hear me?” preambles.
For workers fortunate enough to be able to work from home, videoconferencing has done an admirable job filling in for the office.
I can’t quite say the same for our personal lives. I’ve had to move laptops, monitors, and charging cables to virtually celebrate birthdays from the dining room table. I’ve taped cords to the floor, as if it were a movie set. And it’s all still awkward. One of my kids is inevitably left out of the frame, which feels like the quarantine version of Home Alone.
Remote learning is no easier. I feel for the teachers, who have had to start the year by putting names to foreheads—the only part of my daughter’s body that usually ends up in the iPad camera.
But there is hope on the horizon. Before the pandemic even began, I bought a new product from Facebook (ticker: FB) called Portal TV. The device sits on top of your TV and basically merges a webcam with a Roku-like device.
Given Facebook’s privacy and data issues, the Portal TV was met with controversy when it launched a year ago. Tech site CNET headlined its review: “No One Should Buy the Facebook Portal TV.”
I decided to give it a shot anyway. (I turn the Portal off and keep the camera lens closed when it’s not being used.) I bought one for myself and one for my parents. We’ve done long video calls from our family-room couches, with everything coming through the TV. And we’ve played with Instagram-like filters that turn grandma and grandpa into fire-breathing lizards.
“ We know that the bigger the screen, the more immersive the call, and there is no bigger screen in your house than the television set. ”
The device, which costs $150 and streams via Facebook Messenger and WhatsApp, is buggy at times, but when it works it does feel as if everyone is in the same room. It’s a huge upgrade over the small video boxes we’ve grown accustomed to.
“We know that the bigger the screen, the more immersive the call, and there is no bigger screen in your house than the television set,” Ryan Cairns, Facebook’s head of Portal, told me this past week.
The Portal TV is unique. If there is another plug-and-play option that turns a TV into a videoconferencing tool, I haven’t found it. The lack of options is surprising given that even $250 Chromebooks come with webcams built in. Why haven’t TV manufacturers just added their own cameras?
Paul Gagnon, senior research director at market research firm Omdia, says previous efforts to turn TVs into interactive devices have always failed.
“If you think about the apps that people use on a smart TV, like 80% to 90% of them are just lean-back video watching,” he says.
And then there is the economics, which makes it tough to stuff new hardware into displays. TVs are the tech hubs of most houses, but they’re barely profitable.
The average TV bought in North America now has a 50-inch display and a price of just $360. “TVs are notoriously very, very low margin consumer electronics products relative to other things,” Gagnon notes.
The low prices have been great for Netflix (NFLX) and our TV binges, but it means few companies are pushing the TV hardware to do more.
The pandemic could finally change that. Videoconferencing is one of the hottest trends in technology. Shares of Zoom Video Communications (ZM) are up 367% since February, while shares of webcam maker Logitech International (LOGI) have nearly doubled. Hot stocks have a way of stoking progress.
Zoom declined to make an executive available to discuss the potential, but TVs with built-in webcams would presumably be a huge market for the company.
Zoom recently teamed up with smart-home outfitter Crestron on a residential videoconferencing device called HomeTime. It pairs Zoom software and a camera from Logitech to turn your TV into a conference-room like video experience.
“Once you experience that, it’s really hard to go back to that laptop,” says John Clancy, Crestron’s vice president of residential. “It changes everything.”
Crestron’s approach isn’t for the masses. At least not yet. The device lists for $6,100 and isn’t intended as a do-it-yourself option.
The idea of TV innovation got me thinking about the rumors years ago that Apple (AAPL) would eventually come out with its own TV set. It never happened, of course, with Apple choosing to focus on its Apple TV box, which just plugs into the display.
I asked Toni Sacconaghi, a senior technology research analyst at Bernstein, if we could finally drop the idea of Apple building an actual TV.
“I think that’s probably a reasonable assumption,” Sacconaghi says. “Just thinking through it from a business perspective, I’d be incredibly surprised if Apple came out with a physical Apple TV.”
In the meantime, next year’s TV designs are currently being completed. New models generally arrive between February and April, Gagnon notes. There’s the chance webcams appear in some of those units, but it’s likely to take longer.
“The TV OEMs haven’t been able to respond to the pandemic needs that quickly,” Sacconaghi says. “I think in two years a lot of televisions will have embedded cameras.”
Until then, consumers will keep buying up webcams and other video products. Crestron says its residential videoconferencing-related business is up 800% this year.
Write to Alex Eule at alex.eule@barrons.com
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September 26, 2020 at 07:39AM
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As Zoom and Videoconferencing Boom, TVs Are Getting Left Behind - Barron's
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