Video Conferencing Solution

The quest for a family-friendly videotelephony system without any monthly fees had been a frustrating one.

A very long time ago, I had the idea of connecting my parents, siblings, and extended families across the World with video on our television sets to mimic the expensive solutions already used by businesses. International phone calls were still the dominant, costly way for our families to stay in touch, and web-based offerings like Skype — the most popular consumer platform at the time — still saw low adoption due to the hardware expense and technical expertise involved. Simplified group video calls with Apple’s FaceTime, Google’s now-defunct Hangout, and Facebook would still not debut until nearly a decade later.

History

When the Logitech Revue with Google TV ($299) was announced in late 2010, I jumped at the opportunity to set up video chat between my parents and siblings with the Logitech TV Cam. A simple solution finally came along that made free, high-definition videotelephony cost-effective for consumers! Mind you, this was at a time when smartphones had just started their meteoric rise with the debut of Apple’s iPhone just three years earlier.

As much as we had loved the simplicity and ability of finally seeing each other face-to-face from our living rooms, the Revue had abruptly been abandoned by Logitech and Google. The thought of setting up — and supporting — expensive laptops with webcams was something I did not want to deal with. Thankfully, smartphones and tablets had made it increasingly easier to talk face-to-face and the desire for a TV solution waned.

Revue with Google TV and TV Cam /Logitech

I had resurrected the TV-based video chat when our son was born so his grandparents could stay in touch and see him grow. That was done by connecting a Mini PC with a 1080p webcam to our Samsung 4K TV, then using Skype or Google Hangout to connect to other participants’ smartphones or tablets. How times had changed!

Early 2020 saw the rise of COVID-19 into a global pandemic, forcing families to stay socially distant as the scientific community grappled with the novel disease. Once again, video conferencing took center stage as we celebrated birthdays and holidays from our devices. That led me to testing out various webcams with built-in microphones and speakers.

• eMeet C980 Pro – First camera that worked beautifully. Clear images, decent speakers and microphone input, and a privacy cover. However, the speakers were sometimes not loud enough, and the device itself stopped working altogether months later.
• Goldensky G-UP1 – Wide-angle view with loud speakers, great camera, and microphone. The only issue: no privacy cover. We shield the lens with a piece of cloth instead.
• Bonus: Enther & Maxhub Wide Angle 4K – An extremely wide view with crisp images, but no built-in speakers or microphone. I had been using it with my work laptop and Microsoft Teams and received positive feedback for its camera quality.

The challenge was to find a good webcam that was loud enough for the whole family to hear from across the room while eliminating echo.

AnkerWork B600 2K Video Bar

Anker recently launched its AnkerWork B600 webcam and asked me for an honest analysis on how to improve their product. It was sold as a professional, all-in-one video solution and had earned several 2022 awards: CES Innovation Honoree, Newsweek Best of CES, and Red Dot Product Design. I took the opportunity to test it for several months with work on a Windows PC and MacBook, and in a TV-focused configuration with family.

Product Content & Packaging

Disclosure: We received this product free in exchange for an honest, unbiased opinion, whether positive or negative. We test each product thoroughly, give high marks to only the very best, and the views expressed here are honest and our own. Learn more

Analysis

The AnkerWork B600 listed an impressive feature set that made it more than a regular webcam but also a bit less than a video conference room solution. In trying to appeal to both consumers and small businesses, the device’s high price, strengths, and weaknesses made it perfect for neither market, but that did not mean it was a bad product. Far from it. In fact, it had been one of the best cameras I had tested over the years despite some of its shortcomings.

Anker’s newest camera was one of the few, relatively affordable devices that combined a high-resolution webcam, loud speakers, multi-array microphones, and a video light into a single package. Power it with the right 10W USB-C input, and it could operate from a single cable as a portable, all-in-one videotelephony tool for home, road warriors, and small groups alike.

Video Quality

Of the utmost importance was the video quality that was quite impressive even in low-light conditions. Where several cameras produced overly warm, dark images or created motion-blurred, grainy videos in a pitch-black room, the AnkerWork literally “outshined” them with the built-in lightbar. It took me quite by surprise when the on-screen image of my self was cooler in tone with less fuzziness and closer in representation to reality. Mind you, the video was only limited to 2K resolution at 30fps in a sea of 4K webcams that costed far less, but I had yet to come across a mainstream video conferencing platform that affordably streamed in actual 4K across all participants’ devices, including Zoom, Microsoft Teams/Skype, WebEx, and GotoMeeting. Most of those calls had commonly downgraded to 1080p despite 4K camera — but not 4K streaming — support.

AnkerWork’s video performance was helped with a 5-megapixel, 1/2.8″ image sensor and f/2.0 aperture lens — the latter two contribute greatly to low-light capability. It featured an adjustable field-of-view of 65°, 78° (default), and 95°, with the former two capturing the most flattering look without a fisheye effect. For comparison, the 120° ultra-wide angle of the Enther & Maxhub 4K webcam made anybody on the outskirts of its edges look like aliens whose faces were stretched out like flattened balloons. One should note that even though the Enther’s lens was a slightly better f/1.8 for low-light scenes, the B600’s videos still looked preferable.

AnkerWork B600 worked independently of the AnkerWork software, but installing it is recommended to unlock a full set of configuration options and perform firmware updates.

Lightbar Illumination /Anker

The B600 could be swiveled horizontally at a full 360 degrees and tilted downward at up to 180 degrees to find the best angle to represent you with. It also featured an AI-powered auto focus, image enhancement, and “Solo-Frame” that followed my face as I had shifted around the seat during long meetings. That ensured I was in focus but could also become a distraction for the other participants. The latter feature was enabled by downloading the optional AnkerWork software available for Windows and Mac OS X.

HDR nor Windows Hello for seamless PC authentication were supported, unfortunately.

Lightbar

Circling back to the built-in, innovative lightbar, my immediate thought was to have it cast some life into the eyes as a catch light. Adding that sparkle to the otherwise dark eyes was something I had always looked for as a former wedding photographer. Alas, the light’s size was too small for the arm’s length distance I had the video bar mounted at to make any sizable difference. This brought me to lighting in general. To make yourself look more flattering, a large, diffused light source coming from the side or top is preferable to one shining directly in front of you (as is the case with the B600). It would have added dimension and make the subject appear more slim. Instead, the B600’s position casted a flat light onto the face that could look unflattering in some scenarios, but that would still be better than a face with no illumination at all.

Lightbar Off/On and Enther & Maxhub Webcam

The relatively small output of the diffused lightbar made less of an impact in a well-lit room, but where it shone were dark or back-lit environments. B600’s light casted shadows out of my silhouetted face when sitting in front of a bright window and minimized motion blur and image noise in a pitch-black setting. My other webcams had struggled in the same tests, making the lightbar more useful than I had thought. On a practical level, the lightbar could be folded down to act as a privacy lens cover but required both hands to open or close. A color-coded LED could be found beneath the lens:

• Steady blue light: Camera or Microphone is on
• Steady red light: Microphone is muted
• Flashing red light: Power adapter is incorrectly plugged into Data port

Tip: If you wear glasses, tilt them down (or raise the temple tips above your ears) a bit to minimize glare from the light.

Setup

Installation was simple despite the included quick start guide having been too minimal for my taste. Connect the included (but very short) 3′ USB-C data cable from the camera’s back, black port to the computer and the power adapter to the B600’s blue USB-C connector. You may replace the 3′ cable with any other length to accommodate your setup. [Update: Anker informed me that newer shipments now include a 5′ cable.] The USB-A port was for use with other Anker products, such as a USB receiver for connecting the company’s wireless headphones (ie. AnkerWork H700). A single USB-C cable could be used to provide both power and data to the video bar if the computer provided 10W (5V @ 2A). In my case, it did not and I had to connect the power adapter to the video bar to keep the camera from restarting.

No driver or the AnkerWork software had to be installed on either Windows or OS X — the video bar worked right out of the box. My computer’s audio played right through the built-in speakers even when the camera was not in use. Ubuntu Linux was supported, but I did not test  the B600 on that operating system. Do note that the AnkerWork software was only made for Windows 7-11 and Mac OS 10.13 and later. The camera did not work on my parents’ Sony Android TV, though I imagine it may be possible if you were willing to spend time finding and installing the proper driver(s).

Hardware

The clean lines of the B600, along with the cloth fabric on the back portion of the video bar, gave it a nice, luxurious feel. It could be mounted on a monitor, laptop display, or tripod via its threaded base, though its 1 lb weight may have been too top-heavy for slim screens like the MacBook Air. The video bar’s main body (without the stand and lightbar) measured 7″ wide, 2″ tall, and 1.5″ deep. On the right-hand side of the face, there was a capacitive touch strip to quickly control the brightness of the lightbar. Touch-sensitive controls for muting the microphone and turning on/off the light flanked the left and right, respectively.

Touch Controls: Microphone, Lightbar

Side-firing, dual 2W speakers were loud enough to clearly hear conversations from across the Beelink GT-R Mini PC-connected TV room, prompting my family on the second floor to come down to hush me to be quiet. The sound was good, had no distortion on the loudest volume, but lacked bass. That was rather disappointing when considering how good Anker’s Soundcore speakers were.

My coworkers heard me loud and clear during our meetings thanks to a four-microphone array with noise reduction and echo cancellation. They indeed neither heard any echo coming from the speakers nor discerned my little kids’ screams in the adjacent room. I would have expected them to pick up the children’s roars at least, but they hardly did. Nicely done, Anker! On the other hand, my team mates did note that my voice sounded tinny when they met from one of the larger conference rooms. The B600, thus, may be most suitable for smaller groups where four persons could huddle around it.

Software

The video bar’s features could be finely tuned using the optional AnkerWork software. Optional because the webcam worked just fine without it. Configuration options included:

• Image Setting – Brightness, sharpness, saturation, contrast ratio, and horizontal flip
• Lightbar – Brightness, Color Temperature, Always On, Auto light adjustment
  • I had set the color tone to warm so my skin did not look so ghostly cool

Firmware upgrades could be done through the application for bug fixes and feature enhancements.

Final Thoughts

The AnkerWork B600 came with innovative ideas and deservedly earned the 2022 CES Innovation Honoree and Red Dot Product Design awards. It tried to include features for both consumers and small businesses, but the high price gave it less of an appeal to the broader market. The lightbar, in particular, married with the excellent image processing and fast lens, produced surprisingly great results and put my other webcams to shame in low-light comparison tests. I wished the light source would be a bit larger to create a more noticeable, lively catch light in the eyes, or could perhaps be swiveled to the side as off-camera lighting to give the subject’s face more dimension and a more flattering look.

AnkerWork B600 2K Video Bar Review /YuenX

Sound coming from the speakers was loud and clear, but lacked the bass and excellent audio that Anker’s other brand, Soundcore, puts out. The B600’s noise reduction and echo cancellation, however, pleasantly worked well in that other participants did not discern any echo and barely heard my little kids screaming in the other room. Even though the four-microphone array picked up my voice well, it did not bode to my coworkers’ liking when conferenced in from a large room and suggested limiting the video bar to a smaller space suitable for four persons.

Anker’s webcam, lightbar, video bar — or whatever you wanted to call this hybrid — had set a nice bar as a consumer-friendly, portable, all-in-one videotelephony solution, but at perhaps a price too high for the average person. My hope remains that a company will one day create a standalone videoconferencing product, like the abandoned Logitech Revue with TV Cam, that simply plugged into a television’s HDMI port without the need for a computer. Until then, the B600 had been a great addition for meeting with my coworkers and children’s teachers, and had replaced the Enther & Maxhub Wide Angle 4K as my daily camera.

Where To Buy

• AnkerWork B600 2K Video Bar with Light
• Other Webcams
  • Enther & Maxhub Wide Angle 4K / Goldensky G-UP1 / eMeet C980 Pro
  • Logitech Revue with Google TV (Discontinued) with Logitech TV Cam
• Beelink GT-R Pro Mini Windows PC
• Anker Soundcore Speakers
• AnkerWork H700 Wireless Headphones

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