If you’ve ever walked into a small meeting room, plugged in your laptop, and watched the expensive video bar do absolutely nothing, chances are you thought: here we go AGAIN. In most cases, something needs fixing before it works — an update, a missing dongle, or the wrong setting.
Android-powered for instant, PC-free meetings
Jabra’s new PanaCast 40 VBS is tailor-made for this. Designed as an easy-to-use solution for small rooms, this self-contained, Android-powered video bar can run Zoom or Teams Rooms natively or connect with your device — no PC, no drivers, no drama. You walk in, tap “Join,” and it just works. Because the OS lives inside the bar, the interface is consistent every time, with no dependency on whatever laptop someone brings.
It’s also flexible enough to fit almost any setup: plug it into a touch display and run everything on-screen, use the Jabra touch controller (VBS kit), or even open a browser on another device on the same network to act as the remote. If you still want to bring your own device, you can — plug it in and it behaves like a standard USB camera.
BYOD or native room mode — the best of both worlds
Even in BYOD mode, you still get the bar’s full set of onboard benefits: Intelligent Zoom automatically frames everyone without fuss, Virtual Director shifts focus to whoever’s speaking, and Intelligent Meeting Space lets you define a capture boundary so passers-by in open areas don’t pop into the shot.
You also get single-stream Dynamic Composition, where the camera tiles close-ups of up to four people alongside a full-room view and sends that out as one video feed. To the meeting platform, it looks like a single participant, but it gives remote colleagues a more engaging view of the room without anyone fiddling with the camera.
Run it as a Zoom Room, though, and you unlock multi-stream Dynamic Composition, aka Smart Gallery. Instead of one stitched feed, the bar outputs separate video streams — one for each face, plus the full room. Zoom then treats each stream as if that person had their own webcam, so remote participants can pin, rearrange, or spotlight individuals just like they would in a regular call. That level of flexibility isn’t possible in BYOD mode, because most conferencing apps only accept a single video feed at a time.
In the live demo, the PanaCast 40 tracked up to four speakers simultaneously and kept everyone in frame, even those seated almost side-on.
Where the PanaCast 40 VBS fits in Jabra’s line-up
The PanaCast 40 VBS is essentially the compact version of Jabra’s flagship PanaCast 50 Video Bar System. Both share the same 180° panoramic DNA and AI-powered framing smarts, but the hardware is scaled to suit room size. The 50 uses three 13-megapixel cameras stitched together for a higher-fidelity panoramic 4K view, while the 40 relies on a dual 8-megapixel camera system to deliver the same 180° coverage in a more compact form. The 50 also adds richer stereo audio with dual speakers and eight microphones, while the 40 keeps things lean with one speaker and six beamforming mics — more than enough for a huddle room.
The camera and mic that see and hear everyone
Physically, the 180° field of view is what sets it apart. Most cameras in small rooms top out at around 120°, which is fine until you try to fit more people in and someone ends up cropped out. With 180°, you can seat one person right up against each side wall and still have them comfortably in frame — effectively two extra people at the table without awkward shuffling.
It’s all thanks to the use of two cameras and clever software stitching. No more shifting seats to avoid “weird face” angles — the image looks almost seamless, with only some tell-tale distortion of straight lines in the background. It’s much like those heavily edited selfies where you can see the background has been warped. But the important part is that faces stay natural and in focus, whether you’re right in front of the camera or at the far end of the room — something most wide-angle meeting cameras can’t claim.
Meanwhile, the six adaptive beamforming microphones and intelligent processing keep voices crisp and consistent by locking onto the speaker and adjusting gain automatically, so volume stays level no matter where they’re seated.
Solving the huddle room gap
Solving the huddle room gapGlobally, fewer than three per cent of huddle rooms are video-enabled. With the PanaCast 40 VBS, those underused spaces can easily be converted into reliable collaboration rooms. It’s not a spec-sheet monster, but it doesn’t need to be — the real value is that when you walk in, the thing just works.
Availability & pricing: PanaCast 40 VBS bar only – SGD 2,206. PanaCast 40 VBS + touch controller bundle – SGD 3,235. Prices include 9% GST.
