January 2018 Evaluation of the Yamaha CS-700 Hands-on testing of an all-in-one USB mic, speaker, and camera solution for small to medium spaces This evaluation sponsored by …
Background Yamaha Corporation has over 130 years of expertise in musical instruments, professional and consumer audio systems, and electronic capture, processing and reconstruction of audio signals. In 2006, Yamaha released its first USB telephone for business communications. Since then, the company has expanded its product reach into the enterprise market.
Understanding the Yamaha CS-700 The Yamaha CS-700 is a family of video-capable group add-on solutions designed for use with USBcapable devices such as notebook and meeting room PCs. A complete CS-700 package includes: • The CS-700 Video Sound Bar™ / device (see image below) which includes: o A high definition camera offering a 1080p image with a 120-degree field of view, manual (mechanical) tilt, and 2.
As shown above, all CS-700 models include integrated audio and video (mics, speakers, and camera). In addition, all versions of the CS-700 can be configured, monitored, and managed over IP. The system also offers a web user interface, and can provide SNMP traps to external monitoring systems. These are power features of great interest to enterprise clients that are not offered by many competing solutions. All versions of the CS-700 can be configured, monitored, and managed over IP.
As a part of our testing, we used the CS-700 in two places: - In our conference room (see image at right of the unit mounted above our main display) - In one of our offices (with the unit sitting on the table at the foot of the display) 1 After powering up the CS-700 device, we connected the other end of the USB cable to each of the following host devices (one at a time): - A Dell Inspiron 15 notebook running Windows 10 Pro - A MacBook Air notebook running macOS 10.13.
- the ability to enable and configure the CS-700’s SNMP (simple network management protocol) support so the device can be remotely monitored by third-party monitoring systems. - the ability to enable the device to be configured using a centralized deployment server (e.g. a TFTP server). By default, this setting is enabled. - a configurable high pass filter to adjust the frequency response of the microphones to eliminate in-room background noise from air conditioning, lighting fixtures, and other items.
Audio Performance / Experience Overall, we were extremely pleased by the CS-700’s audio performance. Microphone Pick-Up / Performance – the CS-700’s integrated 4-microphone beamforming array performed extremely well throughout our testing. At distances from 3 feet to more than 15 feet from the video sound bar, the CS-700 faithfully captured and sent our speech to the remote participants.
Video Performance / Experience Image Quality – the CS-700’s integrated HD camera provided the far-end participants with a solid, fullmotion video experience during all test calls. Participant Capture – the CS-700’s 120-degree horizontal field-of-view camera successfully captured all local meeting room participants, including those seated only a few feet from the display as would be the case in small / huddle rooms. Yamaha CS-700 (No Digital Zoom) Yamaha CS-700 (2.
Bluetooth Speakerphone Mode To test using the CS-700 as a Bluetooth speakerphone, we placed the CS-700 in Bluetooth pairing mode by pressing and holding the Bluetooth button on the device. The blinking Bluetooth LED confirmed that the CS-700 was in pairing mode.
Contributing Authors / Research Team Ira M. Weinstein is a Senior Analyst & Partner at Wainhouse Research and a 25+ year veteran of the conferencing, collaboration and audio-visual industries. Ira has authored and contributed to dozens of articles, white papers, studies, reports, and evaluations on rich media communications, video conferencing, streaming and webcasting, audio-visual design and integration, business strategy, and general business practices.
