Microsoft Teams Whiteboard: free new Content Camera or premium Logitech Scribe?

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By Ragnar Heil

Microsoft has announced Sep 30th 2021 that they are releasing free content from camera feature for Microsoft Teams which captures Whiteboards, Documents and attached video cameras when sharing your screen in a Teams Meeting.

My first thought was: Wow – I am might not longer need additional Whiteboard Capturing devices like Logitech Scribe? So let`s look deeper here and compare the experiences.

First impression: it works easy, I just share my screen, select whiteboard, and then the AI starts to find the whiteboard

Microsoft Teams Screen Share Content from Camera
Share your Microsoft Teams Screen and use Content from Camera

Content from Camera Whiteboarding with in-build Laptop Cameras

720 camera
Preview of whiteboard capturing and detection

so far, so good. But most of my recorded meeting time I have seen ugly artifacts and the capturing AI mode always went back into normal camera mode which produces overlays. I don’t need to mention that it is very uncomfortable to hold a laptop in your hand while filming your whiteboard and maybe also type & talk.

I am not convinced here, this is not my setting. Let’s look for better solutions.

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Microsoft Teams Whiteboard: free new Content Camera or premium Logitech Scribe? 8

Logitech Scribe is now supported in Microsoft Teams Room on Windows

Glad to see that Microsoft Teams Rooms on Windows App Version 4.10.11.0 finally support Logitech Scribe! I needed to run a manual PowerShell based Update because my Windows 11 Preview didn’t update to the latest App version automatically. Should be solved since Windows 11 is now finally released in GA since October 5th 2021.

Microsoft Teams Rooms for Windows Logitech Scribe
Microsoft Teams Room on Windows now supports Logitech Scribe

You can imagine that I am now curious to find out how the quality looks like! Have a look here from a screen capture of my Teams recording:
Clear and strong colors – also for dry markers (Content Enhancement), Sticky notes are visible very well and no hands or body fragments shown, Logitech Scribe hides them pretty well (Presenter Removal).

Microsoft Teams Logitech Scribe
Microsoft Teams Whiteboard: free new Content Camera or premium Logitech Scribe? 9

Logitech also offers a wireless button for screen sharing and whiteboard capturing, see red arrow:

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Microsoft Teams Whiteboard: free new Content Camera or premium Logitech Scribe? 10

Wrap up & Final thoughts

My MVP colleague Darrell Webster made better experiences with out-of-the-box Content from Camera Whiteboarding experiences, check out his video here.
I am not convinced about the quality, my setup is also not designed that I am standing next to the whiteboard with my laptop in one hand and capture it.
I prefer the more advanced and premium experience which is offered by Logitech Scribe here, much more reliable because it doesn’t switch between normal camera mode and content camera mode, Logitech’s wireless screens sharing button is very neat. I can focus on my presentation instead of juggling with my laptop and its attached Logitech Brio Webcam.
Yes, convenience and quality has got its price tag.

Now I am looking forward to see that Logitech Scribe not only running on my Windows 11 Laptop and Microsoft Teams Room Device for Windows (Lenovo ThinkSmart Hub) but also on Microsoft Teams on Android (like Logitech TAP).

Ragnar Whiteboard with Samsung Galaxy Laptop 2
Microsoft Teams Whiteboard: free new Content Camera or premium Logitech Scribe? 11

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