Feed aggregator

NPR's A Martinez speaks to Wesleyan University President Michael Roth about the Trump administration's pressure campaign on universities.

This review first appeared in issue 347 of PC Pro.

Video conferencing (VC) continues to enjoy unprecedented growth levels since the pandemic, and Biamp now wants a piece of the action. It makes its play for the small to medium-sized meeting room market with the imposing Parlé VBC 2500.

Measuring nearly one metre in length, this all-in-one conferencing bar takes a lot of the technology Biamp has developed over its 46 years in the professional audio-visual (AV) space and hands it to SMBs. Whereas most competing VC bars offer a beam-forming array made up of five or six microphones, the VBC 2500 boasts a highly accurate beam-tracking array comprising 27 microphone elements.

It sports a 4K UHD camera capable of delivering up to a 2160p resolution at 30fps and teams this with a wide 120° field of view (FoV) plus digital pan, tilt, zoom (PTZ) functions with 5x zoom capabilities. The camera incorporates a mechanical shutter that automatically obscures the view when a meeting has finished or a user disables video from their UC app.

The VBC 2500 delivers great video quality and its digital auto-framing is rapid (Image credit: Future)

Sound output is a cut above the rest, too, as Biamp has designed the speaker array to accurately reproduce human speech. The array comprises a pair of 20W speakers in sealed enclosures plus passive radiators to improve bass, and it uses active distortion compensation to ensure a flat response.

Placement options are plentiful: the VBC 2500 has an integral hinged desk stand and the kit includes a metal wall-mount bracket. Behind the rear removable panel is an external power supply socket plus a USB-C host connection port – for BYOD operations you can connect the VBC 2500 to Biamp’s optional Devio SCR-10 desktop unit.

A standout feature is Biamp’s automated room configuration: simply plug the bar in, press the Launch button underneath and stand back. The bar measures the room’s acoustics by emitting a series of sounds that wouldn’t be out of place in a 1950s sci-fi movie.

It uses the audio feedback to optimize the mic array, speakers and integral digital sound processor (DSP) specifically to its environment. The upshot is that anyone can set up the VBC 2500, and the same process is used if it’s moved to another room.

Installation took seconds. We plugged the VBC 2500 into a USB port on a Windows 10 Pro host and all necessary drivers were automatically loaded. As to which VC software platform to use, the choice is yours – the VBC 2500 is UVC (USB video class) compliant and we had no problems using it with Skype, Microsoft Teams and Zoom.

The imposing Parlé VBC 2500 is supremely easy to set up (Image credit: Future)

Video settings can be tweaked to suit using Biamp’s free Camera Controller app. Auto-framing and backlight compensation can be disabled, PTZ functions manually operated, the image mirrored or flipped, UC profiles for Microsoft Teams, Google Meet and Zoom applied and three presets saved for further use.

Video quality at 1080p is impressive, and we found the image was sharp and clear with great contrast and color balance. Backlight compensation works well, as does auto-framing, with the camera snapping to the active speaker in a couple of seconds and tracking them if they moved around the meeting room.

Audio quality is even better – this is easily the best-sounding VC bar we’ve yet tested. Biamp’s speaker technology delivers a superb sound, with a warm, deep bass, natural-sounding voices and none of the shrillness you’ll find with smaller VC bars.

It’s loud, too, as we had to drop volume levels to 40% for our 24 square meter meeting room. Crank it up to maximum and it’ll go with you as the sound doesn’t break up at all.

The Parlé VBC 2500 isn’t as versatile as Logitech’s Rally Bar, which offers BYOD and standalone modes courtesy of its Android OS, but Biamp can’t be beaten for presentation quality. Video and audio are exceptionally good, digital auto-framing is fast and the smart launch mode makes meeting room setup a piece of cake.

We also ranked the best small business website builders.

This review first appeared in issue 348 of PC Pro.

The WS AR-X6700 makes good use of its £4,500 budget, with a solid balance of components. Workstation Specialists has chosen the AMD Ryzen 9 7950X, which offers 16 cores and 32 threads, with a base 4.5GHz clock and boost up to 5.7GHz. This is backed by 64GB of RAM, provided as two DIMMs, so there’s room to upgrade. It’s 5,200MHz DDR5, which the Ryzen 7000 series now supports.

Graphics acceleration comes from the Nvidia RTX A5000. With a hefty 8,192 CUDA cores and 24GB of GDDR6 frame buffer on a 384-bit bus offering 768GB/sec of bandwidth, it’s a potent workstation accelerator. Its quartet of DisplayPort 1.4a connections support up to four 4K screens at 120Hz, or two 8K screens at 60Hz.

Apart from the decidedly skinny Lenovo chassis, the Fractal Design Define C Tempered Glass case here is the most compact this month. There’s still room for a couple of 3.5in or 2.5in drives, plus up to three 2.5in units. The only storage supplied, however, is a 2TB Samsung 990 Pro NVMe SSD, which when tested with CrystalDiskMark 8.0.4 delivered competent 7,457MB/sec sustained reading and 6,915MB/sec writing.

(Image credit: Future)

The overall result in the PC Pro benchmarks of 731 is superb compared to systems from any previous year, but in this month’s company it’s joint second slowest. For everyday tasks, Intel’s Core i9-13900K has the lead. The multicore rendering result in Maxon Cinebench R23 of 36,030 is similarly both excellent while still being third slowest this month. The Blender Gooseberry render took 282 seconds with the CPU, however, which is more competitive.

Sadly, with so many powerful systems in this test, the Nvidia RTX 5000 manages performance only in the middle of the pack. Looking at the SPECviewperf 2020 v3.1 results, the score of 178 in 3dsmax-07 is the third slowest, although 535 in maya-06 is a bit higher up the rankings. Only Lenovo’s P620, with its RTX A4000, consistently falls behind. The OpenCL rendering result in LuxMark 3.1 of 15,489 is in line with our expectations for an RTX A5000, while GPU rendering with Blender took 148 seconds, which is also mid-range.

Overall, while the Workstation Specialists WS AR-X6700 is well put together and specified, it doesn’t have the leading performance of this month’s Labs Winner.

We also rated the best all-in-one computers.

Don't snooze on last year's TikTok sensation. A good night's sleep might just be a tart cherry drink away.

Despite paying $195 more on average than the previous year, most people still experienced speed and reliability issues.

The S&P 500 sank 2.2% after falling as much as 3.3% earlier. Such an amount would have vied for one of its worst losses in years before the historic swings that have upended Wall Street in recent weeks.

(Image credit: Richard Drew/AP)

Meloni secured the meeting at a critical juncture in the trade war. As the right-wing leader of her party she has, in a sense, been "knighted" to represent the European Union in meetings with Trump.

(Image credit: Alessandra Tarantino)

A power blackout hit all of Puerto Rico on Wednesday as the heavily Catholic U.S. territory prepared to celebrate the Easter weekend.

(Image credit: Alejandro Granadillo)

Here are the answers for The New York Times Mini Crossword for April 17.

The Lyrid meteor shower will reach a peak later this month, but stargazers can catch a first glimpse beginning Wednesday night.

(Image credit: Thomas Kronsteiner)

Shapiro, a Democrat, is Jewish and has said he supports a two-state solution to the Israel-Palestinian conflict.

(Image credit: Matthew Hatcher)

It's not because the world really needs another social media platform.

The James Webb Space Telescope may have detected life-associated gas in the atmosphere of a far-off planet. The news is being greeted with both enthusiasm and skepticism.

(Image credit: A. Smith, N. Madhusudhan)

All staff were put on leave at the United States Interagency Council on Homelessness. Congress created the entity in 1987 and, among other things, it helped drive down veterans homelessness.

(Image credit: Brandon Bell)

The National Labor Relations Board told employees Wednesday that DOGE staffers would be assigned to the agency, one day after a whistleblower alleged DOGE may have removed sensitive NLRB data.

(Image credit: Jon Elswick)

Katherine Maher, president and CEO of National Public Radio, talks with NPR's Mary Louise Kelly about the White House proposal to eliminate federal funding for public media.

(Image credit: Andrew Harnik)

The Trump administration's move to send immigrants to a maximum security prison in El Salvador is the subject of multiple on-going fights in court.

But in an Oval Office meeting with the Salvadoran president this week, President Trump was already looking ahead.

"We also have homegrown criminals that push people into subways, that hit elderly ladies on the back of the head with a baseball bat when they're not looking, that are absolute monsters. I'd like to include them in the group of people to get them out of the country," Trump said.

Trump later clarified that by "homegrown criminals" he meant U.S. citizens.

No president has tried to do exactly what Trump is proposing.

In this episode, we hear from someone who argues it's wildly unconstitutional.

For sponsor-free episodes of Consider This, sign up for Consider This+ via Apple Podcasts or at plus.npr.org.

Email us at considerthis@npr.org.

(Image credit: Win McNamee)

An independent vaccine advisory committee to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention met to discuss and vote on vaccine policy for the first time since the change in administrations.

(Image credit: Tami Chappell)

Game Pass Ultimate subscribers can also stream some games they own to their Xbox consoles.

Your phone is probably full of sketchy texts. Here's a breakdown of the most common schemes and how to avoid getting scammed.