Logitech’s Biggest Rooms Launch: Rally Bar 2, Rally System 2 Pro, Link and Sound Shape Explained

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Who should listen: Teams Rooms owners, AV and workplace teams, and Logitech partners planning large, divisible or multi-language meeting spaces.

Guest: Henry Levak — VP & General Manager, Team Workspace Solutions Business Group, Logitech

Logitech has just made its biggest enterprise launch: Rally Bar 2 and new Tap devices built on MDEP, the modular Rally System 2 Pro for large and divisible rooms, and a new approach to room audio called Sound Shape. Henry Levak returns to talk through the thinking behind each one, from the recycled aluminium body of Rally Bar 2 to speakers that beam audio into defined zones of a room, and when each product ships.

Many thanks to Logitech, sponsor of this episode.

Key insights

• Rather than rush out new bars, Logitech updated its existing devices to Android 12 for free, and the original Rally Bar is supported for Teams on Android until late 2030 - roughly a ten-year lifecycle. Rally Bar 2 replaces both Rally Bar and Rally Bar Mini, with an all-digital camera system covering wide fields of view and deep zoom in one device. ▶ 3:03
• Rally Bar 2's body is a single piece of die-cast recycled aluminium. The plan of record was plastic, because recycled aluminium at that volume looked too hard to manufacture, but engineering made it work, and the whole body now doubles as the heat sink. The new mount works above or below the display and is designed for a one-person install with four screws - on Tom's launch back channels it drew as much excitement as the camera. ▶ 5:00
• The original Tap used a PIR sensor, which pointed at the ceiling when wall mounted, so it relied on the bar's cameras to know if anyone was in the room. Tap IP 2 uses a different presence technology that works mounted on the table or the wall. Tap Scheduler 2 turns its display off when nobody is within about five metres and wakes as you approach, which Logitech estimates saves around 30% of power. ▶ 8:02
• Everything in the second generation is built on MDEP (Microsoft Device Ecosystem Platform) from launch, not as a later update. Levak says Logitech held its announcement until it was ready, because some of the security elements cannot be put in place once a device has left the factory. ▶ 10:01
• Rally System 2 Pro is a kit, but it sits within a wider ecosystem of cameras, speakers, mic pods and RoomMate 2 Pro compute, all connected over Logitech Link, Logitech's AV over IP protocol. USB stays: Logitech has left room in the new large-room ecosystem for third-party audio to connect. ▶ 12:30
• When Levak asked an IT manager friend at a large tech company about divisible rooms, the answer was that they had solved them - by no longer building them. Logitech Link connects up to three Rally System 2 Pros, and Scenes store presets for camera settings, microphones and which speakers are on, triggered in the room, by API or from the cloud, so partners can deliver divisible rooms in far more buildings. ▶ 14:31
• Levak's case against ceiling speakers is that the voice comes from overhead while the video is at the front. Sound Shape, in the Rally Speaker 2 Pro (32-driver array) and Rally Speaker 2 Max (64-driver array), works like a torch rather than a light bulb: give it the room dimensions and it tunes itself to beam audio into that space, so less sound bounces off walls and floors. AV partners will get extra controls to tune it further. ▶ 20:23
• The demo that drew the most attention was dual language: the speaker creates two zones and plays a different audio track into each, using constructive and destructive interference. Tom points out Teams has no concept of two audio channels in one room today, and Levak confirms Logitech is working with Microsoft on this, with Microsoft providing live translation and Logitech sending each stream to its part of the room. ▶ 22:48
• Because the speakers sit at the front of the room, the cabling stays there too. Levak's line is that if you can install a video bar, you can install the new audio system: category cable carries power and data straight into RoomMate 2 Pro, with possibly a power injector for the Max. ▶ 24:22
• The Rally Speaker 2 in the Rally System 2 Pro kit is a seven-driver line array for rooms where the furthest participant is about eight metres away, against 14 metres for the Pro and 20 for the Max. Sound Shape is only on the Pro and Max, and the Rally Speaker 2 needs no room dimensions, only whether the room is wider or deeper. ▶ 25:25
• Pricing for the Pro audio line will be published next year. Tom notes installation is becoming a significant share of the cost of a room, and Levak compares the opportunity to MeetUp, which has sold well over a million units: he expects many more large spaces to get this level of audio and video. ▶ 27:27
• Rally Bar 2, Tap IP 2 and Tap Scheduler 2 are generally available now. Rally Bar Huddle gets a free Android 15 update early next year. The Pro AV line, including Rally System 2 Pro and the Sound Shape speakers, goes into beta early next year and launches in summer 2027, with Logitech showing it at ISE. ▶ 30:55

Insights summarised by AI from the episode transcript, reviewed by the Empowering.Cloud team.

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