Following the rush to equip home offices in the early days of the COVID-19 pandemic, employees across South Africa have settled into remote work or hybrid work models, and they are now starting to discover the pain points of home offices.

Uncomfortable workstations and distractions are top concerns among remote workers now, says Paul Furmie, Head of Video Collaboration – South Africa at Logitech. It’s vital to have a comfortable chair and table to work at, and to set the laptop at the right height to avoid slouching and backache, he says. Equally important is the comfort and quality of the collaboration tools remote workers are using.

“If you’re going to be on calls for hours every day, you need your headset to be comfortable, with cushioning at the ears and a cable that doesn’t tangle. You may have children or pets distracting you at home, so you need noise cancelling technology,” says Furmie. “Consumer grade products do work well, but if you’re going to use a headset for work all day, every day, you need to look at a more comfortable device with a quality build that lasts much longer. Logitech’s business grade headsets are designed for hours of comfort and lengthy use – organisations can even replace the ear cushions if they wear out.

Business grade tools are not just more comfortable and durable than consumer grade devices – they are also designed to be compatible with business collaboration tools such as Microsoft Teams. “Usage of tools such as Teams has gone through the roof, and it can take precious minutes to locate the icon on a desktop and launch a meeting. With business grade devices that are Teams certified, users can simply press a button on the headset to launch the app. Logitech has built-in features such as these to make life simpler for business users,” says Furmie.

For remote workers, business grade Webcams are also a must-have tool. The pandemic has fast-tracked video conferencing and driven even the most ‘camera-shy’ workers to adopt it, says Furmie. “This trend has been growing in recent years, partly because of millennials who were embracing video. But the pandemic showed even the slow adopters that face-to-face engagement is so important in many situations – it allows you to see people’s reactions and body language, so you can communicate better.” Video conferencing is here to stay, he says, and quality of the video and audio will become increasingly important.

Logitech’s business Web cam portfolio is designed to improve the remote work experience and enhance video conference quality – whether employees are dialling in from a coffee shop, their own homes or the boardroom. With integrated noise cancelling microphones, automatically optimised lighting, adjustable field of view and zoom options, Logitech’s Web cams deliver clear, well-lit HD video to make virtual meetings as engaging as if they were being held in-person.

Among Logitech’s leading business grade Web cams are the BRIO ultra HD Pro Web cam; a premier 4K ultra high-def camera that offers 5x digital zoom, a choice of fields of view, high frame rates, outstanding low-light performance, HDR, and RightLight technology, which automatically optimises the lighting conditions to highlight the user. BRIO also delivers fast and secure facial recognition to make logging in to Windows Hello quick and easy. BRIO is certified compatible with Skype for Business and Microsoft Teams, and works with Microsoft Cortana and Windows Hello. Certifications and compatibility with other popular applications include BlueJeans, Broadsoft, Fuze, Lifesize Cloud, Vidyo and Zoom.