Introduction to several new Features and bug fixes

Android security patch level

In this release we have updated the Android security patch level on Neat devices. Because of this, you will no longer be able to downgrade your firmware under any circumstances. If a firmware update is downloaded from the Preview channel, you will no longer be able to revert back to the Stable channel firmware. Your firmware version will not change until a more recent version becomes available.

Changes to Neat system settings layout

Neat’s system settings menu has changed! In this release you will notice that the previously green menu buttons, toggles, and sliders, have been changed to a Neat shade of purple. The “Pairing” menu on the Neat Pad and Neat Board has been renamed to “Devices”.
We have also added a “Display” menu under system settings that contains the following options:
AppearanceThis setting allows you to switch your system settings menu between light mode and dark Mode
Screen BrightnessThere is now a slider that allows you to control the brightness of your screen
Power SavingThe settings for “Screen standby” and “Auto wake up” have been removed from the System menu and are now located under the Display menu.
Display PreferenceThe setting to switch your display preference between higher resolution and lower latency modes has been removed from the “Audio & video” menu and is now located under the Display menu.
This menu can be accessed using the menu path (System settings -> Display).

BYOD Mode support on Neat Bar Pro

The BYOD Mode feature is now available on the Neat Bar Pro. In this release you are able to connect your Neat Bar Pro’s camera, microphone, and speakers to a computer using a USB-C cable and bring the Neat experience to any video conferencing platform.
More information about using our BYOD Mode feature can be found in the following support article: here

Microphone sensitivity reduced with Framing Boundary depth

In previous releases, the microphone sensitivity on Neat products was optimized to pick up voices at certain distances that could not be adjusted. In scenarios where all users are sitting close to the system, like open office environments, having such a high microphone sensitivity creates the unintended consequence of background voices and other noises being loud relative to the voices of the users. This creates a poor audio experience for far-end meeting participants.
In this release, the microphone sensitivity will be reduced as the framing boundary depth is reduced. This means there will be fewer issues with background noises in the scenarios where users are close to the device.
You can configure your framing boundary depth from the “Audio & video” menu in your Neat system settings (System settings -> Audio & video -> Framing boundary).

Dereverberation on Neat Bar Pro and Neat Frame

We have updated our audio processing systems on the Neat Bar Pro and Neat Frame to include dereverberation. Reverb is an effect caused by audio waves reflecting off surfaces in a room to create a “cavernous” or “echoey” quality that gets picked up by the microphone. This has a negative impact on speech intelligibility and creates a poor audio experience for far-end meeting participants.
Our latest voice isolation model for the Neat Frame and Neat Bar Pro attempts to reduce the detrimental effects of reverberation in the captured microphone signal. For far-end meeting participants, voices in the room will now sound closer to the microphone and be easier to understand.
You can enable dereverberation on a Neat Bar Pro by toggling “Voice isolation (beta)” in the “Audio & video” menu of your Neat system settings (System settings -> Audio & video -> Voice Isolation (beta)). On the Neat Frame dereverberation will be enabled by default.
Note: While this will improve the effect of reverberation on speech, there is no perfect solution and you may still want to apply acoustic treatment to your room for optimal audio. More information on how to set up your room for optimal audio quality can be found here: here

Smart camera controls in Microsoft Teams

Smart camera controls allow in-room users to adjust framing of the room camera in a meeting, selecting between a view that automatically centers everyone in the frame or one that zooms in on each person in the room and combines everyone in a single frame. IT Admins can control the default behavior in the device settings.
Note: This feature is only available for devices with a Teams Rooms Pro license.

Neat Frame setting for portrait orientation in Zoom

After updating your Neat Frame to Zoom Rooms version 5.14.7 or later, the Frame will have a “Scale to Fit” setting for portrait cropped views during meetings with only one other participant. This gives users a more lifelike face to face experience due to the portrait orientation of the Neat Frame’s screen.
This can be configured in the Neat Frame’s advanced Zoom Room settings (Settings -> Advanced -> Scale to Fit). You can also enable this view during Zoom calls by selecting the “View” option and toggling the “Scale to Fit” setting.

Bluetooth options in Neat Frame swipe menu

Bluetooth options are now available in the swipe menu on the Neat Frame. To access this swipe menu on your Neat Frame, please do the following:

1. Swipe with one finger from the right side of the Frame towards the left
2. A slide out menu will appear with bluetooth control options

Neat Frame handset support

You can now connect handsets to your Neat Frame using the USB-C port on the back of the device. This gives users more flexibility to use their own third party equipment in conjunction with their Neat Frame.

Maximum 720p resolution while using Zoom’s multistream on Neat Bar Pro

After upgrading your Neat Bar Pro to Zoom Rooms version 5.14.5 or later, each dynamic frame will be sent with a maximum of 720p resolution. In previous releases, dynamic frames were limited to a maximum of 360p resolution.

SCEP support for 802.1x

In this release, Simple Certificate Enrollment Protocol (SCEP) is now supported while setting up Neat devices with 802.1x network security configurations. SCEP allows for automatic certificate issuing and renewal in a scalable way, and this update will make it easier to roll out a large number of Neat devices with 802.1x configurations.
More information about setting up 802.1x with SCEP can be found in the following support article: here

Support for Norwegian and Swedish languages

The Norwegian and Swedish languages are now supported on Neat devices running Microsoft Teams.

Other improvements

This release includes minor bug fixes for all Neat devices, and improvements to camera white balance, microphone noise reduction, and voice isolation on the Neat Frame and Neat Bar Pro.

# Fixed bugs and improvements

CUS-216In previous releases, Neat devices were not able to connect to Wifi sources configured with Adaptive 11r enabled. This issue has been resolved in this release.
CUS-538In previous releases, it was possible for the screen to freeze or go dark while using BYOD mode on a Neat Bar. This issue has been resolved in this release.
CUS-550In previous releases, it was possible for nearby Wifi access points with Adaptive 11r enabled to interfere with a Neat Board’s internet connectivity. This issue has been resolved in this release.
CUS-579In previous releases, it was possible for a Neat Board’s “Keep Screen ON” setting to revert from “off” to “on” after the device was rebooted. This issue has been resolved in this release.
CUS-580In previous releases, adjusting the volume on a Neat Board or Neat Frame running Microsoft Teams did not always increase the volume in even increments. In this release the volume will always increase or decrease by an increment of 5.
CUS-603 & CUS-714In previous releases, it was possible for a Neat Frame to lose microphone audio if a bluetooth headset set as the default audio choice gets disconnected. This issue has been resolved in this release.
CUS-613In previous releases, it was possible for content shared via HDMI on a Neat Bar Pro to show up distorted with green artifacts on the screen. This issue has been resolved in this release.
CUS-614In previous releases, connecting the Neat Bar to certain displays resulted in video latency and lipsync issues. In this release we have made improvements that should reduce the amount of delay in those scenarios.
CUS-634In previous releases, it was possible for USB audio equipment to become deselected in Zoom after rebooting a Neat Bar Pro. This issue has been resolved in this release.
CUS-643In previous releases, it was possible for a Neat Bar Pro running Microsoft Teams to send video with a 4:3 aspect ratio. In this release we have made some changes to limit the number of scenarios where the Microsoft Teams application requests video in a 4:3 format.
CUS-644In previous releases, it was possible for a single monitor connected to a Neat Bar Pro with HDMI CEC enabled to remain powered off when auto wake up is used to bring the device out of standby mode. This issue has been resolved in this release.
CUS-654In previous releases, adjusting the volume slider from a Neat Pad functioning as a Microsoft Teams Room controller did not have any impact on device volume during Direct Guest Join meetings from Microsoft Teams to Zoom or Microsoft Teams to Webex. This issue has been resolved in this release.
CUS-662In previous releases, it was possible for a Neat Pad set up as a Microsoft Teams panel to lose network connection and become unresponsive until physically rebooted. This issue has been resolved in this release.
CUS-720In a preview version of this release (NFD1.20230504.0023), certain USB audio systems would not function as expected while “Audio over USB” was enabled on the Neat Bar Pro. This issue has been resolved in the latest version of this release (NFD1.20230504.0025).

# Known issues

INBUGS-31‘Unable to verify certificate’ message displayed when uploading CA certificate which has a text part before the actual certificate part. To work-around this issue, copy only the certificate portion (BEGIN CERTIFICATE / END CERTIFICATE) to a file and save it as .pem/.cert etc.
ZOOM-93In this release, it is not possible to disable Zoom’s ‘Advanced Noise Suppression’ feature. As a result, any users using the ‘Music mode’ feature will notice that their audio is being suppressed by Zoom’s noise suppression algorithm, making the experience poor. This issue is being investigated by the Zoom engineering team.
CUS-326In this release, color correction configuration options are available in the accessibility settings on the Neat Board and Neat Bar Pro, but enabling the feature will not have any effect on the screen.
CUS-415 & CUS-574In this release it is possible for the Neat Board’s screen to become unresponsive after entering screen standby mode, requiring a power cycle in order to bring the device back online. To work around this issue, you can disable auto wake up in your Neat system settings and enable “Keep Screen ON” in your screen standby settings.
CUS-544In this release, it is possible for audio from a Neat Bar to sound choppy to far end participants during Direct Guest Join calls.
CUS-584In this release, it is possible for shared HDMI content on a Neat Bar Pro running Zoom to remain on the screen for several seconds (up to 10) after the HDMI cable has been disconnected.
CUS-587In this release, it is possible for a display connected to the HDMI2 port on a Neat Bar to remain unresponsive when auto wake is used to bring the device out of standby mode.
CUS-635In this release, if a Neat Bar is rebooted while BYOD mode is enabled and in use, the Neat camera and Microphone will no longer function as expected until the USB-C cable is unplugged and replugged from the device.
CUS-651In this release, it is possible for a Neat Bar and Neat Pad to lose the ability to pair over Wifi.
CUS-668In this release, it is possible for digital signage in Zoom to be displayed incorrectly on a display connected to the HDMI2 port on a Neat Bar Pro.
CUS-753When a Neat Bar Pro is updated from our previous version (NFD1.20221128.0011) to our current release (NFD1.20230504.0025), it is possible for a “No camera” warning to appear. This can be resolved by rebooting the device.
CUS-756In this release, it is possible for a Neat Bar Pro to lose CEC functionality after updating from our previous version (NFD1.20221128.0011) to our current release (NFD1.20230504.0025). This can be resolved by rebooting the device.
CUS-759In this release, it is possible for a Neat Bar Pro to go offline and become unreachable until it is rebooted.
CUS-760In this release, it is possible for a Neat device to show an “untrusted server certificate” warning due to a network timing issue. Rebooting the device should resolve the error in these scenarios.
INBUGS-1663In this release, external audio hardware is not synchronized with the mute indicator and volume slider in Zoom or Microsoft Teams while using Audio over USB on a Neat Bar Pro.
INBUGS-1664In this release, switching between external audio hardware and the internal speaker while using Audio over USB on a Neat Bar Pro does not always work during a Zoom meeting.