How to Set up your Bar Gen 2 /Board 50 for BYOD Mode

Last updated on August 21, 2024

While Neat devices deliver great experiences with Zoom Room and Microsoft Teams Room applications, we recognize that you may need to join meetings on other platforms. For these situations, BYOD Mode allows you to use Neat devices with any video service, while still benefiting from Neat’s advanced hardware and features.

This guide provides step-by-step instructions for enabling BYOD Mode on your Neat Bar Gen 2 or Neat Board 50. For instructions on other devices, see:

Neat Bar + Bar Pro – How to Set up your Neat Bar/Bar Pro for BYOD Mode
Neat Board – How to Set up your Neat Board for BYOD Mode

Warning: When running a Neat device in BYOD mode, the videoconferencing application installed during out-of-box setup (Zoom or Teams) is terminated. Because the application cannot communicate with its cloud, you may see the devices appear offline in your Zoom or Teams cloud admin portal. Connectivity to Neat Pulse is maintained during BYOD Mode.

For customers who do not wish to run native applications such as Zoom or Teams, Neat devices offer the ability to run our BYOD application without downloading Zoom/Teams during our OOB process BYOD-Only Mode (beta)

1. Requirements

Personal Computer that supports HDMI-Out direct or through dongles

Single Cable Setup:

USB-C to USB-C or USB-A to USB-C cable (3.0 or higher)* that supports DisplayPort Alternate Mode (aka DisplayLink, DP Alt Mode, and other names) **

Double Cable Setup:

USB-C to USB-C or USB-A to USB-C cable (3.0 or higher)*
HDMI Cable (existing content-share HDMI cable can be used for BYOD Mode )

*Note: Currently, BYOD Mode supports only High-Speed (USB 2.0) data transfer rates due to temporary software limitations. Super Speed (USB 3.0) cabling is recommended for future updates supporting Super Speed connectivity.

**Important Note: Even though USB-C is capable of supporting DisplayPort Alt Mode, not all cables will have this capability. Users should verify their cables support DisplayPort Alt Mode to ensure compatibility. USB-C cables certified for Thunderbolt 3 or above are also compatible with DisplayPort Alt Mode.

2. Instructions

2.1 Accessing USB Connectivity and BYOD Mode

Navigate to Neat’s System Settings.
- For Zoom: Settings -> General -> System settings
- For Microsoft Teams: More -> Settings -> Device settings
Then, navigate to Neat System Settings -> System -> USB Connectivity, where you can select:
- Manual BYOD mode (beta) or
- Auto BYOD mode or
- Peripheral devices (default configuration, i.e., BYOD mode disabled)

2.2 Selecting between different BYOD Mode

Figure 1: USB Connectivity settings page showcasing different BYOD mode options

2.2.1 Manual BYOD mode (Beta)

Manual BYOD Mode allows BYOD mode to be manually enabled or disabled directly from the Neat Pad using the Neat slide-out menu (swipe from right to left). When Manual BYOD Mode is selected, the BYOD mode button will appear in the slide-out menu.

This mode is particularly useful in scenarios where a laptop remains connected to the Bar/Bar Pro via USB, allowing BYOD mode to be toggled on and off as needed using the slide-out menu.

Figure 2: BYOD mode in the left swipe menu when Manual BYOD mode is selected.

2.2.2 Automatic BYOD mode

In Automatic BYOD Mode, USB passthrough functionality is fully automated. Once the Neat devices are wired as described in Section 2.2 (“Setting Up Cables for BYOD Mode”), they will automatically function as USB-connected peripherals for a computer.

2.2.3 Peripheral devices

This mode indicates that BYOD mode is disabled but allows the USB connection to be used for peripherals such as a mouse or keyboard.

2.2.4 USB extenders

This setting is designed for customer setups that use specific types of USB extenders for BYOD (Auto/Manual mode). Most USB extenders rely on a V-BUS line connection, which typically carries a 5V supply, to trigger the electrical components within a USB device. However, a small subset of extenders do not switch this power on or off based on the presence of a laptop. Instead, they send suspend commands when the laptop is disconnected or when the USB extender enters power-saving mode.

When the USB extender option is enabled, Neat devices will listen to the suspend command from the USB extender. When the toggle is off, the Neat device will instead rely on the V-BUS line connection to enable or disable BYOD mode.

2.3 Cable Setup

2.3.1 Single cable set-up:

Connect a USB-C cable from the laptop to the Neat Bar Gen 2’s/ Board’s USB-C port (Figure 3/4).

Note: If a laptop is connected via USB but it doesn’t support DisplayPort or a laptop is not connected and you have selected Auto/Manual BYOD from the left slide-out menu the following image will appear Figure 5:

Figure 5: Cable error example for Neat Bar Gen 2 or Neat Board 50

2.3.2 Double cable set up

Connect one end of the required HDMI cable to the HDMI-in (local) port on the back of the Bar Gen 2/Board 50 (Figure 6) and the other end to your computer.
Then insert a USB cable to the USB port for your chosen Neat device.

Figure 6: Board 50 Cable set up for USBC with HDMI-in

Note: If a laptop is connected via HDMI but USB cable is disconnected, a specific screen will be displayed (see Figure 6) if you press BYOD mode on the left swipe menu while in Manual BYOD mode.

Figure 6: Shows Neat Bar when only HDMI is connected and Manual mode is selected

2.4 Set Neat Device as your default Video and Audio Devices

Open your preferred video conferencing application on your computer.
Set the default devices for the camera, microphone, and/or speakers to the Neat Device (named ‘Neat Bar…’ or ‘Neat Board…’).
- You can enable only the hardware you need. For example, use the Neat device’s camera and microphone while using your computer’s built-in speakers etc.

Note: If you are having issues with adjusting the volume on Mac devices, please review this article by Apple on adjusting sound output settings.

Platform Setup Articles:

Warning: Zoom and Microsoft Teams rooms will be “offline” from the platform’s perspective when using BYOD Mode because the application on the Neat device has been temporarily closed.

3. BYOD behavior

Once BYOD is activated you will be able to select the mic, camera, and speaker of the Neat Bar Gen 2 /Board 50 from the conferencing application running on your laptop.
Camera controls can be accessed from the Swipe left menu. If a Neat Pad is paired to the Board at the Neat level it will also switch to BYOD mode and provide the camera control directly on the Pad.

Figure 7: Neat Pad during BYOD Mode with video and audio controls

Please Note: BYOD Mode will be disabled if your computer goes into Standby/Sleep as the Board will no longer detect a signal over the cable(s) connected to your device.

3.1 Device BYOD/Content sharing behavior

This behavior only applies when Auto BYOD mode is already enabled in System Settings for the Bar Gen 2/Board 50 depending on cable behavior.

Setup	In Call	Outside a call
Single Cable (USB-C with DP)	Screen Share into the meeting	BYOD Mode
Double Cable (USB-C + HDMI)	Screen Share into the meeting	BYOD Mode

Table 1: Summary of BYOD behavior based on Cable setup

Enjoy the Neat experience on any platform!

With this, you should be fully set to use your Neat Bar or Neat Board with any video conferencing application!