Another financing in the video conferencing field.

It was learned that the solution provider of the video conferencing scene, “Zhuang Sheng Xiao Meng”, has recently completed millions of Pre-A rounds of financing, and the investor is Haofang Venture Capital. Its founder Zhu Leizhen told that this round of funding will mainly be used for the mass production of video conferencing edge computing terminals, as well as the exploration and cooperation of other application scenarios based on this technology.

Zhuangsheng Xiaomeng is a company that was reported at the end of July this year. There are two main products, one is the intelligent conference terminal, and the other is the 360-degree panoramic mobile phone camera COOLPO. The core feature of its intelligent conference terminal is to locate the conference spokesperson by using omnidirectional sound source localization, omnidirectional vision algorithm and visual speech fusion verification algorithm, and update the conference screen in real time. COOLPO can be directly installed as an additional mirror on the existing camera of the mobile phone. With the related software products, you can shoot panoramas and shoot super wide-angle anti-shake videos with one click.

In April of this year, video conferencing software provider Zoom was listed on NASDAQ in the United States. It rose 72% on the first day of listing and its market value reached $15.9 billion. It is not difficult to see that the market is very optimistic about the field of remote video conferencing. According to market research firm Sullivan, from 2017 to 2021, the global video conference is expected to grow at a compound annual growth rate of 8.3%, and the market size is expected to reach 50.9 billion US dollars in 2018

Cisco, Microsoft, Intel, Google, Huawei and other technology giants are players in this field. In recent years, there have been many startups that have begun to work hard to challenge existing giants. Zoom is a typical example. In the Chinese market, Xiaoyu Yilian is a relatively leading company. In April this year, it received Tencent’s C round investment . In addition to software products such as SAAS, there are also technology providers for meeting scenes, such as Frog Sound Technology, focusing on AI acoustic noise reduction, Provide radio equipment for the conference scene.

Haifang Venture Capital founding partner Li Bin said that the SME audio and video conference system has always been the track that Haofang continues to pay attention to. There have been many years of in-depth research and operation on this track, and he has cast early stars such as 壹秘科技. project. With the growth of intelligent mobile office demand, the popularity of cloud computing, 5G and other infrastructure, we are also optimistic about the future development of the entire industry. More importantly, we highly recognize the technical capabilities of Zhu Zong and his team in the cooperation of Haikang, CCTV and other projects to share 4K panoramic video, VR / AR, interactive sensing. In addition to the funds, we will also combine the overseas channel operation capabilities of Haofang Group to provide more business empowerment for Zhuangsheng Xiaomeng.Zhuang Shengxiao dreams better market performance in the future.

The following is a report on Zhuang Shengxiao’s dream at the end of July this year:

Zhuangsheng Xiaomeng’s main products are smart conference terminals and 360-degree panoramic mobile phone camera COOLPO. Next, let’s take a look at the two main products of Zhuangsheng Xiaomeng.

The first intelligent conference terminal, this terminal is powered by USB, plug and play, can adapt to the current mainstream cloud video conferencing system on the market, and can be applied to small and medium-sized conference rooms (10-30 square meters). Its features include:

  • Listen to the voice, and switch the focus speaker screen in real time. The hardware is equipped with an omnidirectional 360-degree camera and an omnidirectional microphone array, as well as voice-visual dual authentication.

  • Face check-in; voice recognition automatically transfers the minutes of the meeting, and in the future, it also plans to realize the real-time display of text subtitles.

  • Audio noise reduction, support echo cancellation for two-way calls;

  • 360 degree interaction and wide angle dual mode, and can achieve one-click switching.

The core technology behind it lies in omnidirectional sound source localization, omnidirectional vision algorithm and visual speech fusion verification algorithm. It locates the speaker position by accurately calculating the sound azimuth, and then calls the visual algorithm to confirm that the sound object is indeed a spokesperson. The system will then automatically capture the image of the object and update it to the conference screen. Another advantage of Zhuangsheng Xiaomeng is that it can integrate these algorithms into relatively inexpensive chips, achieve closed-loop output in product development, does not rely on chip companies, and can also switch to national production chips.

How to improve video conferencing interactivity has always been the focus of video conferencing solution providers. Zhuangsheng Xiaomeng products can realize the real-time switching of the speaker’s picture. This function design can make the relative “unfamiliar” participants clear the position and identity of the speaker and enhance the sense of presence.

“We found that most of the current cloud video conferencing SaaS and dedicated conference providers on the market are focusing on improving the fluency and security of the system, and the interface is not very interesting. But if we use our hardware Equipment can directly enhance the user experience and increase product highlights.” Zhuang Shengxiao Dream CEO Zhu Leizhen told, “Our solution can also provide textbook service providers for such conference records, such as Keda Xunfei, providing speaker identity information, which is their collation record. More accurate, their system only knew the order of the speakers and could not know the identity of the speaker.”

At present, the terminal has reached an in-depth cooperation with Haikang Fluorite in the video conference. Fluorite has verified this product and gave it the title of eco-partner. It is also planned to expand the market with the channels of video conferencing SaaS vendors.

The other product is the 360-degree camera “COOLPO”. This small device can be directly installed on the existing camera of the mobile phone. With the related software products, you can shoot the panorama and shoot the super wide-angle anti-shake video with one click.

Starting|Zhuangsheng Xiaomeng

COOLPO

Why would you choose to design and manufacture such a product? Zhuang Shengxiao has the following background advantages:

  • Before the start-up, team members built a panorama stitching software, and later built a street view map product, which was eventually acquired by Baidu.

  • After starting a business, at the very beginning, the team also provided multi-camera image stitching solutions for TV and other customers, including hardware and software. It also became a customized camera for some binocular camera manufacturers. Algorithm scheme.

“Because of these experiences, we are thinking about whether we can add additional mirrors to mobile phones, so that mobile phones can also realize the functions that can be realized by independent electronic products such as partial panoramic cameras and anti-shake wide-angle cameras. So, we design With one such product, we believe that these technologies can be used more quickly by ordinary customers through mobile phones,” Zhu Leizhen said.

COOLPO does not require charging, it can be plug and play as a mobile phone add-on mirror. Anti-shake is also one of the important advantages of COOLPO. Zhuang Shengxiao’s use of pictures and video processing after shooting, in the self-developed APP, embedded electronic anti-shake algorithm, image intelligent cutting and stitching algorithm to achieve anti-shake effect .

According to Zhu Leizhen, COOLPO can achieve about 70% of the special equipment such as GO PRO and panoramic camera, but the price is only 20% of them. Currently looking for COOLPO channel partners.

Team, Zhuang Shengxiao has a total of 12 full-time employees, located in Shanghai and Phoenix, USA. CEO Zhu Leizhen has many years of experience in personal consumption of hardware and software products and commercial solutions. The team members are basically from image algorithm companies, chip companies and Research institutes.

FinanceOn the other hand, Zhuang Shengxiao Meng was awarded the investment of millions of RMB in the Oriental Lion of Beijing in March 2018, and is now seeking Pre-A round financing.