USB video web cam options

[Dieselboy]

I've built a PC which is linked to the projector in the meeting room and is hidden away. A bluetooth keyboard and mouse is on the conference table. When there's a webex meeting, the PC will join the webex and people can arrive with their laptops and share content which will then be shown on the projector. The audio will eventually be the 8831 conference phone linked into WebEx CMR through our Expressway servers but at the moment I'm getting Jabber to control the conference room phone from the PC and dial the PSTN number of webex.

The reason for this is that the devs have real trouble managing meetings. I've seen 10 people in the meeting room, all joined to webex with their own laptops and all joined to the VOIP bridge also from their laptops. Then there's a ton of feedback since all those laptops are essentially conference phones at that point.

I'm looking for a webcam that I could plug in to the little PC via USB, which would point at the conference table and get video integrated into the webex meeting. The benefit of this is that users outside of the office would get a video conference.

I've been looking at "webcams" but they all seem tiny and suited to sit on top of a monitor. I'm weary if they would give a good enough picture to stream the room onto the webex. I'm doing this a proof of concept really. We have all the equipment laying around except a web cam.

Does anyone have any ideas of a good webcam that would be able to be zoomed or adjusted to suit looking at a table of people rather than a single persons face?

[routerdork]

We did this at a past company. We just bought a cheap 720p Logitech camera and pointed it at the main table. Couldn't always see everyone but it worked for cheap.

[Dieselboy]

Thanks mate

I looked into cameras yesterday and a cheap PTZ camera with far end control is around $800... Think I'll just get a logitec cheapy and if the proof of concept is good then we can look into the Cisco product which is essentially the same thing: a desktop unit with a camera that will do webex / jabber. Probably a bit more $$$$ but I would expect it to be robust and easy to use for the end user.