Bridging the gap in hybrid meetings with Teams Room Systems

It was only five months ago when we all had to learn how to work 100% virtual. We had to learn how to communicate, meet and connect with our peers without being able to be in the same room. We're close to a new phase, which will require more new rituals and tooling to bridge the gap between those that join meetings virtually and those that are in the office and Microsoft Teams can help you with that.

Prior to the COVID-19, 56% of all meetings had at least one remote attendee. Now imagine what that will be like once we enter this new hybrid reality. Often people that join virtually feel left out, or will simply not be engaged because it is hard to stay 'part of the room'. Interestingly only 15% of all meeting rooms are equipped with video while in many countries video is currently being used in over 60% of all Teams meetings.

Meet Microsoft Teams Room Systems

Microsoft Teams Room Systems (MTRs) transform meeting spaces ranging from small huddle areas to large conference rooms with a rich, collaborative Teams experience that's simple to use, deploy, and manage. Microsoft Teams Room systems all have the Microsoft Teams interface and buttons, they all share a consistent, familiar experience and so no more wondering how to start a meeting or add a participant.

In the new hybrid world, employees will often find themselves transition from home-to-office, space-to-space and even from device-to-device. And while this transition may seem complex, it is made seamless when you unify all devices with Microsoft Teams. 

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Features that make your life easier

Although the hardware is a key factor when it comes to being set-up properly (no more wasting countless minutes - 8 per meeting according to research - on connecting the right cables) Microsoft Teams is enhancing the experience of the participants of a meeting. Microsoft Teams has a set of features (with some special new announcements coming at Microsoft Ignite) that use AI, machine learning, and the power of Microsoft Graph, that will bring new features and experiences before, during, and after every meeting and call.

Proximity Beaconing

When a Teams app on a PC or mobile device is close to an available Microsoft Teams Rooms, the proximity sensor in the Teams app detects the Microsoft Teams Rooms in the meeting room, and can add Microsoft Teams Rooms to the meeting as a participant. Inside the meeting room, the FOR and console will show that you are trying to add the room, and a user will have to accept the incoming invitation on the console to bring the room system into the meeting. The PC or mobile app will automatically go into content-only mode allowing the room to provide audio & video into the meeting without echo and feedback generated by the other clients in the room.

Companion experiences

More and more I check-in and join in content online mode or share live videos, photos, or the screen from my iPhone or my Lenovo Thinksmart View (the new Microsoft Teams Display) creating new ways to get the highest productivity out of my meetings.

Microsoft Whiteboard, Touch and Intelligent Capture

Add a touch/ink display to any Microsoft Teams Room to enable multi-user, shared whiteboarding in any Teams meeting, across all Teams devices.

You can even add a content camera to any Microsoft Teams Room to share an intelligent, augmented whiteboard view into Teams meetings. The current reality is that people often still use physical whiteboard. For people that join a meeting it is often not only hard to keep track of what is being written, but also annoying to see others stand in front of the whiteboard. Now, with intelligent capture, you can make that person transparent so both the whiteboard and the person can be seen at the same time!

You will find more on how the intelligent capture works and the compatible devices here

Touchless experience (coming soon)

As the need for additional touchless experiences grows, Microsoft is expanding features to allow people to control more aspects of the meeting. In the future, people will be able to choose how they want to interact with their shared space devices, using touch, controls on their own personal devices, and through voice commands.

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Managing Teams Room Systems

A core advantage for Microsoft Teams Rooms systems is that all devices are being managed from the already familiar Microsoft Teams Admin Center. The devices have Intune/AAD powered device enrollment with the ability to apply compliance & conditional access policies utilizing the existing Intune setup. This is also part of the zero-touch enrollment flow, making provisioning simple and fast for both bigger and smaller companies.

Let's say you want to push a single software update to all MTRs than you can perform managed tasks directly on a full of devices of different manufacturers and models. You can schedule your updates and other activities that you might want to do. This goes into a level where you can instruct the update to run for the devices in Room #112 at 11PM at night.

Now let's think of a situation where a user would report a bad experience or faulty device. Normally, IT would have to go to the room and device itself to start troubleshooting, however in the Microsoft Teams Admin Center you can make use of continuous device heart-beat and health information to detect devices issues before a problem is even reported by a user. Plus, you get Advanced Insights based on device utilization patterns and other metrics to keep a pulse on your devices.

Have questions?

Hopefully, I have been able to add some value when it comes to informing you about Microsoft Teams Rooms. Also, I can imagine that you have many more questions on MTRs and Teams Devices. If that is the case, I can suggest you to rewatch the live Q&A that I did recently with Ilya Bukshteyn (Head of Teams Devices at Microsoft) not too long ago.

Closing

In all, getting adjusted to a new world of hybrid work will be a quest that every company will have to go through. And although change is not about technology, but about humans, Microsoft Teams Rooms Systems can make your experience more productive, efficient and fun.