The Metteverse - Volume 6

Welcome back to Sixth edition of the ‘Metteverse’, my monthly wrap up of everything new to the 微软 Teams Rooms ecosystem and demonstrating ways to elevate your offering as a MSP with TD SYNNEX Maverick .

Sennheiser TeamConnect Bars

The Sennheiser TeamConnect Soundbars have recently been certified for use with Microsoft Teams, allowing Teams users to conduct hybrid meetings that integrate Sennheiser's high-fidelity audio with 4K Ultra HD video. These soundbars are designed for easy, plug-and-play operation through USB connectivity. Featuring beamforming technology similar to the TeamConnect Ceiling products, these devices support fluid movement and smooth presenter transitions. Equipped with an AI-powered camera that offers auto-framing and person tiling capabilities, alongside full-range stereo speakers, they deliver clear, natural-sounding voice reproduction for better meeting intelligibility.

Learn more - ?TeamConnect Bar Solutions ( sennheiser.com ) .

Jabra PanaCast 50

Newly certified for Teams, the Jabra PanaCast 50 intelligent camera supports Microsoft Multi-stream IntelliFrame and features a unique 180° field of view. This provides a panoramic view and close-ups of recent speakers. People recognition technology creates a more inclusive environment by identifying individuals, displaying their names in the meeting roster, and name tagging them on the Teams meeting stage. Combined with intelligent speaker capabilities, the Jabra PanaCast 50 delivers the best AI integration for both end users and IT admins.?

Learn more - https://www.jabra.com/en-gb/business/video-conferencing/jabra-panacast

New meeting gallery in Teams meetings

The upgraded meeting gallery in Teams offers a more streamlined and customizable experience, arranging attendees in uniform-sized tiles regardless of camera status. You can adjust the view to show from 16 up to 49 participants, enhancing focus on those actively engaging through features like raising hands or speaking. Options to emphasize video-enabled participants, self-view preferences, and other personalized layouts are also now at your disposal.

When a Teams Room joins a Teams meeting, the video tile of the room automatically enlarges, offering a more inclusive experience for participants who are joining online. Remote attendees now have a clearer view into the room and can more easily spot who is speaking. To adjust the tile size, simply choose your preference from the more options (...) menu by hovering on the room name.

Speaker recognition and Copilot benefits for all Teams Rooms on Windows

About three weeks ago, I began using Microsoft Copilot and I have to say im a big fan already. It has increased my efficiency and improved my language skills. What's particularly impressive is the search possibilities. Often during meetings, I need to reference specific information discussed earlier. Now, I can simply use the intelligent recap feature to find what I'm looking for. Before, I could only search for names on attendees working from their personal devices, and not the once in the meeting rooms. However, speaker recognition now makes it possible to find information more comprehensively.

With the latest update, all participants, irrespective of the microphone varieties in the room, can access accurate speaker identification within transcripts in Teams Rooms on Windows. This enhancement ensures comprehensive meeting recaps and entitles every user to harness Copilot to discern who said what, allowing them to obtain relevant responses to inquiries.

Microsoft’s cloud-based intelligent speaker recognition analyzes the distinct vocal characteristics of each speaker, such as pitch, tone, and speaking style. First brought to Teams Rooms on Windows, the feature will expand to Teams Rooms on Android devices and the Teams desktop for bring your own device (BYOD) meeting spaces later this year.

IT admins can learn more on activating voice profiles and enhancing the Teams meetings experience with Copilot at?aka.ms/speakerecblog . Users can quickly create their voice profile at?aka.ms .voiceprofile .

Windows

5.1.28.0 (8/8/2024)

• Bug fixes for GCC-High: authentication & Teams Admin Center connectivity

5.1.24.0 (7/30/2024)

Introduced in this update:

• Support for Windows 23H2?- Eligible devices will now be updated to Windows 11 23H2.
• Text and UI resizing?- IT admins can adjust the size of the text and all other UI elements on the front-of-room display by changing the display scaling settings. Text and UI elements are resized and adjusted for all supported display resolution and scaling combinations (1080p resolution at 100-150% scaling, 4K resolution at 100-300% scaling). This capability is extended to support touch boards.
• Fixes for certain Windowing issues.
• Other bug fixes.

Android

1449/1.0.96.2024080804 (August 2024)

Introduced in this update:

• Custom backgrounds1?. IT admins can upload custom background images on the Teams admin center to reinforce their company brand on their Teams Rooms on Android devices. The main room display, extended room display, and touch console can each have their own specific background image. PNG, JPG, and JPEG formats are supported. This feature is only available with the Teams Rooms Pro license.?Learn more .
• Join Zoom meetings with an ID and passcode. Users can now join Zoom meetings with an ID and a passcode on Teams Rooms on Android. Rooms must be configured to enable Direct Guest Join meetings.?Learn more .

Resolved issues:

• Joining meetings on Cisco devices results in meeting drops and returning to the home screen.
• Built-in Teams backgrounds are not downloading successfully.
• Tapping Meet now on Logitech TAP devices shows a notification that the app does not support launching on secondary displays.
• When joining Direct Guest Join meetings while the HDMI ingest cable is connected, the HDMI ingest feed is shown as the room video instead of the local room camera feed.
• Volume is increased and decreased by increments of 30 instead of 10 on Logitech devices.
• Participant video gets re-framed from fit-to-frame to fill-frame intermittently on Cisco devices.
• Various meeting and call reliability issues.

1Neat devices are excluded from this rollout of custom backgrounds due to an issue that is unique to Neat devices. Once the issue is resolved, custom backgrounds will be enabled for Neat devices in a later release.