It has been an interesting and unprecedented time for all, getting to grips on this new way of remote working, socializing, and connecting with our customers. Working with our device partners we cont...
Updated Jan 26, 2021
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I am one of many that adopted the Trio 8800 / Visual + (for single screen) VisualPro (for dual screen) before teams and they were skype for business online devices and they worked awesome / our users loved the quality and simplicity of walking in a room and tapping join. From an IT side we very much enjoyed the simplicity of management across the nation with Resource Manager and the granular level of configurations we could do. We had constant issues with Skype Room Systems that needed rebooted frequently, every round of Microsoft patches usually rendered the rooms unusable until the device was rebooted (sometimes multiple times). When the teams spec was released and we found our Trios across the nation were demoted to audio only devices, lets just say we were not happy, and going to Gartner conferences to talk with huge companies - many were in the same situation and had the same feelings.
Fast forward and we are still not in a teams compatible state - which baffles me, however we are in the final stages of implementing Real Connect to get our Trio rooms to fully participate in Teams meetings with video and content (not just audio). In talking with some local companies they are removing their Teams Room Systems as the same issues came in the first round of updates (crashes / rooms not working / etc..). PLEASE listen to your customers and not push a windows endpoint as the room system - embrace the partner world and certify their hardware and innovations to RUN teams FULLY. Zoom is working tirelessly to own the room, because if they own the room / they will soon own the desktop. I am not saying compete with zoom in functions (as you already are and doing well, keep going!), what I am saying is take on the same MINDSET that zoom has / they are compatible with just about every hardware platform you can name (they do not have an operating system they are pushing you into).
Teams is AWESOME and keeps getting better - however in the hardware space, it seems the hardware compatibility division is not following in Satya's incredibly successful direction of focusing on the service, not the hardware (with the exception of surface) - and it is proven to be the RIGHT strategy.
/soapbox 🙂