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Dirk_Forward
Copper Contributor
May 17, 2023

Azure Virtual Desktop: camera and microphone inconsistencies across devices

I am experimenting with using Azure Virtual Desktop to create uniform and secure virtual workstations for remote workers who need camera and microphone functionality for meetings and client calls.   

I am experimenting using both Mac and Windows clients and getting inconsistent results with regard to camera and microphone functionality.  Besides that, the virtual desktops appear to be working as expected (I've tried pooled and personal configurations). 

 

Problems Encountered:

  • The camera is not found for most users.  For one person, the camera works but the microphone doesn't.  
  • For some devices, the camera is found and works using the "Camera" application, but it is not found using Teams or Zoom or in a browser based application.
  • The problems appear to be device specific.  Using the same Azure account login, I get different behavior for different devices.  
  • In all cases, the video and audio quality is sub-par.

Troubleshooting steps completed:

(most of these steps were based on guides found on learn.microsoft.com):

  • Windows, Mac, and Chromebook, using several volunteer developers to log in.  None of these devices worked as hoped. For most, either the camera or the microphone worked, but not both.  On the Chromebook, both camera and microphone worked using the "camera" and "sound recording" applications, but neither worked when using a browser based application (Zoom). 
  • RDP settings, such as the following  the following:  ;audiocapturemode:i:1 ;audiomode:i:0   ;camerastoredirect:s:*   
  • Group Policy (GPO) configurations recommended for WVD (client and session hosts). These had no effect on the issue.  The GPO steps were from guides focused on Remote Desktop (mstsc) solutions as opposed to AVD connections, even though the policy options seemed relevant to the goal.
  • Connecting to the Azure Virtual Machine using Remote Desktop Client  and webclient.
  • Installed the Microsoft Multimedia Redirection extension (and required Visual C++ app).  However, I am unable to get it beyond the "Extension Not Loaded" error, despite following debugging tips. Client and Session Host are both running Windows 11.

Questions:

  • Am I expecting too much from AVD with regards to using it for teleconferencing?  i.e. even if I were to somehow get the camera and microphone working for a particular device, will teleconferencing using a virtual desktop always exhibit sub-par performance?
  • Is it an endless task to try to solve these teleconferencing issues for a wide variety of devices? i.e. I have no way of controlling what workstations remote workers are using. 

This post is a bit long, but since I've read so many blog posts on this topic and found so many similar potential fixes, I felt it was worth noting the things I've already tried along with specific goals.  If you've got a suggestion, maybe it's that "one" often overlooked thing, feel free to reach out.

 

 

 

 

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