Introducing Microsoft Teams Rooms (Updated)
Published Jan 23 2019 08:09 AM 568K Views

[Update Note May 2019]
Adding an nearby Microsoft Teams Room is now available for your desktop and mobile clients May update (see more details bellow).


Two years ago we introduced the next generation of Skype Room Systems, a center of room control with one-touch join, to add the best audio and video to your meetings.  We started with one hardware partner and now work with six leading device manufacturers, to deliver the best quality experiences for both Skype for Business and Microsoft Teams meetings. To date, customers have conducted more than 130 million minutes of meetings through Skype Room Systems. In light of this momentum, and to mark our commitment to making Teams a complete meetings and calling solution, we are rebranding Skype Room Systems as Microsoft Teams Rooms.

 

This rebranding signifies the continued delivery of features being built to enhance Teams meetings experiences. Our goal is to extend Teams meetings into every space from small huddle rooms to large conference rooms.

We’ve recently announced and delivered several capabilities that enhance the Teams Meetings experience in meeting rooms:

  • Proximity detection (Update May Available NOW), makes it easy to discover and add nearby, available Microsoft Teams Rooms to any meeting.
  • Companion experiences with mobile, to join your devices in content-only mode.
  • Support for dual screen rooms.

And it’s important to note that Microsoft Teams Rooms still work with Skype for Business calls and meetings.

 

 

Meetings Simplified

Meetings are easy to schedule, simply use Microsoft Outlook or Microsoft Teams to invite your conference rooms to a meeting just as easily as inviting your colleagues.

 

Schedule Teams in OutlookSchedule Teams in Outlook

 

One touch-join

Instantly start your meeting from the center of the room control with one touch.

 

Microsoft Teams Rooms ConsoleMicrosoft Teams Rooms Console

Add nearby meeting room

Proximity based meeting join, for an available Microsoft Teams Room, the Microsoft Teams client on your PC and mobile has a proximity sensor that detects the room and you can add the room easily to the meeting from your pre-join screen on your client.

On your PC the pre-join screen of your meeting will highlight that an Teams Room is nearby. 

Add nearby room from your desktopAdd nearby room from your desktop
On your Teams mobile client you can add the room to your meeting and find nearby rooms quickly.

Add Conference Room from your MobileAdd Conference Room from your Mobile

Inside the meeting room, the front of the room display and console will show that you are trying to add the room, and simply accept the incoming invitation on the console to bring the room into the meeting.

 

Proximity join from Microsoft Teams RoomsProximity join from Microsoft Teams Rooms

 

Microsoft Teams will automatically join the meeting in content-only mode from your desktop, allowing the room to provide audio and video into the meeting without echo and feedback generated by the other clients in the room.  Also your mobile client will switch to content-only mode after adding the room.

If the Microsoft Teams Room is already in the meeting and you like join from your devices as well, Teams now detects this and recommends to join the meeting with audio off as well.

Pre-join screen when the room is already in the meetingPre-join screen when the room is already in the meeting

Learn more about how Microsoft has deployed Microsoft Teams and Microsoft Teams Rooms internally to more than 2,400 meeting rooms around the globe and how Microsoft is using the integrated meeting solution to reshape the collaborative environment into a simple, consistent, and reliable experience for thousands of employees.


Additionally in our phones business, we recently added our first native Teams Phones from Yealink, the T56A, T58A, and CP 960.  These desk and conference room phones all have a touch screen and existing customers can now instantly upgrade to Teams as they migrate their platform.    


Look for more exciting announcements from our partners at Integrated Systems Europe in February, and please visit aka.ms/teamsdevices to learn more about our portfolio of Teams certified devices.

 

Let us know what you think!

Try the new features on your Microsoft Teams Rooms and provide feedback via User Voice or vote for existing ideas to help us prioritize the requests. We read every piece of feedback that we receive to make sure that the Microsoft Teams Rooms experience meets your needs.

 

- Christian Schacht, senior product marketing manager Microsoft Teams Rooms

 

852 Comments
Steel Contributor

We can't roll out a Team Room until the external guest experience is cleaned up for video & screen sharing - either an easy to install plugin, or WebRTC support for Chrome/Safari, or better, both.

Deleted
Not applicable

 

Good stuff, the rebrand makes a lot of sense. Looking forward to proximity detection.


Not big marketing news, but great that Microsoft Teams Rooms also support TLS 1.2 now:

 

https://tomtalks.blog/2019/01/skype-room-systems-v2-now-support-tls-1-2-but-lrs-systems-are-end-of-s...

Brass Contributor

@ph_ly 

I had similar feelings about external guest experience, probably arising out of habits to SfB, but after some tests we have figure out, that there is slightly different approach to guest experience in Teams, divided between WebRTC technology and desktop Teams client - where no admin rights are needed and all features works great.

 

https://docs.microsoft.com/en-us/microsoftteams/get-clients

"Desktop clients can be downloaded and installed by end users directly from https://teams.microsoft.com/downloads if they have the appropriate local permissions (admin rights are not required to install the Teams client on a PC but are required on a Mac)."

 

Finally when you are using SfB WebbApp plug-in, you also need to download some binaries at client endpoint.

 

Tests results after some tested scenarios:

 

test.jpg

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Steel Contributor
 

@Slawomir Garbarz Thanks for sharing your testing chart!  Admin rights on a mac are a big problem for me, as we have a heavy install base.  

 

I think this depends on the use case.  We perform interviews, among other things, with our web conferencing technology.  If we use WebEx, Blue Jeans, Zoom, or even Skype, then there is a small or no plug-in required, regardless of the browser.   Now, for potentially a one-time interaction, the user has to download and install a larger client to get into the meeting and share their video, and might not even succeed if they use a Mac.  That sucks!

 

Microsoft

@ph_ly our Teams web experience does not require a download on Chrome and Edge. The part that is missing today is video support using WebRTC, in Teams meetings, in Chrome.  We for sure hear you on the need for that, so stay tuned!

Brass Contributor

Typical, just when I've created 70 rooms all with SRS in the name and delivered our end user training! 

 

I don't mind this inevitable rebrand as long as Skype says supported. My mum bugbear is Microsoft Teams Rooms is a lot harder to say than Skype Room System, then again, I suppose it will be known as an MTR

Microsoft

@Thom McKiernan  absolutely, MTR systems will continue to have the same capabilities for joining Skype for Business meetings.

Copper Contributor

Million dollar question is when are you switching the default client in SRSv2/Teams in Deployment?

 

I assume if we provision with https://docs.microsoft.com/en-us/skypeforbusiness/manage/skype-room-systems-v2/xml-config-file to keep on Skype4b, we will be fine?

 

Will this switch automatically forced for existing systems with a store update in the future? Or will we be able to control?

 

 

 

Thanks,

 

-Kevin

 

 

Microsoft

@Kevin Krautle can you please define a bit further what you mean by default client in MTR?  Whatever we do under the covers in our MTR app moving forward, the app and systems will continue to have the same seamless experience for both SfB and Microsoft Teams meetings.

Copper Contributor
@Ilya Bukshteyn Apologies for my lack of clarity, and thank you for the response. To confirm, during deployment of MTR/SRSv2 we will continue to be able to pick the mode we deploy during either USB or SCCM Deployment. And also Microsoft has no short term plans (over the next 12 months) for a OTA (Windows Store/Update) update to the APP to convert from SRSv2 Mode to MTR mode automatically? Of course if an Enterprise chooses to convert via the procedure, that is totally fine as its their choice.
Microsoft

@Kevin Krautle I believe the answer to everything you are asking is yes; we will continue to have the same config options on MTR, and we have no plans to change modes via an app update.  

Copper Contributor

Looks great. Looking forward to Polycom to release their Teams certified endpoints and plan few roll outs :)

Copper Contributor

for the meeting room PC, is there any special software to install beside Teams desktop client ?

Copper Contributor

Has the bug been fixed that stops you being able to enter DTMF codes when using SRS in Teams mode because there is no way to brign up the dial pad when you are in a call in the system if running in Teams native mode?

 

This has been an issue for months 

Microsoft

@Plantagenet we do not yet have DTMF dialing in Teams mode addressed. That should be coming in the next app update.

 

@and12345 Microsoft Teams Rooms are purpose built systems for meeting rooms, running Windows 10 locked down to our room system specific application (not Microsoft Teams desktop client). You can find these systems here:
https://products.office.com/en-us/microsoft-teams/across-devices/devices/category?categoryid=05e1856...

Copper Contributor

@Ilya Bukshteyn so have to use certified device for Microsoft Teams Rooms from vendors like HP Lenovo or Logitech only

Microsoft

@and12345 the only actual Microsoft Teams Rooms systems are from the 6 OEMs we partner with and validate: HP, Logitech, Polycom, Crestron, Lenovo, and (coming soon) Yealink. We only recommend and support Certified audio / video peripherals be used with MTR systems. 

You can find our Certified and recommended devices for Teams at office.com/teamsdevices 

 

 

 

Copper Contributor

@Ilya Bukshteyn can you please confirm if all Skype for Business certified peripherals (cameras, mics, headsets) are also certified for Teams? Or will there be a different certification process and a different list of certified devices?

Microsoft

@shane_DETNSW  if you take a look at officecom/teamsdevices you will see SfB Certified devices which we've also validated to work well with Teams. We will also have a new Certified for Teams program coming very soon, but that will build on the SfB Certification audio / video quality and add specific additional integration with Teams.

Copper Contributor

When will the planning and deployment documentation be updated to reflect the change in branding and updated licensing?

Microsoft

@Nate Mills The documentation will be updated to reflect the new Microsoft Teams Rooms branding over the next few months.  Not sure what you mean by updated licensing as there's no new licensing requirement; the only new licensing is the new Room Systems Office 365 license we launched an a new option for these systems.

Copper Contributor

Any update on API for presence? So many busy lights that are useless at the moment

Microsoft

@SamFakhreddine not really related to Microsoft Teams Rooms. However no, sorry , no update.

 

Copper Contributor

@Ilya Bukshteyn - Thank you. I was referring to that new, simplified license.

Copper Contributor

Also, is it time to put the account that the MTR uses in Teams-only coexistence mode yet?  We only have one unit that is heavily scheduled so it's not something I've been able to test, before moving our entire tenant to Teams-only.  I'm going to guess that we'll have to wait until the DTMF bug is resolved.

Microsoft

@Nate Mills There's no reason to change the account if what you have is working fine. Also agreed that you should not change the dial out to Teams on the MTR until we release the dial pad update in our next app update. 

Copper Contributor

Will the "old" surface hubs be able to run the teams clients.

Will the teams client be able to run side by side with the skype client, so you don't need to replace the skype client as the documentation suggest - and basically can choose from the logon screen if it's a skype or teams meeting.

 

Br. Joachim

Microsoft

@Joachim Dissing this post is specific to Microsoft Teams Rooms, not Surface Hub.  There are other forums for Surface Hub questions with more experts. That said, there is a Teams client available for Surface Hub v1 as well as Surface Hub 2S. You can find details and instructions here:
https://docs.microsoft.com/en-us/microsoftteams/teams-surface-hub 

Copper Contributor

We use the Camera switch feature in S4B to switch active USB cameras during a call but noticed this is not yet available in a Teams meeting, when will the dual USB camera support come to MRT?

Microsoft

@ashpinder multi camera support for Teams meetings is on our roadmap for H1CY19.

 

Brass Contributor

Any news on more stable update for T56/T58? 

I have found few issues, like presence doesn't change after you finish the call.

Call Queues doesn't work properly.

If we enable "Block anonymous calls", it takes time to sync and once disable, normal calls (with caller id) also doesn't work.

Firmware Version
58.15.0.20
Hardware Version
55.2.3.0.0.0.0
Company Portal Version
5.2.4185.0
Teams Version
1449/1.0.94.2018121201
Brass Contributor

I see a reference to "Room Systems Office 365 license" above, but I can not find where to buy it in our tenant.  Nor pricing.  All pricing on the Teams Room System pages are for Humans, not devices.

Microsoft

@Steve Berkholz Please look under Subscriptions/ Other Plans and look for Meeting Room license.

 

 

 

Brass Contributor

@Ilya Bukshteyn Can you post a screenshot?  I can't find it.

Microsoft

@Steve Berkholz see below. be warned it takes a LOT of scrolling to get to it

Capture.PNG

Steel Contributor

Awesome news! Is there any public roadmap on features coming? We’re having more and more Teams meetings and miss the ”chat” functionality in our SRS. We often use it when someone is muted and they need to tell the audience in the room something.

Microsoft

@Jonas Back I would point you to my session from Ignite 2018 where I talk about roadmap at the end.

That said, we're not looking at bringing back chat on MTR for Teams meetings today, as we didn't see a lot of usage in SfB meetings. We're more focused on companion experiences, where folks in the room would join meetings on their PC / mobile in addition to MTR.

https://myignite.techcommunity.microsoft.com/sessions/65505?source=TechCommunity

 

Brass Contributor

Cool! Well, I think Microsoft should give the orgs to choose between island and skySk for business or Teams mode. Force upgrade is causing issues.

 

Thanks

Copper Contributor

After doing some research there doesn’t seem to be any alternative to Polycom Kit to perform dual screens in a Teams room and this isn’t native Teams but uses RealConnect. HP slice kit only has one HDMI. Are there any native suppliers who provide the capability to host dual screen one for video and one for presenting slides in medium size conference rooms. Thanks 

Brass Contributor

@Harrisithe Logitec SmartDock is supposed to have dual screen support.

Microsoft

@Harrisi Sorry to say this but your message above is incorrect. ALL MTR systems support dual external front of room displays. HP Slice has 1 HDMI AND 1 DisplayPort output, so TWO display video outputs, for DUAL front of room displays. 

Not sure where you were doing your research, but the Polycom "kit" with RealConnect is also NOT an MTR; RealConnect is a cloud video interop service for 3rd party / legacy VTC systems to connect to Microsoft Teams Meetings. 

The native meeting room solution for Microsoft Teams is Microsoft Teams Rooms, and ALL MTRs support dual FoR displays.

Correct HP Slice specs are here:
https://store.hp.com/us/en/pdp/hp-elite-slice-for-meeting-rooms-g2-skype-room-systems-audio-ready?ju...

Copper Contributor

I looked at the HP slice but assumed the display port was used for touch screen leaving the remaining HDMI for a single screen. Will try and source in U.K.

 

thanks 

Microsoft

@Harrisi The touch console on the HP Slice is connected using USB-C.

Copper Contributor
Hey, we have a Lenovo ThinkSmart HUB 500 System, but in Teams Admin, under Managed Devices the system is not listed. also we can not assign any policies... Any ideas? Thanks, Robert
Microsoft

@robbitop11 we have not integrated MTR systems into our Teams cloud device management yet. That is coming in the next few months.

Steel Contributor

@Ilya Bukshteyn so the plan is to get the MTR devices in Teams Admin center > Devices > Manage Devices > All devices? So we will be able monitor/diagnostics and manage/configure the rooms from there?

 

I remember with SRS there were plans to integrate monitoring SRS rooms from within OMS but have not seen this feature. Maybe all effort is set on getting them in Teams Admin center instead?

Microsoft

@Jonas Back MTR / SRS can already easily be integrated with OMS. We write a whole bunch of events for the app out to the event log, and the OMS agent can pick those up and put them into an OMS dashboard you create. That's how we monitor our 3500+ (and growing) rooms at Microsoft with just a couple of people.

Also answer is yes, MTR will be integrated into the Teams Admin Devices center and you'll be able to do management (first) and monitoring (later) from there.  We are aiming to get into preview with that in a couple of months.

 

Steel Contributor

put them into an OMS dashboard you create.

@Ilya Bukshteyn I think this is the dashboard I was waiting for :) will this get released for us to import or do we have to figure the events out ourselves what is important to filter out?

 

 

Microsoft

@Jonas Back I don't think we're releasing our own internal OMS dashboard. However there is a plan to document what we did internally. @David Groom  can you please point to wherever you guys were going to put up the documentation from Lance?

 

Microsoft

Here's the most recent OMS documentation.  Have you already reviewed this content, @Jonas Back ?

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