Introducing Microsoft Teams Rooms (Updated)

[Christian Schacht]

[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 Outlook

One touch-join

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

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

Add 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 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 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

[Petri X]

A real dummy question..

If we change the display name of the account/mailbox for the MTR, what would be the correct (minimal) action to get the device using the new name? Currently on the hub there is still the old name, has been there several days already. And no reboots helps.

[Graham Walsh]

@Petri X @I would guess the SfB/Teams app cache needs clearing. You could hit reset in the Settings page and perform the OOBE settings again. This just clears the user settings. 

[Petri X]

Thanks @Graham Walsh, but the device locates in several hundreds kilometers from me :)

So, sounds like I should shoot the SkypeSettings.xml to device, and restart it. 

[Sohail Tariq]

@Petri X , You can use remote desktop or remote PS to clear this folder:  C:\Users\Skype\AppData\Local\Packages\Microsoft.SkypeRoomSystem_8wekyb3d8bbwe\LocalCache\Roaming\Microsoft\Teams
or use SkySettings.xml to change to another user and then change back. This action triggers cache deletion. 
We are working on adding clearing cache from TAC capability for IT/ device admins. Stay tuned.   

[Harald_Steindl]

@Sohail Tariqthanks for this valuable information.

Is there any timeout on these cached settings? Means: Would the name eventually change to the new value after X days even if one does nothing and just tries to wait it out?

[ItsJustJimVC]

Hello Microsoft, 

Please can you let me know where i can find a Android MTR release notes ? similar to the below? 

https://docs.microsoft.com/en-us/microsoftteams/rooms/rooms-release-note

regards

James @ Symity

[Graham Walsh]

@ItsJustJimVC MTRoA release notes are here https://support.microsoft.com/en-us/office/what-s-new-in-microsoft-teams-devices-eabf4d81-acdd-4b23-...

[Petri X]

Big thanks  @Sohail Tariq , the clearing the path:

C:\Users\Skype\AppData\Local\Packages\Microsoft.SkypeRoomSystem_8wekyb3d8bbwe\LocalCache\Roaming\Microsoft\Teams

solved the issue that there was old name on the screen.

But what you then wrote:

"We are working on adding clearing cache from TAC capability for IT/ device admins."

I really wish to see a day, when nobody needs to clear the caches on Teams . Teams should be smart enough to understand when its cache is dirty and it should be updated. By adding possibility to clear the cache is in my mind just wiping bad things under the carpet and closing eyes from real facts. It is very hard to believe that there cannot be possibilities to detect when the data in cache is dirty and requires refreshment. But when looking for my feedback, it seems that I'm quite alone with my thoughts 

Fix the cache on Teams, don't ask users to clear the cache.

[Petri X]

Does anybody knows if there are any changes coming to fix MTR to handle longer names in better way than this:

Or does everybody waiting Teams v.2.0 to come and no work is put to the current main version?

[Raja Boopathy]

Hi @Graham Walsh , @Sohail Tariq @Ilya Bukshteyn @kyle_spiess - I need clarification regarding the Message Center notification MC382819. The Update 2 FY22 planned for MTRoA. Few questions as follows and it would be great if someone could help please.

1) As per the message center notification, this update is offered via TAC during the timeline MAY-JUN’22. However, it is also mentioned this timeline should allow the device manufacturers to release firmware update.
2) Hence, it is confusing if this requires two separate updates, one from Poly for firmware and one from Microsoft for Teams app?
3) In our environment, device management is set to download updates from ‘Microsoft Teams Device Management’ from Poly web admin console.
4) Firmware auto-update frequency is set to ‘as soon as possible’ as per Teams admin center settings. But both Poly firmware update and Teams app update don’t pick up the auto-update on zero-day. We must always switch the option to download updates from ‘Microsoft Teams Device Management’ to ‘Polycom Support Site’ in Poly device web admin console to apply the updates every time when released.

5) For example - All Poly devices are set to receive updates from TAC with default deferral period of 30 days for firmware auto-update and the manual update for Teams app software component is not scheduled (set to OFF). We also have 3 devices set the deferral period to 'as soon as possible'. But they don't pick the auto-update immediately. Screenshot attached for reference.

[Graham Walsh]

@Raja Boopathy The new Teams App will contain the updates. Each OEM will then release their updated firmware if it requires any new elements to support the new Teams App, so yes, there could be 2 updates.

I can't comment on the Poly updates.  Maybe @VincentDal or @LarsBerlau  could comment on the update procedures 

[VincentD705]

Hi @Raja Boopathy ,

the direct guest join feature is part of msft update#2. 
this is a teams-app only update (which means it does not require a firmware update). 
however, it does require 1 prerequidite, and that is the presence on the device of update#1. 
without U#1, U#2 will not present itself. 
Update#1 is part of firmware 3.10 or 3.11

In summary:

if your device runs firmware 3.9, you need to update the firmware to 3.10 or 3.11, then the teams app update will present itself in TAC. 
If your device is already on 3.10 or 3.11, the update will present itself. 

Later in june, we (poly) will release firmware 3.12 which will contsin update 2. 

One tip: remember to update the app from TAC for both studio x AND TC8. Both mudt be done. 

the auto update is a msft TAC feature. In my experience, whenever auto update fails,  it usually means some of the telemetry ports (optional) are not communicating to TAC correctly. Do you confirm the use of a Firewall, and if do could you try on annopen network? 

[Raja Boopathy]

Thanks for all your inputs @Graham Walsh  and @VincentD705 .

This update 2 FY22 is working as expected via TAC. This has also got the fix for 'Non-urgent' status reporting in TAC as previously the Poly x and TC8 devices were categorized as 'Non-urgent' although healthy. After updating to this update 2 FY22, both X and TC8 show as 'Healthy' as it's supposed to be.

Zoom DGJ is also working, but we have to manually enable the 3rd party meeting (Zoom) option via Teams admin settings from within the TC8 physically. There is no option to enable Zoom from TAC unlike MTRoW accounts. Also, Presentation via HDMI ingest during Zoom call is not working. Is this a known behavior or am I missing something? Do you know if the Presentation will be added in the upcoming release?

[VincentDal]

Hey @Raja Boopathy ,

Sorry, I used the wrong account with the previous reply. 

Thanks for confirming it is now working! 

The "non-urgent" mention is in fact to tell you there is a non-urgent-app-update. So it's not a bug, and it's not a fix, the "healthy" just means you are up-to-date :)

The required manual action has been highlighted back to MSFT, and hopefully the setting will (should) come to the TAC as well. 

Regarding the HDMi input: Guest join (both on Android and on Windows) uses WebRTC access to the ZOOM other meeting. WebRTC does NOT allow for HDMi ingest. Other Ecosystems (like ZOOM, Webex) part from the idea that content sharing will be done using an app on a PC.
In other words: HDMI ingest will only work in native TEAMS calls.  

[Raja Boopathy]

Many thanks @VincentDal 

[Raja Boopathy]

Hi, does anyone know about 'Offline' health status reported by TAC for multiple and random MTR accounts since this Morning? It is irrespective of whether MTRoW or MTRoA devices and whether in 'Teams Only' mode or 'SfB and Teams default' mode. These are not new devices/accounts and there are no changes/differences from account and device levels recently. Anyone seeing same issue and is there any fix from Microsoft for this?

[VincentDal]

Hello @Raja Boopathy , the offline status was a problem between the Admin agent app and the Admin Center. I believe it is fixed without requiring intervention on-site. 

Please confirm. 

[Raja Boopathy]

Hi @VincentDal - Thanks for your reply. Unfortunately I am not sure if it is fixed. Experienced same behavior until yesterday evening. I have been monitoring TAC daily and it is very intermittent. Suddenly shows several rooms offline but they are all physically/technically fine. And sometimes it shows the same room account/device on both offline and healthy status and we have to remove the duplicate/offline one manually. All of these happening since last couple of weeks. Today Morning (UK Time) so far it's okay. Do you know what was changed and when?

[Petri X]

Oo, I feel dummy...

Has anybody tried to Use the SkypeSettings.xml configuration file for controlling devices? I'm trying to get the Webex enabled, but does not matter how much I pray or use the line:

 <WebexMeetingsEnabled>true</WebexMeetingsEnabled>

the results are:

:: [RigelAppSettings.cs:1622:GetSetting] Value of WebexMeetingsEnabled = False

I have tested this on another device as well with the same result. Both of them runs: 4.13.132.0 version.

When enabling Zoom, that works as expected. Neither errors which I have seen earlier when the XML contains incorrect values.

Any possibilities that when they have now enabling BlueJeans ja LogMeIn meetings, that Webex has drop out from the list? 

[Sohail Tariq]

@Petri X Please try with this:<WebExMeetingsEnabled>true</WebExMeetingsEnabled>. I'll log a documentation bug. 

[Petri X]

@Sohail Tariq 

Like our kids says: OMG !!! It is a LIVE!!! 

Big thanks to you Sohail!

[Harald_Steindl]

@Sohail Tariq 
So although ALL the references on Docs changed from WebEx to Webex, the Skypesettings.mxl insists on WebEx?

Does this (and all the other commands) really need to be case sensitive? #askingforafriend

While we are at it:
I have yet to find an error message or so, when parts or all of skypesettings.xml have been refused. The file is consumed during the next reboot and vanishes. No feedback or info, when things went wrong

If such error logging already exists: Where the find it? Event Log? *.log file?
If such does not yet exist: Wouldn't it be great to log some errors when such commands could not be processed?

thanks for consideration

[Sohail Tariq]

@Harald_Steindl , Yes. XML is case-sensitive. Documentation will be updated to reflect correct tags. 
I'll check on error part and I agree, it will be good to show error in a log file. 

[Harald_Steindl]

@Sohail Tariq 
thanks for the feedback.

But MSFT does not expect us to understand why this needs to be case sensitive, right?

[VincentDal]

Hi @Harald_Steindl , 

interesting post touching this on Linkedin by @Michael Tressler last Week-end:
https://www.linkedin.com/posts/michael-tressler_re-introducing-microsoft-teams-rooms-updated-activit...

[Petri X]

About the case sensitives on SkypeSettings.xml. As you can see from: XML Syntax Rules 

XML Tags are Case Sensitive
XML tags are case sensitive. The tag <Letter> is different from the tag <letter>.

So this is the rule which Microsoft must respect as well.

The mistake on this is, they are reading the tag as "WebEx..." based on their own way of writing it. At least Cisco does not write it as "WebEx", but "Webex". And reading the logs did not made this issue any more easier, as on the logs they write:

....GetSetting] Value of WebexMeetingsEnabled = False 

Not too easy to understood that it should be "WebEx" :D

This could be improved by MS, if they could log a warning if they found tags which are not detected by the MTR. Now, we are just blind for the errors.

[Harald_Steindl]

@Petri X 
1. thanks for this valuable info.

2. WHERE (which log file) do you see the "GetSetting Value of ...." ?

[Petri X]

@Harald_Steindl 

Either you take a logs using Teams Admin Center:

Or you collect the individual log (SkypeRoom-Init-4.13.132.0.log) from device itself. The path is following:

\Users\Skype\AppData\Local\Packages\Microsoft.SkypeRoomSystem_8wekyb3d8bbwe\LocalState\Tracing

The file name have dependency to the MTR's version, so above is just an example when client version is 4.13.132.0. In your case that might be different.

Other reads: Microsoft Teams Rooms maintenance and operations 

[Petri X]

Anybody knows if the Managed Account is supported with MTR?

[Harald_Steindl]

@Petri XI cannot answer this question firmly BUT I can say, that I never ever saw Managed Accounts being mentioned in the context of MTRs.  Hopefully this qualifies as a semi-answer...

[Raja Boopathy]

Does anybody know what is the recommended/compatible MTR device (whether MTRoA or MTRoW) to be used along with Jabra PanaCast Hub (Jabra PanaCast camera + Jabra 750 Speaker + Jabra PanaCast Hub) ?

[Graham Walsh]

@Raja Boopathy You would have to use a MTRoW Compute only package like the Crestron C100 or Lenovo Core

[Petri X]

Not sure what I found in this time...

Have you others seen the cases where Room System is dropping out from the meeting automatically?

What makes me even more confused are the logs which are saying (\Users\Skype\Downloads):

....Inf dialogService: Start opening the dialog: RigelAutoExitMeetingCountdownDialog
....Inf dialogService: Opened the dialog: RigelAutoExitMeetingCountdownDialog
....Inf [Scenario]auto_exit_meeting start
....Inf callingAlerts: adding new alert: {"dismissable":true,"type":1,"name":"RigelAutoExitMeetingAlert","text":"About to leave the meeting...","timeout":-1,"teamsCallId":2}
....Inf rigel-auto-exit-meeting-countdown-dialog: auto exit conditions met, leaving the call
....Inf RigelAutoExitMeetingManager: User clicked Leave for call: 12345678-9876-479a-82a3-a3e599f42737

What an earth "RigelAutoExitMeetingCountdownDialog" is?

On the XML configuration file there is an option:

AutoExitMeetingEnabled - If true, device will automatically leave the meeting if it is the last participant remaining in the meeting. Disabled by default.

Interesting thing is, this configuration we have not been enabled, but when I was looking for this from TAC it actually shows:

And this seems to be turn ON all the devices. Could it be so that the documentation is not correct? And if that is the case, then is it so that when the last attendee drops out the room is dropping as well? By reading the logs it took 15s until room was dropped out from the meeting. Is it really so that there are no timer, like 120s, in case other participant had a technical challenges?

(edit: 

I tested this with my device:

1. Room Join

2. I call into the meeting

3. End the call on phone

4. Wait over 10 mins, nothing, room was still in a meeting

What I misunderstood?)

[Raja Boopathy]

Hi @VincentDal , @Sohail Tariq / All, does anyone know why the following Cameras have been removed from the Microsoft certified devices list?

https://www.microsoft.com/en-gb/microsoft-teams/across-devices/devices/category/web-cameras/3?filter...

Poly EagleEye Cube
Poly EagleEye Director II
Poly EagleEye IV USB

Also, it would be great if someone could share the link for MTR devices lifecycle sheet if at all one available. I could see there is one for MTRoA devices as below but cannot find similar for MTRoW.
https://docs.microsoft.com/en-us/microsoftteams/devices/teams-ip-phones

[VincentDal]

hi @Raja Boopathy ,

The link you shared is too the teamsdevices page. This shows all certified devices one can buy today. However, the 3 devices you mention are all end off live, and therefor should not be available for sales. I assume that is why they are no longer shown. 

There is however a secondary site, which you can find by clicking here, which will show you the minimal firmware version required for devices to be certified for teams and teams rooms. On this list, the devices you mention are still available. Rest assured, they are still certified, but they are also EoL. 

I do not believe there is a MTR devices livecycle sheet for the Windows based MTR's. As Microsoft is in full control of the OS, I don't think there is a certification end date. BTW the certification end date is a rather recent addition to the list of Android devices, which is not saying there is a certification end date for a certain product, but it is stating the certification end date for a product with that specific android version running on it. Constructers can upgrade the android version, and get the products re-certified running the newer version. 

Hope this helps! 

[Raja Boopathy]

Thanks for the update @VincentDal . May I ask when those devices became EOL if you can share that please. Also, I understand from your comments that these cameras are just out of production but will still be supported based on warranty and firmware/driver updates will still be released when needed. Is that right?

[cecile_gallien]

Hello @Petri X,

The setting 'Auto-leave if everyone else left the meeting' is linked to meeting (scheduled) for Teams. The behavior of the MTR is to leave the meeting under 2 conditions :

- No other participants left

AND

- End of time meeting passed

When these 2 conditions are met, there is a countdown displayed on the user interface to cancel or validate that the MTR leaves the meeting. If you cancel leaving, a new message displays after a time (sorry I do not have this timeout information) you will have a new countdown that can be dismissed as well in a loop.

I hope this helps

Cecile

[VincentDal]

@Raja Boopathy ,

End-of-Life means we discontinued the sales. It does not mean we stopped the support. 

The Cube was EOL on April 16th 2021, but EOS is 2025. 

The Director was EOL on Sept 30th 2021, EOS also 2025.

I may have been trigger-fast stating the EEIVUSB was EOL as well. It seems it's not. However, it was a certified SfB camera and compatible with Teams, not sure it was ever certified for teams. 

[Petri X]

Hi @cecile_gallien 

You were fully correct!

After five minutes meeting end time there was a popup on screen saying:

About to leave the meeting...

And after the timer/bar ends, the MTR left from the the meeting.

Now I learnt something more again :D

Let see if I get this into documentation as well.

[Raja Boopathy]

Hi Everyone, could some clarify the feature of latest split gallery release. Have experienced an instance where some of the participants video repeated itself on dual screen. Not all the participants video.

For example: There were 8 participants including the room. 6 remote participants had their video on. Video of two of those 6 participants appeared on both screens and the other 4 videos only once.

[Sohail Tariq]

@Raja Boopathy , this is not expected experience. You should not see duplicates. Can you please 'pm' me details so I can open a bug for Teams engineering to take a look and fix. If you already have a support ticket with needed info, please send reference/ ticker number to me. Thanks! 

[johnwaldron]

Can anyone tell me why the MTR front of rooms displays read “Preview” when choosing the Front Row layout. The Microsoft 365 roadmap site indicates Front Row went GA in January 2022?

[Ilya Bukshteyn]

We marked the "v1" of Front Row as "preview" because it was missing some key features; those features are being delivered in an update this month, where the Preview tag will also be removed

[johnwaldron]

One other comment on something with MTRs in our tenant. TAC settings include the ability to enable Front Row and to select Front Row as the default front of room experience. Enabling Front Row works and it is then a choice under the in-meeting Layout control. Front Row as default experience setting does NOT work, as each meeting starts in Gallery experience and one has to manually select Front Row under the Layout control. Is anyone else experiencing this?

[Raja Boopathy]

@Sohail Tariq - I have shared the details with you in pm.

[James_Hammond]

@Ilya Bukshteyn @Sohail Tariq @Graham Walsh Hey guys, after a quick bit of advice on Azure AD Joined MTRoW devices. Are we now able to have Local login using Azure AD account? Or is it still only Global Admins who can log into the device using their credentials, or the local admin account?

Many thanks in advance :)

[FabioBielli]

ISSUE TEAMS ROOMS + CLICKSHARE BARCO

Hi,

is there anyone who is facing issues working with Teams Rooms + Clickshare Barco? Since some days we are experimenting a big delay during the sharing both with usb button both with hdmi cable and also the audio of the presentation is not transmitted anymore.

We have many teams rooms with Logitech Tap + rally and barco clickshare cs 200+. We have connected hdmi cable that end users could use for wired sharing to the clickshare base unit input and the output hdmi of the clickshare is connected to hdmi ingest of the Logitech tap.

It seems that clickshare directly connected to the display works fine and also the Teams Rooms without the clickshare works fine with a perfect sharing with audio.

Any idea? Thank you!

[Ilya Bukshteyn]

As a reminder we do not officially support use of devices like Barco ClickShare with MTR, so the experience may / likely will have rough edges. 

[FabioBielli]

@Ilya Bukshteyn thank you, I am aware of this, I was just wondering if anyone was facing a similar issue and I am also absolutely sure the problem is not due to Teams Rooms environment.

Unfortunately we need to have a second wireless sharing system apart from the native feature in Teams client and App to enable wireless sharing with byod of our customers! thanks again!

[Petri X]

I got a security related question from users:

They have been in a meeting where suddenly one of the MTR has appeared into the meeting. The rooms has been empty, and it was not invited to the meeting at all.

One logical explanation is, someone has pulled the room into the meeting. But then there should be someone who has accepted the call.

This is leading to the compliance question: how I could verify who has asked room to join to meeting? How we could get list of the participants and what actions they have done for other participants (e.g. invite others, mute others, etc...)