Microsoft Teams Devices for Shared Spaces July and August Update
Published Aug 21 2020 04:00 PM 28.5K Views

To enable powerful meeting experiences across the hybrid workplace, we’ve been working to deliver new features and experiences across our shared space devices. Updates for these device experiences are available now on the Windows store - Microsoft Teams Rooms app version 4.5.37.0, collaboration bar app version 1.0.94.2020062501, and Surface Hub version 0.2020.84.1970.


Included below are additional details for new experiences enabled through these app releases:


Coordinated Meetings for Microsoft Teams Rooms and Surface Hub
With Coordinated Meetings, people can drive inclusive, collaborative meeting experiences between remote and in-person attendees like never before. Now, users can leverage the power of both Microsoft Teams Room and Surface Hub devices in the same meeting, through a coordinated experience. Using proximity or one-touch join, both devices join the meeting simultaneously with Teams Rooms running audio and video, while Surface Hub is automatically muted to avoid any distracting feedback. During the meeting, users can maximize screen real estate by using the front of room display to show attendees in the meeting gallery, while the Surface Hub is used to show content or to conduct a collaborative whiteboarding session. With the whiteboard experience on Surface Hub and Microsoft Whiteboard in Teams, people can draw and ink together on the same savable canvas, no matter their location. For more information on how to enable this coordinated meeting experience, read our guidance.

Coordinated meetings with Surface Hub and Microsoft Teams RoomsCoordinated meetings with Surface Hub and Microsoft Teams Rooms

 

 

Pin attendees on Surface Hub
Control the view in-room attendees see on the Surface Hub with the pin feature. Like the Teams meeting experience on the PC, users can pin a participant’s video to the gallery view, holding the view in place regardless of who is talking. This feature will begin rolling out later this month.
Microsoft Teams video meeting on a Surface Hub featuring a pinned videoMicrosoft Teams video meeting on a Surface Hub featuring a pinned video

 

 

Proximity-based meeting join, now available for Surface Hub
The simplicity of proximity-based meeting join for Microsoft Teams Rooms is now available on Surface Hub. Using proximity join, a person’s laptop or mobile device can be used to identify a nearby, available Surface Hub and add it to the meeting from the pre-join screen. The personal device will automatically join the meeting in content-only mode with mics and speakers muted, allowing the Surface Hub to provide audio and video for the meeting, without echo or feedback. By default, an invite to the meeting will appear on the device. However, customers can change the settings on the Surface Hub to enable auto accept.

Microsoft Teams pre-join screen with Surface Hub available as another join optionMicrosoft Teams pre-join screen with Surface Hub available as another join option

 

 

Live captions are now available for collaboration bars
Live captions make meetings more inclusive by providing an alternative way for attendees to follow along and engage in the conversation. For people in noisy environments or with different levels of language proficiency, live captions can people follow along more easily. To turn on live captions, click on the option located in the navigation bar.

Microsoft Teams video meeting featuring live captioningMicrosoft Teams video meeting featuring live captioning

 

 

Switch to video gallery when content is present
Microsoft Teams Rooms and collaboration bars can now switch to the video gallery layout, even when content is being shared by a remote participant or locally using HDMI ingest. This functionality is available to all Teams Rooms devices configured with a single display (TV or projector) in the room. This layout is useful for moments when customers want to focus on participants in the meeting or for room configurations with always-on external devices connected via HDMI Ingest. We look forward to delivering additional layouts in the future.

Change layout selection window on the Microsoft Teams consoleChange layout selection window on the Microsoft Teams console

 

 

Raise hand support for Microsoft Teams Rooms, collaboration bar, and Surface Hub
We announced the Raise Hand feature for Teams desktop in June, and are excited to announce that it is now available on Teams Rooms, collaboration bar, and Surface Hub. During a meeting, participants can raise a virtual hand to let people know they want to contribute without interrupting the conversation. To engage this feature, just tap Raise Hand in the meeting controls. Meeting participants will see a notification on the display and the console, that a hand is raised. Once the participant is done speaking, they can tap on the control again to lower their hand.

Raise Hand view on the Microsoft Teams Rooms console (left) and on the Surface Hub (right)Raise Hand view on the Microsoft Teams Rooms console (left) and on the Surface Hub (right)

 

 

Adjust default volume for in-room speakers
Microsoft Teams Rooms support a wide variety of audio peripherals that can be used across all space sizes. This ability to customize based on spatial needs requires better control over default volume levels for audio devices. Device administrators can now set the default volume level for conferencing and default speaker from the Teams Rooms settings.

Settings view for adjusting the default volume for Teams Rooms devicesSettings view for adjusting the default volume for Teams Rooms devices

 

 

Manage Teams Devices from Teams Admin Center
Microsoft Teams recently rolled out expanded device management capabilities within the Teams Admin Center. Customers will now be able to manage their Teams Rooms in the same place as their collaboration bars and Teams phones. Additionally, we added new features enabling IT admins to simplify, customize, and automate Teams device management. Admins can now perform all the device management tasks, including enrollment, inventory management, software updates, and inspecting device health from a single location. For customers who rely on partners for device management, they can now delegate administration directly through the Partner Center, while ensuring secure authorized device access. Read through our recent blog post for more details on these announcements, and for information on how to begin managing devices through Teams Admin Center, click here.

Teams Admin Center console featuring Teams Rooms devicesTeams Admin Center console featuring Teams Rooms devices

 

 

Manage Microsoft Teams settings on Surface Hub via XML file
Customers can now manage Microsoft Teams settings on a Surface Hub using Windows Configuration Designer or Microsoft Intune in Microsoft Endpoint Manager. Now Surface Hub customers can find and manage their Teams settings in one place. Learn more

16 Comments
Brass Contributor

Love these beefy updates! Great work Teams team! :raising_hands:

One thing Teams really needs is some improvements for recording meetings for on-demand viewing later.  The ability to customize the view for the recording. For example, when currently recording a meeting, it shows a distracting attendee bar at the bottom and a low-res title screen at the beginning. Would love to have an option to 'hide attendees and distractions'. So that the presentation or speaker's camera is the full high-res view.  There's also issues with black bars showing on the sides when some people record on modern devices.  It should be full widescreen 1080p.

Copper Contributor

Same here! We are recording lunch-presentations for live-attendees and Teams attendees, and also for collegues who couldn't attend and want to view back the presentation at a later time. With the current version of our Teams-room devices (Yealink) there is a lot of distraction in the videofeed from joining people.  But more importantly, the speakers-videofeed is small (not fullscreen). Hope the new version lets us control the boradcast in a better manner....

Copper Contributor

We'd love to be able to forward a Zoom meeting (from an external organizer) to our Teams meeting room, and then be able to join that Zoom meeting directly from the touch panel. - Keep up the good work.

Brass Contributor

Hey Microsoft, I have done the first steps with Teams Rooms and I'm totally impressed!!! It's so unbelieble easy to join a meeting. One-Click and I'm in what a wonderfull experience. Thanks!

Copper Contributor

Hello, is the current Surface hub OS supporting the coordinated meetings and proximity join features? Any ideas when the Surface Hub's would be available on Teams Admin Center to monitor them? Thanks, great updates keep it up!

@HerrD Yes Coordinated Meeting and Proximity Join are both available now when you have the latest OS and latest Teams Clients.
No timing to announce about Admin Center - but it's on our radar.

Copper Contributor

@Christian Schacht I am sorry for asking but when you are referring the latest OS are you talking about the one is available for Windows Insiders Program right? Windows Team OS ?

@HerBob Also the now insider version now enable for coordinated meetings and proximity join :)

Copper Contributor

I've noticed a particular behavior when updating the room systems manually using the SRS deployment kit, and I'm hoping someone can shed some light on it. Here are the steps that I perform (and I've done this with both the 4.5.37.0 and the 4.6.20.0 updates just for testing purposes):

 

1. Download the latest SRSDeployment kit and run the installation.

2. Once installed, copy the $oem$ folder to C:\TEMP (just to keep the PS command short)

3. Run the following command in an elevated PS window: Add-AppxPackage -ForceApplicationShutdown -Path 'C:\Temp\$oem$\$1\Rigel\x64\Ship\AppPackages\*\*.appx' -DependencyPath (Get-ChildItem 'C:\Temp\$oem$\$1\Rigel\x64\Ship\AppPackages\*\Dependencies\x64\*.appx' | Foreach-Object {$_.FullName})

4. Wait about 5 minutes or so, then reboot the MTR system.

5. After the reboot the system has the latest version of the MTR application.

 

Now for the issue:

Go into the admin account and most of the time (not always but very often) the right-click menu will open, but if an item is clicked, the MTR application will start and if the process is killed, it will restart until its allowed to run.

So for example, if I need to adjust a display setting, I would be unable to do so by right-clicking on the desktop and selecting "Display Settings" as the act of selecting display settings would close the right-click menu, and launch the MTR application (within the administrator account). 

 

Thoughts on this?

This is compute independent (I have confirmed on a NUC and an HP Slice), and also appears to be version independent.

 

Copper Contributor

Dear Matt, I observed it as well. I guess it´s because MTR app runs in a customized versi/image of Windows Enterprise/Pro. It has lots of scripts running in the backgroud. To enter on Display Settings for example I managed typying "Duplicate or extend.." on the search bar. It will not run the MTR app. So, always try to type what you wish on the search bar.

Copper Contributor

@BrunoVergne Probably yes, that was where I was going as well.

I can work around the issue, that's not too big of a problem, but its something that I'd like to see if I can find a fix for as some of my customers find it frustrating. Thank you for your input :-)!

Copper Contributor

@Christian Schacht @David Groom @Ilya Bukshteyn @Sohail Tariq 

Have any of you seen this issue (see my last post pm 10/8)? If so, have you seen any fix or work-around so the right-click would work correctly?

Thanks in advance!

 

Copper Contributor

@Christian Schacht @David Groom  @Ilya Bukshteyn @Sohail Tariq 

 

I have encountered the same behavior on the Lenovo ThinkSmart Hub 500, Lenovo Tiny, HP Elite Slice G2, and Intel NUC based systems. Is there a workaround or a way to fix this issue without the need for re-imaging?

Copper Contributor

@Christian Schacht @David Groom  @Ilya Bukshteyn @Sohail Tariq 

 

I have encountered the same behavior as @MattEMatt  on the Lenovo ThinkSmart Hub 500, Lenovo Tiny, HP Elite Slice G2, and Intel NUC based systems running Windows 10 1803, 1903, and 1909. Is there a workaround or a way to fix this issue without the need for re-imaging?

Microsoft

@MattEMatt , @SMoore270 , SRS deployment kit is not intended for application update and we do not recommend using the deployment kit in this manner. SRS deployment kit is for DIY image for testing purposes only. MTR devices should use Windows Store to get application updates. I would suggest to get recovery media from OEM and reimage these devices. We will be working on both enabling customers to manage application updates through Teams admin center as well as providing more control when it is updated automatically in future. 

Copper Contributor

@Sohail Tariq I appreciate the details in the response, and I thank you!

 

My only issue with this is that if the OEM's image is older, or out-of-date by a major fix (as we have seen in the past), I'd like to try to get the customer updated as quickly as possible. Generally the biggest issue is a sign-in error, which makes it impossible to manage in the Teams Admin center or anywhere else other than with Intune, which a lot of customers are not necessarily domain joining the MTRs.

 

In most cases this isn't too big of a hurdle, generally the update happens within 24 to 72 hours and this is exactly what we expect. But when it doesn't, and the customer is trying to use the system, forcing the update is a lot of the time the only way we can get passed the error and get the system functional.

 

Using this method for testing and our own purposes is typically what we do. But I think a good way to update the MTR system manually (preferably with a flash drive) WITHOUT the OEM having an up-to-date image, would be a welcome addition to anyone performing troubleshooting and support.

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‎Jan 26 2021 11:49 AM
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