It’s been a great week at InfoComm in Las Vegas, showing our broad portfolio of conferencing and collaboration devices which will be enabled for Microsoft Teams.
Where and how people work has evolved, and the need for people to connect by voice and video, to view their work together, and collaborate in real time is more important than ever. We’ve worked closely with our devices partners to create a range of devices to enable teamwork that are purpose-built for the way people work today, and the variety of spaces in which they work.
Meeting room solutions and collaboration devices
Microsoft Teams will be coming soon to our large screen collaboration device: Surface Hub. This will provide existing Surface Hub customers with the full Teams calling and meeting experience, including one-touch join and up to four incoming video streams, all with side by side interoperability between Skype for Business and Teams. Surface Hub customers will be able to download the preview for the Teams app from the Microsoft Store later this month. Looking ahead, the next generation of Surface Hub, Surface Hub 2, will be even more deeply integrated with Microsoft 365 and Teams to bring robust collaboration scenarios to life. Surface Hub 2 is coming in 2019. To learn more please visit microsoft.com/en-us/surface/business/surface-hub-2.
We are targeting Skype Room Systems to support Teams meetings by the end of June, across all our partners: Logitech, Crestron, Polycom, Lenovo, and HP. This will be available as an update from Windows that will allow customers to join Teams meetings in the same way they would join a Skype for Business meeting. Customers will still be able to join Skype for Business meetings. Another new feature expected in this update is proximity detection, which makes it easy for you to find and book an available, nearby Skype Room Systems meeting room.
As we announced in March, Polycom and Yealink will bring native Teams-enabled conference phones to market later this year. At the end of the June customers will be able to use their existing conference phones running Skype for Business to join Teams meetings through one-touch join that allow users to start meetings more quickly, reducing the average time to connect and engage in meetings.
In addition to these solutions, Microsoft is working with partners including Avocor and Sharp to bring a new category of devices called Windows Collaboration Displays to market later this year. People can connect a PC to one of these high-resolution, multi-touch displays, and utilize the integrated cameras, pen, stereo speakers and far field microphones to connect to and collaborate with colleagues. Windows Collaboration Displays will let people experience Microsoft 365 collaboration tools with Office, Teams and Whiteboard.
Personal devices
We look forward to Teams-enabled desk phones later this year. Desk phones from AudioCodes and Yealink will offer rich features to enhance the Teams experience. Key features targeted for these phones include the ability to quickly view contact lists and meeting schedules, one-touch join for meetings, the ability to retrieve voicemail and have voicemail transcriptions delivered to the phone, and review contact cards with a full view of each contact allowing for instant calling and meetings when needed.
The Plantronics mobile phone station—built for the mobile-first user—adds a new category of devices for the desk. This new form factor will enable mobile-first users to seamlessly transition between spaces and benefit from high-quality audio, all driven from their mobile phone. The mobile phone station will continue to combine the Microsoft Teams experience with desk phone capabilities for which users are familiar and will be made available later this year.
Certified devices
Microsoft-certified devices provide the best audio and video experiences. We are working closely with our certified device partners to provide a consistent UI, user experience, and support for high quality audio and video with Skype for Business and Microsoft Teams. Customers are encouraged to seek out Microsoft-certified devices as they build their portfolio.
Thank you for joining us at InfoComm
Built on the scale and strength of Office 365, Microsoft Teams is our hub for teamwork, delivering chat-based collaboration, meetings and calling with enterprise-grade security and compliance to meet the needs of global businesses and underpinned by the Microsoft Graph, allowing for rich AI capabilities. With Microsoft Teams, we’re excited to bring intelligent communications to a range of devices to meet your needs—whether you’re in your office or on the go.
Thank you for joining us at InfoComm this week and stay tuned for more information on Teams-enabled devices. To learn more about our existing solutions please go to http://aka.ms/partnercatalog.
