We are thrilled to announce general availability of the first collaboration bar certified for Microsoft Teams! As the number of smaller meeting spaces continues to grow, our customers need videoconferencing solutions purpose-built for smaller meeting spaces like focus rooms, huddle spaces and conference rooms designed for one to five people. Nevertheless, they don’t want to compromise great meeting experiences. For these scenarios, we are excited to introduce collaboration bars for Microsoft Teams.
Intuitive meeting experiences Whether in a large boardroom or a small meeting room, employees shouldn't have to re-learn how to join and interact with an online meeting. That’s why Microsoft Teams offers consistent, intuitive meeting experiences across all our shared space devices. Scheduling a room and joining a meeting is simple - just add the room to a meeting invitation using Outlook or the calendar app in Teams. When it’s time to join the meeting, use the familiar one-touch or proximity join experience to get started. The native Teams experience for collaboration bars showcases a clean, user-friendly interface that allows users to stay focused on what matters - their meeting!
Optimized for touch Collaboration bars for Microsoft Teams are designed to enable interactive and engaging touch experiences. By attaching the device to a touchscreen display, users can tap the on-screen controls to join and interact with the meeting as well as participate in a collaborative whiteboarding session using the Microsoft Whiteboard app. For those without touchscreens, there are several other dedicated control options available.
Priced to scale Collaboration bars have fewer cables and require minimal effort to deploy, making them a cost-effective way for organizations to equip more small spaces, while outfitting larger rooms with more robust Microsoft Teams Rooms solutions. With this complimentary approach, our customers can bring the power of Teams to more rooms across their workplaces.
Simple to deploy and manage While many videoconferencing solutions are modular, requiring various individual components, collaboration bars are designed with simplicity in mind. This integrated device brings together microphones, speakers, a camera and a native Teams experience to deliver a solution that is easy to deploy and less to manage. These Android-based collaboration bars have fewer cables and can be mounted on a display within minutes. IT Admins can keep track of device inventory and remotely manage collaboration bars using the Teams Admin Center.
Industry-leading hardware partners The first two partners to debut collaboration bars for Microsoft Teams are Poly and Yealink. The Yealink VC210 is available for purchase today and we look forward to welcoming the Poly Studio X Series for Microsoft Teams, which will launch later this spring.
Poly Studio X Series
The Poly Studio X family of collaboration bars deliver world class performance in a small package. The Poly Studio X30 and Poly Studio X50 designed for huddle and small rooms, are radically simple to use with support for Microsoft Teams built right in. Voices are crisp and clear, thanks to a beamforming microphone array and acoustic chamber design. Help meeting attendees feel like they’re in the same room with advanced camera capabilities including, a 4K sensor, 120-degree field-of-view with 4x digital zoom and automatic camera framing. Setup, management, and maintenance are all streamlined, too.
Yealink VC210
The Yealink VC210, built for huddle spaces and smaller meeting rooms, works with the Yealink speakerphone CP900 to deliver plug-and-play simplicity and premium audio and video quality. The CP900 speakerphone features HD voice and six-microphone beamforming, allowing people on both ends of the meeting to enjoy life-like communication. The VC210’s compact design includes an ultra HD 4K camera with auto-framing and 120-degree diagonal field-of-view to ensure every participant can be seen clearly during the meeting. To manage the meeting, connect an LCD touchscreen to use the on-screen touch controls or a non-touch display and use the Yealink remote control.
Awesome -- great to know! We are spread out thin across almost a dozen locations, so small team meetings or group conferences are common for us compared to having larger groups in a single room. Looking forward to seeing more Teams-integrated collaboration bars and similar products.
I don't think anyone in the world can buy them, yet. They've just been announced. If you're in the UK, these guys have the gear available for pre-order.
you will find for a mere USD $1,299 the magic webcam can be yours, fuelled by unicorn tears and hen's teeth. But, only in the US manifestation of the Microsoft Online Store (as of 27th March 2020).
And if you follow the "Buy Now" link, you'll see that you're directed to a reseller ("You have been transferred to UnifiedCommunications, the fulfillment partner of Microsoft for devices certified for Microsoft Teams and Skype for Business"). Just like you can go buy from a local reseller where you live. God bless the Internet, where global vendors like Yealink and Poly make their products available to anyone with a credit card.
Both Yealink and Poly have pages that list UK contacts/resellers, and at least one of the UK resellers for Yealink lists the VC210 on their web site as "coming soon".
@Glyn Press , @Robert Barrett Fortunately, the Yealink VC210 is available outside of the US. For more information, please contact Yealink using the online form located on their website.
I have a Poly X30 for a couple of weeks now and I'm from Belgium. It's still not possible to run Teams on it natively, only Zoom... When will Teams be released for Poly X series?
Save with coupon code “Yealink4Teams" at checkout. An all-in-one video collaboration bar that integrates into one device, the Android OS, Bluetooth, and built in WiFi, with an integrated camera, microphone array, and hardware bracket, creating a space-saving design that is perfect for layouts in small spaces. Designed for small space collaboration and with Microsoft Teams built-in, the VC210 works with the Yealink speakerphone CP900 to deliver a native Teams meeting experience by delivering plug-and-play simplicity, premium audio and video quality, all the while connecting with either a touch screen or a display.
@Kendra Baker Why are there only 4 videostreams available when I'm using the Poly X30 with the native Teams app on it? On my laptop, I have 9 videostreams, when I use a dedicated device for videoconferencing, I only have 4. Where is the logic in this?
Thanks, @Michael Tressler. Does it need to be enrolled in Intune as well? The Poly Studio X30 is an Android device, so I am wondering if it needs to register via Comp Portal.
I have found that meeting with people in a conference room or similar space over teams greatly reduces the quality of the meeting. it is enough that 2 persons sit together and they have a separate meeting in the meeting with themselves. So we have a rule that everyone meets from separate spaces, this makes for an even playing field in the meeting.
personally I hope we do away with multi person meeting rooms.
Join Yealink at Ignite20 and explore new devices for Microsoft Teams - New Teams phones, USB Peripherals, Teams Panel, MVC II Room systems. https://www.yealink.com/microsoft-ignite-2020
great to have so fast progress on the MTR Devices. i am specially interested in the X50 from Poly. want to get them producticve in our company. But actually waiting for the TC8 Touch to have the same UI as the native MS MTR Tablets.
Poly says, this in now a point MS must push via an Update.
i am sure, this will come the next weeks. but anyway, where can i find release notes and maybe timeline for the MTR App for Android Collab Bars?
I have setup 7 poly units with MS teams and under office 365 teams collaboration bar, I can only see one device. I have checked the settings and other replicate the working device. What’s missing for a device to not show in callabration bar?
Hi @Michael Tressler you said "According to the published road map, the console update will arrive in February. " i know you did not specified, was it february 2021 or another year?
sorry for the joke.
i have actually 2 Poly devices to test and hoped to see if they are usable after the update. i have to return them very soon and its hard to get devices to test at the moment.
@Morsey could start a thread in the Microsoft Teams - Microsoft Tech Community with a detailed description and I'll be able to help or bring in people who can. Seems like a Teams admin center issue to me, but we need to confirm.
@saessli We are working hard to get the new firmware update for touch console. At this point we have delivered a console APK to all OEMs who have them, Poly included, but there are a few firmware issues that Poly needs to fix. Our goal is to have TAP preview on in the first half of March, and release a few weeks after, provided there are no major issues identified.
Hi @Pavel Yurevich do we know if the whiteboard feature is available on the Poly Studio X30? We have one connected to a touch enabled TV and the whiteboard functionality is not present.
@Remi_Solulan Whiteboarding is available during meetings only at this time. Whiteboard and Teams are working to extend this functionality outside of the meeting right now. I am don't know the exact timelines, but I think the goal is to ship an update experience closer to the end of 2021.
@Remi_Solulan it is a little more complex. Only possible case with the current firmware on Poly Studio X30 is in bold below. Here are all possible cases:
Whiteboarding outside of a meeting/call - not supported right now on Teams devices with the exception of Surface Hub. Future work item is created and looking to support this in the future releases for all Teams devices.
Whiteboarding in a 1:1 call - not supported for all Teams clients right now, AFAIK.
Whiteboarding in a group call or meeting within the same organization - partially supported
Starting a whiteboard - supported on personal accounts only (E3/E5 and similar) in the upcoming release (ETA end of March). Shared accounts are not supported at this time, but we are working with the Whiteboard team to enable this in the future releases.
Contributing to a whiteboard - supported on all accounts that support Microsoft Whiteboard on all devices. Meeting participant on a supported app (e.g., Teams Desktop client) has to start a whiteboard for it to be viewed on a Poly Studio X30 or a similar meeting room device.
Whiteboarding in a group call or meeting across organizations or for users without Teams license - not supported for all Teams clients. Microsoft Whiteboard team is working to support these cases, but ETA is unknown to me.
If you have deeper questions about whiteboard support, please create a thread in Microsoft Teams - Microsoft Tech Community so we can have a better record of our conversation and I can pull in others if necessary.