Use Microsoft Teams Rooms as an Interactive Whiteboard Device

[Michael Tressler]

Microsoft Teams Rooms helps to transform meeting spaces ranging from small huddle areas to large conference rooms with a rich, collaborative Teams experience that's simple to use, deploy, and manage.

The Microsoft Whiteboard is part of the native set of rich collaboration tools found within Microsoft Teams. When Microsoft Teams Rooms is part of a meeting, it can display the Microsoft Whiteboard for all attendees in the meeting room to see. But did you know the attendees can walk up to the screen and draw right on it? All you need is a touch-enabled display device.

Microsoft Teams Rooms natively supports the web version of the Microsoft Whiteboard. This version of Whiteboard allows you to interact with remote attendees of Microsoft Teams meetings and do real-time diagramming or sketching.

To enable the interactive Whiteboard on a Microsoft Teams Rooms device, you need to meet the following requirements:

1.) A Touch enabled display device. Microsoft does not certify touch-enabled monitors or TV’s for Microsoft Teams Rooms. However, any touch-enabled display device that is certified for Microsoft Windows will work with Microsoft Teams Rooms. The USB cable out of the monitor or TV connects to the compute unit of Microsoft Teams Rooms.

2.) Make sure that Windows recognizes that the display device is touch enabled. On Microsoft Teams Rooms, this will require signing in to the device as a local administrator.  Once signed in as a local administrator, search for “Calibrate the screen for pen or touch input”. This will bring up the Table PC setting screen. If everything is set up correctly, you will see that your display device is properly recognized as a touch display.  In the image below, the selected display has “Full Windows Touch Support”.

 

Touch-enabled display devices will still work even if they have limited or single touch support. You can read more about the difference here.

If your display does not show up as touch-enabled, you may need to install display drivers from the monitor or TV manufacturer. You also may need to configure the device first for pen and touch support by clicking on the Setup… button on the Tablet PC Settings screen. Also, verify that the USB cable from the display device is properly connected to Microsoft Teams Rooms.

3.) Make sure your Office 365 tenant has Whiteboard enabled. To check this, sign in to the Microsoft 365 Admin Center. Within the admin center, navigate to Settings and then to the Settings sub-menu. From here, scroll down until you get to Whiteboard. Click on Whiteboard and verify that Turn on Whiteboard for everyone in your org is enabled.

 

See this article for more information on enabling Whiteboard.

4.) Your Microsoft Teams Rooms device needs to be on at least version 4.0.105.0 which was released in July 2019. If you are following best practices by allowing the Microsoft Teams Rooms devices to automatically update themselves, you should be on a much more recent version of the Microsoft Teams Rooms app .

Finally, this feature is only available when joining a Microsoft Teams meeting. There is no support for touch enabling the whiteboard when the Microsoft Teams Rooms device is in a Skype for Business or a Skype for Business Online meeting.

By adding a touch screen to Microsoft Teams Rooms, you can easily unlock creativity and collaboration throughout your organization.

[JacobSteentoft]

Are there any guides on how this is done from the end-user perspective?

We have a Logitech tap, but this functionality doesn't seem to be available despite fulfilling the 4 criteria.

[Michael Tressler]

Hi @JacobSteentoft. 

Good question! There are a few ways to fire up a whiteboard session. One is via a Microsoft Teams meeting. I won't rehash the details when there is an article that can do a much better job than I could do: https://support.microsoft.com/en-us/office/use-whiteboard-in-microsoft-teams-7a6e7218-e9dc-4ccc-89aa...

After someone starts a Whiteboard session, attendees in the Teams Rooms room could then walk up to the touch-enabled whiteboard and draw on it.

[Jonas Back]

This is really awesome. We need ways to share Whiteboards in meetings without the requirement of a Surface Hub. I'd love to hear some more feedback from people who have actually tried this in meetings.

As far as I know, you can't share a Whiteboard with external participants in a meeting in Teams meeting in general so I suspect it will not work in this setup either.

[afarrah]

Hi Michael, this is very good but what happened to the features that were available in Whiteboard (Preview) from a while back, refer to this video (link: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WYIakf6e3Lg) regarding the features like drawing shapes and ruler and importing actual photos of whiteboards? 

[Michael Tressler]

Hi @afarrah.

Teams Rooms uses the browser-based whiteboard which doesn't have all of the features found in the full whiteboard app. In the video you referenced, you'll see the switch from the browser-based whiteboard to the full whiteboard client at about the 4:15 mark.

[Harald Rau]

Hi @Michael Tressler 

do we need to assign a Whiteboard plan 1, 2 or so to the ressource account to be able to use the Whiteboard web app from the Teams rooms device? 

[Michael Tressler]

Hi @Harald Rau ,

Here is the statement on licensing from https://support.microsoft.com/en-us/office/enable-microsoft-whiteboard-for-your-organization-1caaa2e...:

How do subscriptions and licensing work in Whiteboard? Can I license it per user?

There is a Whiteboard license assigned to users in your organization (Whiteboard plan 1, 2, and so on.) These do not currently have any feature differences, but they will in the future.

You cannot set Whiteboard on or off for an individual user, only for the entire tenant. The licenses are not used to enable or disable Whiteboard for the user, but this capability is on the roadmap.

[Harald Rau]

Thanks, @Michael Tressler, I was aware of this page about licensing for end users. Question is, how is licensing for rooms?

[Michael Tressler]

@Harald Rau ,

We recommend the Meeting Room SKU which was designed specifically Teams Rooms and devices like collaboration bars fort Microsoft Teams. https://docs.microsoft.com/en-us/MicrosoftTeams/rooms/rooms-licensing

[Harald Rau]

@Michael Tressler , I'm aware of both the Meeting Room SKU and the end user plans for Whiteboard. Yet the original question still remains open: is the meeting room SKU for the meeting room ressource account sufficient to use a shared Whiteboard on a Microsoft Teams rooms device as described in this article? As this seems difficult to answer even for you guys, we have tested it: no, it's not sufficient even though it has been designed specially for Teams Rooms.. We have NOT been able to display a Whiteboard in a meeting on an MTR device w/o an additional Whiteboard plan for the meeting room account. Assigning an E1 subscription on top of the meeting room SKU did the job. As this adds significant cost to the meeting room, we wonder whether this could be integrated into the meeting room SKU to live up to the claim "designed specially for Teams Rooms"?

BTW there is one more prerequisite worth mentioning: in the Teams admin center you need to allow sharing whiteboards in meetings: https://docs.microsoft.com/en-us/microsoftteams/meeting-policies-in-teams#allow-whiteboard

[Nathan_Perkins]

Michael,

I have a Crestron MX150 and when starting a whiteboard session on a meeting participant's pc or Surface Hub 2S, it is not displayed on the MTR front of room display, you just get a black screen.

I thought that whiteboard might not be enabled for the resource account, but then came across the following post:

See post: https://www.graham-walsh.com/using-microsoft-teams-rooms-with-front-of-room-touchscreens/

Do you have any info on what might be causing this loss of functionality?

[Harald Rau]

@Nathan_Perkins :  We had to assign an E3 subscription with Whiteboard enabled to the room ressource account to have the room display the Whiteboard.

[Nathan_Perkins]

Harald, Thanks for this, I can confirm that the room has an E3 license.

[Doaa_Ebada]

can the meeting participants type on this whiteboard using the keyboard, like in Menti?

[johnwaldron]

Can the touch enabled display be a second front of room display to separate content from gallery?

[Michael Tressler]

@johnwaldron Yes, in a dual-monitor configuration, the whiteboard is seen on one display and the gallery view on the other.

[johnwaldron]

@Michael Tressler I have tested this functionality as a dual display configuration. It works.......sort of.

The MTR cannot initiate sharing of Whiteboard, an individual in the meeting needs to share, then select Whiteboard, which is not a big issue.

The Whiteboard appeared on the second monitor which was a touch enabled display and indeed, one could select an ink color and annotate, but that is all one could do.

Since it uses the browser version which is extremely limited. all you can do is ink.

There are a text box and note option which appear in the tools with the ink choices and one can select them on the touch display, but there is no keyboard to type content into them, so it is a point of frustration for users who may select those options and find there is no way to use them.

One is also limited to original canvas size that appears when sharing starts. No ability to add a page or additional content once the screen is full.

One can zoom and scroll to add additional content to the infinite pallet, but the remote participants don't see that, it only shows on the touch display. The reverse is true as well when a remote participant expands the pallet, it does not show on the touch display in the room. Again, a source of frustration for the users when they try to use the available function which does not work.

I will not be implementing as it will be a source of IT service desk tickets from users trying those features and finding they are not functional.

[Kiran4]

Can we use Miro whiteboard on this device?

[Michael Tressler]

@Kiran4  Miro whiteboard will not work natively with Teams Rooms. You could share Miro whiteboard into the meeting using the HDMI ingest via the Teams Rooms console or by sharing your workstation screen into the meeting.

[Carina_Batista]

Hi @Michael Tressler 

Can we connect a Teams Room to two touch monitors, so we can control the meeting in the first one and use the whiteboard in the second one (content) during video calls?

Thanks

[Michael Tressler]

Hi @Carina_Batista

This already happens, but not how you are thinking about it. The center of room console that ships with every Teams Rooms is a touch-enabled screen which you use to control the meeting. Having a second touch-enabled front-of-room display would not help as you cannot control the meeting from a front-of-room-display, only from the center of room console.

[scout249]

Hi @Michael Tressler 

Can we connect a Teams Room for Android (aka Teams Room for Collaboration Bar) with a touch screen, so we can interact with remote attendee through inking and whiteboard.

We are currently looking in to Poly Studio X50 and Logitech Rally Bar.

Thanks

Michael T

[Re_Mago]

I see the procedure to configure touch on dual/multi screen scenario, 

Some issues could happens if the main primary display is set by default (and enforced to every reboot) to the small touchscreen on some MTR hardware manufacturer.

In this case the issue is that the application launched from MTR will run on small display as primary display.

This workaround for using Teams+Whiteboard is promising in terms of the possibility but from my opinion is  not yet mature for enterprise deployments.

Anyhow, third parties solution for Room experience ( like Valarea.com) are fixing this limitation and offering today a seamless integrated experience for MultiAV one-tap to join+Whiteboard+wireless display and BYOD on the same device hub for the room with multiple touchscreen display setup (including Microsoft Teams)

[NickK890]

Have two questions white going though this thread;

1.MS recommends Teams Room license for MTR devices. Does work with whiteboard on MTR ( with touch enabled display ?)

2. I saw a comment saying that zooming a white board cannot see by remote participants. Is it still the case ( with latest teams client etc. ) ?

[NickK890]

Does MTR whiteboard support Keyboard to type text on whiteboard?

Ideally, the virtual keyboard should pop up on the screen , but it seems not working as of now...

[DaveTheTeamsGuy]

Does anyone have any deployments using the Poly MTRoA devices with a front of room touch screen?  If so, curious what display(s) you've chosen that work well.

[Graham Walsh]

@NickK890 What OEM product are you using? Windows or Android? It should just work.

@DaveTheTeamsGuy Any touch screen should work. I’m using an Iiyama with mine and it works fine.

[DaveTheTeamsGuy]

Thanks @Graham Walsh.  Are there any driver considerations for MTRoA, or are drivers only required for MTRoW?  Sorry if that's a dumb question, my head has been in the Windows world for years, still new to MTRoA.

[Michael Tressler]

All drivers for vendor-supported hardware are included with Android. You cannot add your own, unlike WIndows.

[DaveTheTeamsGuy]

It was mentioned earlier in this thread that you can't initiate a whiteboard share from MTRoA, and that a meeting participant has to do so.  Is this still the case?  We recently purchased a touch display, but no where on the console is an option to start a whiteboard during a Teams meeting.  Only remote participants are able to start a whiteboard.  Confirmed the account has a Teams Room Standard license with Whiteboard enabled, confirmed whiteboard is available by logging the account into a PC.

[NickK890]

Hi @DaveTheTeamsGuy ,   Yes this is still the case. In order to start whiteboard, MTR need to join a meeting ( no whiteboard in a Point to point call). Then the other participant need to join the meeting , and start sharing Whiteboard. Then it will appear in MTR screen as well, to be able to collaborate. 

[Fazworld]

We have gotten our Poly MTR setup across the campus and MS Whiteboard has worked successfully per Nick’s comment above. However last week this stopped working. I’m now getting this error:

“ whiteboard not available on this device. A whiteboard is being shared, but your device does not currently support sharing within a teams meeting”

We have verified no blocks on our FW. When we use the Microsoft room account on another device and not the MTR PC it works. This appears to be a Poly issue. Has anyone seen this before?

[Graham Walsh]

@Fazworld It’s broken for many I think.  I’ve opened a case with Microsoft.  I suggest you open a support ticket too for broader visibility.

[Graham Walsh]

@DaveTheTeamsGuy If you have a MTRoA device and signed in with a personal account you will see start whiteboard and recording as it knows a personal account has storage 

[NickK890]

We are using Crestron Flex MTR devices with ViewSonic Touch enabled displays. After sharing a whiteboard, users can interact with the whiteboard on MTR touch display. But the 'text' input feature is missing. On a normal laptop we can use keyboard to type on text field on whiteboard. On MTR I was expecting to have at least virtual keyboard to  pop up on main display , but it doesn't.

Opened a case with MSFT, and they confirmed that this ( text input)  feature is not available on MTR yet.

[DaveTheTeamsGuy]

@Graham Walsh thanks and understood.  All of our MTRs are signed in with a resource account, and that won't change.

[mobilejon]

I thought it might help people out. 

I wrote this article last night: https://mobile-jon.com/2022/06/03/microsoft-teams-rooms-starting-to-really-put-the-share-in-sharepoi...

It covers changes that are needed on MTRs to support Whiteboards after storage is moved to OD4B.

[DaveTheTeamsGuy]

Looking for a couple manufacturer options for touch screens that work with MTRoA as the second of a dual-screen setup and include a stylus.  Has anyone successfully tested this particular scenario?

[Graham Walsh]

Any touch screen should work @DaveTheTeamsGuy Avocor, Clevertouch etc all come with pens AFAIK. 

[NickK890]

We had Whiteboard working OK with MTR devices but all of a sudden all of them stopped working probably around the later part of the last year. Now, when a meeting participant start a whiteboard sharing, MTR device fails to show the shared whiteboard and throws "something went wrong" message.

We were trying with Microsoft case, and running the case for few months without having any success.

With the recent MTR app update, you can start the Whiteboard form the MTR itself, in which case participants can see and collaborate with it.

Still, a Whiteboard session started by a meeting participant fails in the same way.

Does anyone experience this issue?    Thanks!