Skype Room Systems v2 - first impressions

Steel Contributor

So we just installed a Skype Room Systems v2 (Logitech Group) in our largest conference room. Here are our first impressions when it comes to the software. We have Exchange 2016 on-premise and SfB Online in O365.

 

  • There's one issue with dialing a number when you don't have PSTN Calling in your region. Maybe this is by design or maybe I just got it wrong (here's my discussion on that)
  • You should disable the Surface Pro 4 built-in front and rear camera because otherwise when you choose to start the video, you have three cameras to choose from. It's not mentioned in the Deployment Guide but we figured it out they are in the Device Manager -> System Devices.
  • Speaking of this, you shouldn't need to choose a camera at all if there's only one (1) camera - just default to that camera.
  • We have a huge 100"+ projector screen in this conference room and when a single attendent call in with video, that person gets a full screen with their huge face. I don't know how we would technically solve this (I guess 2 * 55" is a better setup) but it feels like Big Brother ;).
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  • If a presenter in the room connects their laptop via HDMI and start something with a video (like Youtube) the sound outputs into the conference room and the sound is only catched up by the rooms speaker's which gives quite bad results. It should be able to get the sound from the HDMI input but then again, the deployment guide clearly states that "Audio playback over HDMI can only be heard locally" so maybe it's some technical reason why this is not possible.
  • The DIY setup might be a little bit overly complicated selecting the correct inputs/outputs etc. Since the SRS application only works on "certified" versions, it should be possible for Microsoft to automate this and verify the settings remain the same after updates etc. But they have mentioned automated deployment scripts are coming.
  • The dock (Surface Pro 4) screen is quite sensitive to fat fingerprints so after a while you need to clean it but maybe someone has some magical solution for that :)
  • I hope the OMS management/monitoring solution will be available soon so we effectively can monitor the SRS so we can be proactive because users in general don't create a support ticket for conference room systems, they just give up :)

Then there are some minor Logitech hardware first impressions but that's not related to Microsoft.

76 Replies

Jonas;

 

We ran into a lot of the same issues; since the client is so bare-bones, there's no means to pick in/out devices, and we'd have issues where the SRS decided to randomly re-default to another device for audio/video, so we wound up disabling all speaker/video devices in Device Manager except our Logitech PTZ for video and Trio USB for audio.  So far, so good.

 

I've had a few requests from users for a bottom-based gallery view as well, instead of just on the side; getting that extra horizontal resolution matters when sharing spreadsheets.

 

All in all, extremely happy with SRSv2, and the users seem to love it so far, just some light bugs that could easily be worked out in an app update.

Thanks for the feedback! All very good points. We are working on an update coming soon that will address some of the issues you point out:

 

  • Removing Surface Pro 4 Front/Rear cameras (after this change, most deployments will only have 1 camera so device selection will not be necessary)
  • The settings page will allow admins to configure (1) Speaker and Mic for Conferencing and (2) Speaker for HDMI ingest
  • Regularly logging Skype health data (ie. app is running, signed in, front of room screen plugged in, etc) to an Event Log for OMS (or any other service) to pickup and raise alerts

 

Dave [MSFT]

@Justin Kingston. Great feedback too. Have you considered 2 presentation screena? At least Logitech Groud (Extender Box) has two HDMI Out and according to Logitech (as long as the "Skype client" supports it) that would result in one screen dedicated for screen sharing and the other one for all the video streams.

We are working on supporting a second Front of Room display. Not in next update, but soon. 

Tanks for letting us know. How would it be if we would connect to external displays today with the current version, duplicate (same content on both)?

Good to know, Dave.  I was going to toss together a PS script to do our 'tweaks', but that takes some work off my plate.  Any rough schedule on updates, and do those just push as part of Windows Updates, or will we need to do anything by hand to update the app?

 

Also, is there anything in the works for the additional gallery view options I mentioned above?

@Jonas Back I've tossed it around, but most of our rooms are already set up with a large single screen, or a projector, so it wouldn't be feasible yet.  Rumblings I've seen didn't have those 2nd HDMI outs enabled until updates around 2Q; I'm hoping to get a spare internally for testing/demo to get people excited about that setup, it's a hard sell to management when I'm just waving my hands around a room trying to explain how it'd work.

Since we don't support 3 screen mode yet, I can't make any commitments on how build 1.0.8.0 will respond with 3 screens.

 

Its just a standard 3'rd monitor port. If you can configure Windows to extend monitor 1 to monitor 2 AND clone monitor 2 to monitor 3, I would expect the Front of Room screen to be duplicated. This isn't a feature claim, just a guess on what would happen.

You should have the Update 1 sometime in March. If you are enrolled in the preview program, you will get a build in Feb. Updates should install automatically overnight (assuming your environment does not disable automatic Windows Store Updates).

 

I will pass on feedback re Big Brotherness of gallery, but at this point, our gallery improvements are focused on supporting 2 Front of Room screens.

 

We have our First Room System V2 in place and discovered 2 strange things.

1.) The Room is showed offline and doesnt' updated his presence information. We logged on with the room account on a workstation, started the normal SfB Client, logged out, and from this time the presence information are working.

2.) When we invite the Room System the Meeting is shown on the front and the presence is still available. But when the meeting starts and nowbody joined the meeting, the presence is still shown as available, my regular SfB Client show as presence indicator "In a meeting". So it looks like the calendar is not correct elected. But the calendar processing works, because when i create a second meeting in the specified timeframe, the meeting will be rejected.

Anyone discovered the same behavior?

 

Best regards

Jörg

Jonas, what are you using to get audio / video between your SRS and your room a/v equipment? We have been considering a Vaddio a/v bridge solution.

 was the update pushed recently?  Is there any easy way to check version?  Had some funkiness the other day with no output on one of the HDMI ports on the Logitech, but the other worked, so I'm wondering if it happened in the last week?

 

Also, is there any workaround or method to get local content (HDMI passthrough) to show during a PSTN call?  Scenario where a vendor using Webex brings in a laptop and wants to present locally, and dial in via PSTN, results in a screen indicating it can't pass content into the meeting (which is obviously expected on PSTN, but we still need to get the local content shown)

 

Thanks!

Hello,

 

This is my first impressions about the SRS2. Maybe some points have already been answered in previous topics, sorry for that.

 

I'm testing a Smart Dock Logitech coupled to a Surface 4 with a Conference Cam and a Logitech Group and i have a couple of questions about my experience to share with other users. I would appreciate if any of you have experienced same issues.

 

 

  1. The video output is not detected if the SRS2 is not powered on the AC. I had some time before understanding this point.
  2. The SRS under circustances can be very hot.
  3. After each reboot of the device, the WIFI connexion is lost and i need to switch back to ADMIN to recover my internet connexion, then launch back Skype APP
  4. The APP lacks of visibility over the future meetings and i cant add contacts from my entreprise phonebook or access to a recent list of calls
  5. With double outputs HDMI the SRS is displaying a screen which is not optimized and just a clone of the primary screen. I guess the  double screen is planned for a future roadmap.
  6. What time is configured before the sleep time ?
  7. The sound input is not switched automatically when i plugged a camera on the SRS2. I have to set by default the camera sound input before being able to use it.
Hm.. that is unusual. SRS v2 presence behavior should behave just like the SfB Client. Could be something server side?

Can i check something on the SRSv2, because the "Room-User" on a normal Client behaves as expected.

We just published the app update last week. Version is 2.0.2.0 and you can verify in top right corner of SRS v2 Settings pages.

You should get it automatically (if you did not disable automatic store update) or you can sign in to Admin account and pull it down using Update in Store app.

Word of caution, we are hitting a Windows bug that prevents some users from pulling down the update (0x80070216). If you hit this, we are aware and are actively trying to resolve this.
Re: Showing local content on PSTN call. This should work (i just tried this). If you dial a PSTN number, plugging a laptop in to the video ingest of SRS v2 will show your laptop output on the front of room display.

You can toggle the size using the "layout" button on the console.

I have to ask since i cant find any info anywhere, where are you guys getting the hardware? All my distributors tell me i cant get my hands on one till april when they start shipping.

It won't help you, but the Logitech Smartdock is in Germany available since a few weeks.