SOLVED

Welcome to the Surface Hub Community!

Microsoft

Hello and welcome to the Devices Community!  We are so glad you are here and excited to have this forum to collaborate and discuss all things Surface. You will find spaces for each one of our products in the Devices Community, so go ahead and take a look at them all. This one is dedicated to Surface Hub.
 
I am a Devices Program Manager at Microsoft and along with my team we want to ensure that anyone with an interest in our Devices has a place to share experiences, questions, and feedback.  Even more exciting is the opportunity to network and find others with your same interests. In this community you will find customers, partners, MVPs, and our own Devices product and engineering teams in a single location, all with the objective to create healthy discussions that will help us all improve. The comments here are moderated to ensure we maintain a learning environment were arguments and content matter. It's time to start your own conversations and speak up. 
 
Be an active participant in this community, it works best when we are all talking. In doing so, you  will earn badges within the community.  Check them out by going to your profile and clicking ‘Achievements’. I also invite you to browse existing conversations within the Devices and other communites and share your opinion.
 
To get you started, check under the hood of Surface Hub with Paul Barr and discover the amazing features that will introduce you to a new collaboration experience! While you're at it check out the rest of the Microsoft Mechanics videos in YouTube and subscribe to receive the latest news.
 
One last time: welcome, it is great to have you join us!
Nydia

 

 

 

 

 

 

12 Replies
Excellent! I'm an early adopter of the Surface Hub and we have (5) total right now, also looking to purchase 15-20 more in the next year with some pending features. We have (3) 55" and (2) 84" units, and we use them allll the time. The adoption rate of these units, compared to the typical "smart board" or VTC units in other rooms is crazy - people just walk up and start using it. There are some day-1 features that are lacking, and we are really hoping to get some updates soon on this as they are pretty significant in our workflow. Please (MS) don't take this as a dig, just as a serious point of interest if not a linchpin in getting our internal customers to purchase these things. Main item - whiteboard needs some additional functionality and needs to support bi-directional input from all attendees whether the other attendees are on Skype for Business (windows or mac, via that Whiteboard) or via another Surface Hub joined into the same SfB meeting with the whiteboard app. This is so powerful when in the room, but having a collaborative experience when you have other Surface Hub-enabled rooms, or even Surface Pro/Book/Studio attendees that also have touch/stylus capacity; it is just a major issue that needs to be addressed. There are also little nice-to-have features that would be nice in this Whiteboard app, such more colors in the palette, ability to expand the canvas or move it around with limitless scale or size, or change the brush size or type. Lots of nice-to-haves, but generally the basic out of the box is pretty great and we use it all the time. We also really want to see the use of MS built-in apps (like OneDrive for Business, PowerBI, etc.) to have the ability to logon with NFC, which other 3rd party apps are already supporting. This would be a huge benefit to saving and interacting with files stored elsewhere on O365 services. Again, not a deal-breaker - we can logon with the keyboard/mouse, but NFC would be a huge win and easy functionality to really Wow people with the ease of use. Those are my opening thoughts, but really I am psyched to see the MS Surface product group reach out and create a community base like this. Who else already has Surface Hubs, and what are you experiences like? Who is 'on the fence' and wants to know more about the capability and how it can deliver on the hype? I'm sure the community can share great stories with you about how they work in our daily lives already, but I'd love to hear what other people are thinking about the products as well. Cheers! Chris CIO Not-for-profit healthcare org in Alaska

Is there a dummy guide to setup Surface Hub as we are struggling to get it working correctly.

Have managed to get this into Domain Join, but how do we set this up correctly with O365 so we can get the meeting acceptance working. 

 

Skype and Connect is working.

 

Ta!

 

Hitesh

Hi Hitesh, good day.

Have you tried following the steps in the Surface Hub Admin Guide? https://docs.microsoft.com/en-us/surface-hub/

 

If you have, more information is needed from you to understand the errors you're seeing and the best way is to contact Customer Support to explain your case. Find information on how to contact here: https://www.microsoft.com/surface/en-us/support/contact-us-business-surface-hub

 

Thank you,

Nydia

We just installed our first three surface hubs and are looking for training resources.  Can someone recommend MS partners that provide Surface Hub training in the South Florida market?

Hi Ivan, great news!

The first thing to do is to download the "A Surface Hub Tour" app from the Microsoft Store. That will give your users a fun way to get started and learning from the Hub, I've just released an update to that yesterday. In terms of partners, my suggestion is to please contact Collabtech: Joey Morley CTG <joey.morley@collabtechgroup.com>.

 

Hope this helps!

Nydia

Welcome to the Surface Hub community Ivan and congratulations on your new Surface Hubs!

@Nydia Cavazos 

 

As much as I love my 84" Hub, I equally despise it.  The inability to download and install software is absurd.  For example, Skype is blocked by my school district other than within the district.  I bought the Hub to collaborate with industry representatives in my curriculum area. 

 

Near to none of the software I use in class can be installed on it.  No Unity game engine. No Photoshop.  No Substance Painter.  No Illustrator or any creative cloud items.  No 3dsMax.  No Mudbox.  No Zoom.  No ANYTHING.  

 

Other large devices are far more compatible.  I am disappointed that the $30,000 we spent was wasted on a device that for the most part is used to display PowerPoint presentations.  It sucks as a teaching tool.  And with Remote/Virtual learning it would have great to teach from it.

Hello @Tami_Moore,

 

The concept of the Surface Hub is a bit different as you intend to use it. It is a collaboration device designed to be used by different users/teams in common areas. To ensure the users data is not at risk of being left over, some security restrictions were put in place, including the ability to install win32 applications. 

However, you can still run the applications on your computer and take advantage of the screen and peripherals using the replacement PC mode.

In regards to Zoom, since there is no Modern App in the Microsoft Store, this can be done from Edge once the Windows Team 2020 update will be released for general availability. You can test it today using the Preview Build

 

Thank you,

Cezar

 

best response confirmed by Nydia Cavazos (Microsoft)
Solution

@Tami_Moore While Cezar as a Microsoft representative has to be mindful of his responses, thankfully I don't.

 

First and foremost, if you expected Surface Hub to just be a big Windows PC, you clearly haven't done your research on the product. There is plenty of information out there and on Microsoft Docs that clearly outlines the differences and limitations of the product. It's geared towards meeting room environments, and there are strict security implementations on the product as a result, such as no win32 support, UWP store installs only, and limited functionality for the key things usually undertaken in meetings (VC, Whiteboarding, and screen-sharing).

 

This is what allows it to be a communal device where multiple people can use it as a shared device, while ensuring it is left in a ready state for next use. 

 

If you honestly dropped $30k on the device without knowing the specifications in advance, that is frankly poor management! I have to justify every penny spent at my workplace and be very, very careful to deliver on those promises. I need to know, in advance, what I am delivering. Any quick search would have shown that running such applications like Unity, Photoshop, Illustrator etc. wasn't going to be possible.

 

Now, onto some better news. As Cezar has said, you can put Surface Hub into replacement PC mode and connect up a PC. This will let you use all the functionality of the hardware (touchscreen, pens, speakers, cameras etc.) while leveraging a standard Windows 10 environment.

 

Microsoft have also already indicated that they are planning to release a Surface Hub 2S that will run Windows 10 Enterprise, so at that point you can run win32 apps. Many industries require this (medical for one, education as another) so this will be possible soon, but will require you to purchase a new Surface Hub.

 

Frankly, if all you wanted was a giant touchscreen connected to a standard PC, you should have bought a giant touchscreen and connected it to a Windows 10 PC. Surface Hub is a very targetted device for a very specific scenario.

 

You can't hate on a product that doesn't fulfil your purposes when you clearly don't understand the product before putting the money down for it. The fault for that lies with you, not Microsoft.

@Daniel Hudson 

 

Thank you for all the blatant accusations.  You do not know me, nor the background of this purchase or any of the other hundreds of thousands of dollars of technology I have purchased for my students.

 

I am not an idiot as you infer.  I did do my research.  Face to face with Microsoft sales reps.  And a Microsoft trainer who met with another tech teacher, representatives from my district's IT department and myself before we purchased numerous devices.  He demoed the device and answered questions during the 6+ hour session.  I was 100% clear about what I wanted to use this device for.  (I had selected a different device from a different manufacturer, but we are a Microsoft district and I was assured by Microsoft this device would handle our intentions.) The ability to conference - my students with game designers and developers as they are located around the world - was the sole reason for a device this large.  I was assured by Microsoft personnel this was possible with new updates, apps and capabilities in the making.

 

I do use the Hub by mirroring my surface book for Photoshop, Unity and other software.  My real frustration is the lack of conferencing abilities.   I do not need to place the Hub in replacement mode. 

 

I was not "hating" on a device as you so put it.  I was commenting on a frustration (during this COVID crisis) and the need to visually communicate with my students.  Using the Hub would make teaching technology easier.    

 

No need to respond because I am sure it would just contain more negative blasting of my character. 

@Cezar Cretu 

Thank you for your comments.  I do use the Hub via mirroring my Surface Book.  It is the conferencing that is so important now with remote teaching.  

 

My frustration also comes from being assured by Microsoft personnel (prior to the purchase) the Hub would do what I needed/wanted it to to.  And the capabilities would grow and surpass my needs.  

 

Thanks again for the comments and the preview!

Hello @Tami_Moore,

 

I believe there was a misunderstanding here. Microsoft cannot control 3rd party software development to UWP apps (Microsoft Store). I'm not sure which Microsoft employee said this but we can investigate further by opening a support ticket. I will take ownership of it and involve the right team for this.

Mirroring these applications to the Surface Hub would be the solution but since you are already doing this, can you expand on why this is not working for you? We can also address this in a support ticket

 

Thank you,

Cezar

1 best response

Accepted Solutions
best response confirmed by Nydia Cavazos (Microsoft)
Solution

@Tami_Moore While Cezar as a Microsoft representative has to be mindful of his responses, thankfully I don't.

 

First and foremost, if you expected Surface Hub to just be a big Windows PC, you clearly haven't done your research on the product. There is plenty of information out there and on Microsoft Docs that clearly outlines the differences and limitations of the product. It's geared towards meeting room environments, and there are strict security implementations on the product as a result, such as no win32 support, UWP store installs only, and limited functionality for the key things usually undertaken in meetings (VC, Whiteboarding, and screen-sharing).

 

This is what allows it to be a communal device where multiple people can use it as a shared device, while ensuring it is left in a ready state for next use. 

 

If you honestly dropped $30k on the device without knowing the specifications in advance, that is frankly poor management! I have to justify every penny spent at my workplace and be very, very careful to deliver on those promises. I need to know, in advance, what I am delivering. Any quick search would have shown that running such applications like Unity, Photoshop, Illustrator etc. wasn't going to be possible.

 

Now, onto some better news. As Cezar has said, you can put Surface Hub into replacement PC mode and connect up a PC. This will let you use all the functionality of the hardware (touchscreen, pens, speakers, cameras etc.) while leveraging a standard Windows 10 environment.

 

Microsoft have also already indicated that they are planning to release a Surface Hub 2S that will run Windows 10 Enterprise, so at that point you can run win32 apps. Many industries require this (medical for one, education as another) so this will be possible soon, but will require you to purchase a new Surface Hub.

 

Frankly, if all you wanted was a giant touchscreen connected to a standard PC, you should have bought a giant touchscreen and connected it to a Windows 10 PC. Surface Hub is a very targetted device for a very specific scenario.

 

You can't hate on a product that doesn't fulfil your purposes when you clearly don't understand the product before putting the money down for it. The fault for that lies with you, not Microsoft.

View solution in original post