Last Updated on December 1, 2021 by GrahamWalsh
Wow, what an episode. A full 90 minutes. Thank you all for joining us and asking some great questions which I’ve captured below. Also a huge thanks to Ilya and Greg from the Microsoft devices product group for taking time out of their busy schedules to contribute to the session.
Here are the questions that were discussed during the session
Q. How are Teams Panels physically powered? POE? Regular AC?
A. PoE+ for the Crestron panels
Q. Any plans for iOS support for Teams Panels as we are using Intune managed iPad Minis at present
A. No plans for an iOS app for this. In fact, no plans for a standalone app; this is shipped in partnership with specific HW partners such as Crestron, pre-installed on devices
Q. Would they have to be connected to any network?
A. Yes, the Teams Panels will need to access the Microsoft cloud services
Q. We have MS Teams devices as standard license and we installed latest updates (4.6.0 or 4.5.37.0) and it is missing in Teams admin centre (we do not see service – Win Device Admin Agent service or and folder adminagent folder)
A. Open a support case with Microsoft. I have seen this mentioned on the Tech Community too.
A. Our rooms did not import until we had 1909, so check Windows OS Version too.
A. I have experienced that the TAC requires a sign in on the MTR app using a resource account in your tenant before it shows up in the TAC
Q. Will the Teams Panels be based on a Surface Go inside an OEM Dock or completely built by Crestron/Yealink?
A. No, must work with the certified partners, today this is Crestron and soon Yealink
Q. Would the metric reporting show up in TAC?
A. Yes, all Teams Panels data will be in the Teams Admin Centre
Q. Speaking of management… Is autopilot for MTRs on the roadmap? If so, what is the ETA?
A. Yes autopilot is on the MTR roadmap, H1 CY21
Q. ETA for these intelligent speakers?
A. H2 2021
Q. Any details on how the People count works? I thought it would be the Room System that is doing it but sounds like the Panels will be doing it.
A. People counting is done by the camera room system in the room. Panels display the info before you walk into the room and can direct people to overflow rooms
Q. How is the panel tied to the people counting?
A. Panels display the info (from the room system camera) before you walk into the room and can direct people to overflow rooms
Q. Where does the TAC pull its data? AAD or Intune? Or does it independently report to the TAC?
A. There is an agent on Teams devices which enrols into TAC. The enrolment is shared with Intune / MEM as well
Q. Owl cameras and Nureva HDL3000. Seems to work well with the MTRs, can you comment on if/when they will be Teams certified?
A. We are not working on Certification of OWL. I respectfully disagree on those “working well with Teams”
Q. Are the Crestron MTR panels the TSS series?
A. New Teams Panels will run on the forthcoming TS-x70 series panels from Crestron
Q. We are just wondering how to centrally change the administrator PW to something secure. We are planning to enrol devices also to add / Intune.
A. If registered to Intune, this is something you can do from there.
Q. Presumably enrolment is carried out on the intelligent speaker, or can it be done from user workstations? Assuming also if the biometrics are stored in O365, they are shared between devices once enrolled? i.e. no need to enrol on multiple devices?
A. Correct, biometrics will be stored in M365
Q. One for later in call but Is there any plans for more control over the MTR firmware push from the device or potentially in TAC – to aid us to align all devices up to latest version
A. Yes, it is planned for next year.
Q. Any dates for new touch panel interface for MTRoA? as in same look and feel as MTRoW
A. Target is end of 2020.
Q. Third party join on Collab Bar?
A. This is being investigated, no timeframe. There is a lot more work required to do this on Android.
Q. Can you have 3×3 gallery view on dual screen MTR’s, or is it in the roadmap?
A. New options for screen utilisation will arrive next year.
Q. Screen sharing ingest through Zoom and Webex?
A. No support for sharing via ingest from room systems into direct guest join, would require too much custom development work.
Q. Following Dual Screen – Any changes for second screen display if not using content
A. Yes
Q. Would the Teams casting would be only for local meetings? Non-Teams Calls??
A. Teams Casting will work with both, just like proximity join today.
Q. Will audio pass too with Teams Casting?
A. Yes
Q. Are there any plans to allow us to specify a default configuration for the content layout configuration? We are in the process of upgrading from Skype to Teams and the default (on single screen configurations) changed from content w/ video on the side to content only. We are hoping for more consistency across our meetings while in Islands.
A. Yes this is being worked on.
Q. Are there any update/plans on CEC technology? We have been using Extron HD CTL to wake up the TV Displays as a workaround so far.
A. on CEC, we are going to build support for the simpler and cheaper HDMI-CEC injector(s) which use a USB driver. Coming in H1CY21
Q. Apologies if slightly off topic, but when is audio going to be supported, via a delegate using a laptop connecting via HDMI and the Present feature, in the MTR in a standard meeting
A. HDMI Ingest audio will play through the meeting this calendar year.
Q. Is there plans for mutli large gallery pages for meetings with over 50 people with Video?
A. Noting at present.
Q. The interesting thing on that QSC page is all hands room with TWO cameras. How they doing that?!
A. I guess they are using their IP cameras that connect to their USB adapter and fed into the MTR that way.
Q. When you create an ad-hoc meeting from an MTR it creates a group call. Any plans to change this to create a full meeting so you can have dial in co-ordinates
A. Yes, this is being planned so you have full meeting join co-ordinates available.
Q. Any improvements for whiteboarding co-ordinated join, as it requires sign in for whiteboarding two way?
A. Yes this is being worked on.
Q. Does anyone know much about the Gen2 Lenovo ThinkSmart, saw some vague details at ISE I noticed Ilya mentioned it yesterday on Twitter
A. All for info on the Lenovo gen 2 https://www.lenovo.com/us/en/virtual-reality-and-smart-devices/smart-office/thinksmart/ThinkSmart-Hub-for-Microsoft-Teams-Rooms/p/11SP1TSHB60
A. 4 x 3W full duplex premium-tuned speakers and 4 x 360-degree dual-array mics with far-field support
Q. Custom spaces certified devices
A. Check out our certified DSP and mic combos and all other Certified devices on http://aka.ms/teamsdevices
Q. Can you talk about a timeframe for IP connect of devices?
A. Coming soon
Q. Are there any plans for more control over the MTR firmware push from the device or potentially in TAC – to aid us to align all devices up to latest version. experience is they update eventually but do take time to replicate across the estate
A. MTR on Android, all updating is controlled via TAC today. For MTR on Windows, that is something we will deliver, built on Mem / Intune, in TAC in H1Cy21
Q. Quickly back to Android, apologies if I missed this, is the ‘lookalike’ front end to the android MTR limited to partners who already have collab bars like Poly with the x30/50?
A. Coming soon
Q. What is thought process behind having the content ingest at the touch panel? The HP Slice has the content ingest at the compute but the CORC cannot be extended long enough for multipurpose scenarios. Would be great if you supported multiple CORC and content ingest at the compute. If the CORC could be POE and connect via the network with content ingest happening at the compute, this device would be the only device we would need for all use cases. Isn’t that what MS wants? Certainly, what I want
A. Different vendors do different things with content ingest, so select the most suitable vendor that matches your needs.
Q. Is panorama support in Teams?
A. Should be there now or very soon
Q. when will MTRs have a “Teams Only” mode?
A. There will be a Teams only mode with the next generation app framework.
Q. Is there any plan to add camera control into the MTR software?
A. Yes, this is coming, and you will be able to name each camera. It will also be in the mobile Remote-Control client H1 CY21 is the plan.
Q. With MTR the long distances for USB etc. are often a problem. Will MTR let the devices IP talk to each other in the future, which would make any cabling much easier
A. Yes, we will have support for IP based audio / video peripherals coming to MTR
Q. SIP phones support for Microsoft Teams in 2021, is that old phones like Polycom CX3000 or other sip phones supports. Are these devices can manage from TAC?
A. No, the Poly CX3000 is not a SIP phone. That was designed for Lync/SfB.
Q. Can you Forward Invitation to a MTR from an iOS/Android device? We see it remove the meeting details.
A. Yes it should work. However, have a look at this article.
Q. What’s the future of the MTRs? Are they going away?
A. Noooooooooooooooooooooooooooo. MTRs are here to stay.
Q. What are the main causes for the Crestron TWS-1060 not seeing the UC-Engine
A. DNS, it’s always DNS and if its not DNS, it’s the firewall 😊 In seriousness, setting it to the reserved DHCP or static address is good or utilise the new direct connect feature.
Q. Roadmap for MTRoA devices, where can I see this?
A. The roadmap is public and listed here.
Q. Any other Guest Join Access partners Microsoft are working on?
A. Noting can be disclosed as of now.
Q. Is MMR Worth it?
A. MMR doesn’t have to be used for all rooms, it could be used for important or heavily used rooms, so you have that extra layer of support and monitoring for there.
Also published on Medium.