Microsoft Teams Devices Ask Me Anything
Welcome to the landing page of the MTDAMA. Previously known as MTRAMA, meaning Microsoft Teams Room Ask Me Anything, we’ve decided to evolve the session name to include other Microsoft Teams Devices as we discussed them all the time anyway.
Below we will host the slides used during the session along the Q&A submitted during each session.
The show is hosted by Jimmy Vaughan and myself and we invite anyone to contribute to the session. Michael Tressler also joins us too.
Feel free to ask any questions either directly to myself, Jimmy or via the Twitter hashtag #MTDAMA
Episode Twenty – 23rd November 2021 – 5pm UK/12pm EST
The Ignite 2021 Fall Recap
To register for the next session, simply click this link https://go.graham-walsh.com/mtdamaep20
Work out your time zone here.
Episode Nineteen – 18th October 2021 – 5pm UK/12pm EST
Houston, we have a problem. Well, had a problem. I originally scheduled the session for 4pm UK and then realised there was some other Microsoft training going on that day, so I moved it to one hour later. That didn’t reflect well with the invite that some people already had. So, we did the session twice to cover everyone. Every day is a learning day.
Anyway, another great session this month talking all about the latest releases and upcoming features in Microsoft Teams Rooms. Below is the slide deck and Q&A from the session.
Q&A from Episode Nineteen
Q. Graham, where can I get such a cool shirt like yours??? love it!!
A. Well, thanks for asking 🙂 I have setup a Merch store here https://www.graham-walsh.com/store so you grab an MTR related product.
Q. Logitech Scribe Button? What is that?
A. That allows you to start sending content without having to head to the center of room console. It connects over Bluetooth. Randy confirmed it all works well.
Q. Cortana and Mic Mute are similar icons
A1. Two mic buttons is going to be an issue, customers have pointed it out.
A2. I’ve reported it to the Microsoft product group about this.
Q. Cortana in the room?
A. Call me old fashioned but I don’t like people yelling at Cortana in their meeting rooms.
Q. Should Cortana have been switched on by default?
A1. Feel like it should have been off by default
A2. Almost all new features should be off by default, IMHO. I guess it’s an adoption v user complaint trade off.
Q. Is Cortana available for all systems? I see it on some MTRoW but not on others, all are on 4.10.10.0
A1. We’ve got it on all our Yealink MVC MTRoW systems.
A2. Randy have it on 3 MVCs. 400, 320 and 640
A3. I have it on 3 out of 4 Crestron units.
A4. For us small sample Lenovo Think smart Hub does not, but 2 different Logitech Tap’s do and an HP MTR unit does as well.
Q. What is the difference between Spotlight and Pinning?
A. Spotlighting someone means this is for the whole meeting, so if you Spotlight two presenters, everyone gets the same view. Pinning is a personal feature, so if I Pin two people, that view is just for me, everyone else connected to the meeting will get a Dynamic layout.
Q. What is the difference between the Microsoft Teams Room Standard and Premium license?
A1. Good article here and blog post here.
A2. Originally the Premium license was known as Managed Meeting Rooms or MMR when it launched at Ignite November 2019. It now seems to becoming much more of a Premium service rather than just meeting room management. According to the blog post, With Microsoft Teams Rooms Premium, our customers have access to intelligent software, dedicated experts, and enhanced insights. So maybe certain features will be only available to MTRP users?
A3. There are some things that are coming related to licenses shortly. It was something brought up as we need more collateral regarding why to use standard and premium licences instead of E linceses
Q. Any chance for a list of things that CVI cannot do today and tomorrow that native MTR can?
A1. CVI can do that meeting transcoding of voice, video, and content. It can’t do things like raise hand, start/stop recording, chat messages etc.
A2. The more useful reason for CVI IMHO (although hard to convince people it is) is you don’t know who is going to join your meeting and from what device. If you have CVI, anyone on any device, including rooms, can join your Teams meeting
Q. Where is the Android vs. Windows document?
A. Published here by Microsoft.
Q. What has the experience been like with Teams Room on Surface Hub?
A. So far I have been incredibly happy with it. Especially love the taking over PowerPoint Live presentations!
Q. Is there any hardware dependencies in order to run Cortana?
A1. There are hardware dependencies. It requires specific microphones right now.
A2.
Q. Is there any Analytics on Cortana use to determine if it is being used or better still what it is being used for?
A. No one can see any in Teams Admin Center
Q. Logitech Rally Bar and TAP IP Update
A. Rally bar and controller working well so far – I would say that as a USB add on its better quality as seems to have less overhead
Q. What has peoples experience of Shure been like?
A1. Incredibly easy to setup and use.
A2. Just an add. note to the Shure Intellimix Room. It is bigger than its hardware brother P300. While the P300 has only 8 DSP channels, the PC-version has up to 16 channels. Nice indeed!
A3. Seen Sure at ISE couple of years ago and were impressive then
Q. Have you seen an issue where Cortana can’t connect to internet, but the MTR works/ can connect to internet? Have a customer with this issue on 1 MTR.
A. Not heard of this before. Are there any firewall rules blocking Cortana? Just found this article online which might be useful.
Q. How can I disable Cortana?
A. Must be done via Policy. I created a post here and video here.
Q. Where is the new meeting room guide?
A. Available to view here.
Q. What sessions should I look for at Ignite?
A. Many sessions including this AltVR one.
Q. Can you post the register link for InTheRoom please?
A. Here’s the link for the show on Wednesday
Q. Are more current mics going to be certified going forward for Cortana/Intelligent Speakers?
A. Guess so over time
A2. Jabra Panacast 50, Bose VB1, Yealink M Speech EPOS Speaker, Logitech Rally, & Lenovo Hub 500 potentially.
Q. Have they enabled a default setting for View at meeting start yet? so that live presentation kit does not show front and centre – i.e. Polycom Pano device.
A. No, not yet possible
A2. You can change it when you start the meeting now so a step in the right direction
Q. Would be great if the chat bobbles could be there for a bit longer time…
A. Agree would be good to configure this. I’ll raise that feedback
Q. Chat bubbles get blocked by certain status notifications for me.
A. Same for me, I did feed that back during testing and it should have been resolved.
Q. What’s the timescales for Intelligent speaker support?
A1. Two speakers are available now, EPOS and Yealink.
A2. We have one of the mspeeches but not the support to register for identification yet (UK region)
Q. I heard from local MS people in DK that the Yealink intelligent speaker only work with Yealink…. can anyone confirm that
A. No one knows on this.
Q. PowerPoint Live mode? Is this on the MTR or recordings?
A1. Not yet but planned to roll out.
A2. I noticed recently when recording in presenter mode, on the recording it had moved me out of the frame and into a separate window, is that what it’s supposed to do?
Q. Where can I find the September news blog?
A. Here’s the post.
Q. What is changing with the Microsoft Teams Room licensing?
A. In a Message Centre announcement, Microsoft are going to include Azure AD P1 with all MTRS and MTRP licensing. Tom wrote a blog here on it.
Q, Is there news on when Casting will make it’s way to the PC Teams client?
A. It was mentioned it was coming and we guess it will be Q1 2022 before we see it.
Q. Is there a way to compare the licenses?
A. Aaron has a license map available here at https://m365maps.com. To see Teams Room Standard and Premium.
Q. Does MTR for Surface hub work on the 1st gen Surface hubs?
A. Yes Microsoft Teams Room on Surface Hub is compatible with Gen 1 Hubs
Q. When will the Logitech systems ship with TAP IP?
A. Rally Bar / Mini will soon be with the TAP IP version – should be out mid-late November
Q. Do some customers have issues running their entire network to support Dante?
A1. If they know how to handle multicast PROPERLY then they will be good.😉
A2. Having a “room A/V switch helps” so that you can keep all that traffic local.
A3. Also helps with PoE
A4. That’s what we do even if it is hardware DSP. DANTE switch for all Dante mics and speakers and control kit
Q. Anyone else having problems with PowerPoint live sharing on the 4.10 where the presentation disappears, and you must change view mode or leave and rejoin to get it back. Had it on multiple meetings last week but haven’t had time/opportunity to troubleshoot yet.
A. Not experienced this. Didn’t think PowerPoint Live was rolled out yet.
Episode Eighteen – 21st September 2021 – 5pm UK/12pm EST
We have a guest speaker in September, Tom Morgan, talking about Microsoft Teams Apps for Teams Panels.
Q&A from Episode Eighteen
Q. Where can I find out more about line of Business Apps for Teams Panel
A. Full documentation here
Q. How do I find App Studio in Microsoft Teams?
A. Search your Teams apps on the left rail in your Microsoft Teams client. If you can’t see it, your Admin may have blocked it.
Q. What are the limitations on the Teams Panels today with Apps?
A. See below
Q. Are Teams Apps available for all devices?
A. It has been rolled out for Crestron devices and meant to be updated app for Yealink soon.
Q. Where is occupancy sensor support at on Teams panels? One of the appeals for me is for these to be able to detect if the room is actually in use, and cancel the meeting if not.
A1. Crestron do a separate PoE occupancy sensor that works with Crestron default mode. It is not able to talk to the Teams app version yet.
A2. Yealink will launch it in Q4
A3. Costs will be around £75 extra for the Yealink sensor
Q. When/how will Room Finder work on Teams Panels?
A. It is baked into Office 365
Q. Where is occupancy sensor support at on Teams panels? One of the appeals for me is for these to be able to detect if the room is actually in use, and cancel the meeting if not.
A1. Crestron have a PoE Sensor that can be added to a booking panel in Crestron default mode. Not yet possible in the Teams panel app but meant to be coming.
A2. Yealink will have a battery-operated Bluetooth pairing sensor available soon.
Q. If you have CA in use, then the AAD P1 license is required on top of the Teams rooms standard license for the Teams Panel?
A. Yes it will be.
Q. Can I see a demo of Third Party Apps on the Teams Panels?
A. See below for an idea.
Q. Intelligent Cameras – Wide angle and intelligent audio? Are there really only 4 vendors right now supporting intelligent cameras?
A1. That is correct as part of the initial announcement. Huddly IQ, Huddly L1, Jabra Panacast 50, Poly E70.
A2. The Hybrid announcements were awesome. I shared with our HR team as we’re planning our hybrid strategy now. It’s great to be able to say Microsoft has us covered technology wise.
Q. When are these new views going to be enabled?
A. Dynamic Views should be Q4 and Front Row will be early next year is my guess.
Q. Will these new features work with Cloud Video Interop (CVI)?
A1. CVI didn’t even work with window sharing as far as I recall. Supporting those rooms was a pain. We are down to one room with CVI and it will be gone soon.
A2. I love Pexip but the reporting available from an MTR can’t be denied.
A3. CVI and large teams meetings (200+) isn’t a pleasant experience
A4. CVI was invaluable to get us TO Teams meetings though.
Episode Seventeen – 17th August 2021 – 5pm UK/12pm EST
Thanks to everyone that joined the session this month. Below are the slides we discussed.
Below are the Q&A from Episode Seventeen
Q. What was new in 4.9.12.0 again?
A1. HDMI Audio and Teams Only mode for sign in’s. Sign in mode can be changed from Teams Admin Center
A2. Teams-only mode is huge but the big fix for us was the HDMI sound one
A3. Teams only was also great for customers who were missing room names on the console
Q. Will the Teams Panels adopt functionality in the future such as check in, end meeting early etc?
A. No idea, but it has been discussed by the Microsoft Product Group that this sort of functionality will come.
Q. Each standalone panel will require MTR standard or premium licencing?
A1. But it doesn’t necessarily need a dedicated license. You can share the license with the MTR in the room and/or with other panels supporting the same room.
A2. Technically the device signs into Microsoft Teams. You might be able to build your licensing around that.
Q. Yes but customers I have been speaking to don’t want to pay the licence for a panel for a space without an MTR.
A1. Yup. Assume you have a room with an MTR that has 2 doors to it. You add 2 Panels to the doors to the conference room. Those panels sign in with the exact same account as the MTR. As such, no license is assigned specifically to the Panels.
A2. For a customer without any scheduling that’s valid. But don’t forget that there are lots of customers that already pay for third party scheduling services (Condeco, etc).
Q. Massive props to Michael Tressler for the Android and CA video, great stuff
A. https://www.linkedin.com/feed/update/urn:li:activity:6833105503875424256/
Q. How many devices can be connected to meeting for room remote?
A1. As many as you like.
A2. There’s no such thing as too many mute buttons
A3. We have boardrooms where the TAP is near where the CEO likes to sit but he doesn’t want to be running the room. The remote feature will be great for letting a PA sit to one side and drive the room.
A4. FYI you can turn off room remote control using the touch panel ; per meeting; in case users misuse it.
Q. Common Area vs Meeting Room Devices
A. https://docs.microsoft.com/en-us/microsoftteams/devices/teams-android-devices-user-interface
Q. Blocking Address Book Lookups?
A1. Disable the Search Function
A2. Use Address Book Policies – https://www.graham-walsh.com/microsoft-teams-rooms-with-an-address-book-policy/
A3. Use Information Barries if you have an E5 license assigned.
Q. Next In the Room event
A. https://conferences.presentergroup.com/intheroom
Q. Using Room Finder with Outlook? How
A. https://techcommunity.microsoft.com/t5/exchange-team-blog/how-to-configure-the-new-room-finder-in-outlook/ba-p/1394162
Q. What is the difference between the Room vs Equipment mailboxes?
A. I think the major difference between room vs equipment is the attributes; room mailbox has a location attribute which equipment mailbox doesn’t have
Q. Is it on the roadmap to be able to default your view when you join a Teams Meeting from a single screen room (gallery view, combined view, presentation only?)
A1. I’m not specifically sure on that but I know it’s a much-requested feature. There is a lot of work being done on better utilizing the displays, so I’d be surprised if this doesn’t appear in a future update.
A2. I think with the updated Front of Room Layouts, this will change