Last Updated on January 27, 2022 by GrahamWalsh
What a great turnout for the first show of 2022 in both regions. See below for the slides and Q&A session.
Q&A From EMEA/US Session
Q. Can someone elaborate on what it means with Teams Web-client release
A1. Good question. Last time i understood that it means that the Teams cloud services pushes new features like on the desktop app or Android app without to install a new App release update
A2. Sohail from Microsoft wrote a good post here. Full blog post coming soon from Microsoft.
Q. I get asked which version of the client is needed to start getting updates from the web.
A1. Web client releases are enabled from 4.9.x. or higher.
A2. Nice if you can move fast. Guess it means features appearing even without a new “build”, one to watch out for as a lot of admins only expect new features with new “build”
A3. Web client updates are available to all Teams Rooms with application versions 4.10 and 4.9. Admins will be able to enroll in Teams Rooms public preview program to get sneak peak of the web client features soon.”
Q. What about Public Preview to see these new features first?
A1. Outside of putting the MTR account in the public preview program, you have to manual sign in with the MTR account in the desktop app or web app to activate public preview like you do as a user.
A2. Check out this article on how to enable public preview.
Q. Be nice if the room system could know it’s not joined/being used and auto release the room
A1. The problem with this is that if people are having a round table meeting, and not using the Microsoft Teams Room system, then the room needs to be booked out.
A2. Only issue (and it could be an option) is if people reserve the room without a Teams meeting, like for a team birthday party or something.
A3. True, there is a risk there, but if the room was booked “for a meeting” and others are on the meeting, but not the room, maybe. But agree, there is a risk
Q. Will you be able to get a report of meetings booked but not checked in using the Teams Panel?
A. I would guess that should come from the Teams Admin Center or in the Graph API somewhere possibly.
Q. Is the “auto clear if no check-in” feature only going to be available with the panel, or can that be set as a tenant-wide default?
A. It is a setting on the local device. It is not yet a policy setting.
Q. We also get a lot of questions if you start an ad-hoc meeting from the MTR console or with proximity join that the Teams panels shows the room is in use.
A. Good use case, I would suggest adding that to the Teams Feedback Portal. aka.ms/TeamsFeedback
Q. Would be nice to be able to reserve the meeting room from the Panel later on the day – even when it is occupied now.
A. I am sure the product group have talked about this, and it will appear at some point on a roadmap.
Q. Walkie Talkie in an interesting concept. Will it come to the Desktop Client?
A1. Yes it is meant to be there. Must enable it via policy/PowerShell.
A2. The Construction industry will embrace the PTT Walkie Talkie function inside teams. 100%
Q. Can you talk a little more about the location based roles scope and the Room Expansion Planning on managed services?
A. This allows you to give a user in London, just access to devices in London and not the rest of your organisation for example.
Q. Multiple cameras support is available today but one at a time do you know if we might have the option for multiple camera support of MS Teams to process a single feed from multiple cascaded cameras, this is required for large room designs.
A. This is where Intelligent Cameras will play a vital role. Otherwise, large rooms will still require specialist installations and equipment to get the best experience.
A2. You can do this using a camera hub from the likes of Yealink. Or 1 Beyond
Q. What is a happening with MTRoA and HDMI Ingest?
A1. HDMI ingest on MTRA was dependent on the chip vendor releasing the driver to support it. Some vendors used a different chip that had available drivers. All others used a different chip that didn’t have drivers
A2. Poly HDMI is now working since last week
A3. Just waiting on Logitech now
A4. Just be aware with Yealink kit, you must purchase the separate content sharing box that is placed on the conference table. There is no native HDMI port on the A20/A30.
A5. Logi Rally Bar and Bar Mini might work if you plug directly into the bar. But only if there isn’t a Tap console connected.
A6. Yes, the built in switch works but that is for driving BYOM
A7. Logitech Ingest still not working as of yesterday.
A8. I was told sometime this quarter.
Q. Any plans to introduce a history of changes implemented to devices via the MTRPP and by whom?
A1. Not heard of anything like this.
A2. Not sure. But join the Wednesday Open Office Hours calls and ask directly
Q. Is the new Poly X70 MTRoA Microsoft Teams certified?
A1. No, it is not Microsoft Teams certified. Just for Zoom. Poly claim it is certified but via Cloud Video Interop
A2. The E70 Camera on its own is Certified.
A3. Controversy aside, I’m really looking forward to a certified X70
Q. So is everyone with £10k to spend on an MTRA?
A1. I ordered one for £4479
A2. Still a lot
A3. Yeah, I agree. Compares to a Logitech Rally Bar plus Tap though. Does effectively have a £2600 E70 camera in it.
A4. I got quoted £4700 on x70…But then went £2300 on a Yealink A30 that I didn’t need to wait months for
Q. Just wanted to say, this session is ace, like the short but fast paced points, first time on the meeting – tho top to the point, thanks
A. Thanks for the feedback
Q. Can you post the link here to that article?
A. https://www.avinteractive.com/features/comment/greg-jeffreys-hybrid-workspaces-teams-rooms-mistakes-avixa-standards-22-12-2021/
Q. Planning for Front Row ideas?
A1. Another thing to think about with screen size… is if you want to use Front Row, then the presentation is about 70% of the screen size
A2. SOO true, maybe there is also a need for an article “what IT gets wrong about Audio Video in MTRs”
A3. Lars Berlau has created a calculator on screen size and recently updated with a Front row calculation as well… but an audio session would be great. View it here.
Q. Has the captcha prompting been resolved with Webex direct join on MTR consoles?
A1. Not that I’m aware of.
A2. If you enable lobby on the Webex meeting, that should remove the captcha. Microsoft are looking into this with Cisco
Q. Interesting question from a security minded customer:
During Covid times it happens pretty frequently, that an important hybrid meeting ends up being a remote meeting with NOBODY being in the office = booked MTR room. => So, how to prevent the situation, that “anybody” can walk into the room and simply join their super-secret meeting?
In other words: Any chance of getting a PIN-Code to be entered on the MTR console or anything similar?
A. Maybe when Join by Meeting ID arrives in July 2022, it will have a PIN feature. You can also Lock the meeting today to prevent unknown people joining.
Q. Do people have issues with MTR deployments e.g. Network, security, Account Setup etc?
A. I found that a LOT of companies need to read this document at least half a dozen times, before they “get it”: aka.ms/mtrsecurity
A2. It starts with customers realizing that MTR’s cannot and should not “be treated like just another endpoint on their network”
A3. Or buy the deploy service
A4. Microsoft planning guide here
A5. Often the ppl at end corps – who liaise with for the Teams installs, they’re not AV ppl, either loaned out for network, but security teams need to get involved, often ops teams too… so you have to wear a few hats
A6. As a customer working in Finance. We would require the vendor/installer to supply a detailed low level design document to let the infrastructure teams know the requirements inc. ports and addresses to Whitelist. There are lots of things to configure on a secured corporate network and most customers just wouldn’t know.
Q. Where can one buy deployment services
A1. Use a Microsoft Meeting Room Partner – full global list here.
A2. Collabtech, OneConnectservices and some vendors also provide their own service, sometimes provided by the two above
Q&A from APAC Session
Q. Do many people use Proximity Join or Room Remote?
A1. I feel it’s a big education uplift for a standard end user. As Graham says, I feel it’s more of a power user feature.
A2. If the users device could detect they were in the room, pop up a notification on their personal device asking if they would like to control the room that would remove the steps for the end user to go hunting for the feature. But then that introduces a whole new set of challenges.
Q. Does every think Cortana should be on by default?
A1. I think it should be controlled by Policy rather than a toggle.
A2. Should be off when setting up a new device.
Q. I recall that the ability to rename cameras is here or coming? will be very useful for multi cam rooms
A. I am not aware that you can rename cameras. You will get a preview so can see which camera you want to use.
Q. Will Front Row be available on MTRoA soon after MTRoW?
A. That is the plan, be there within a few months I guess.
Q. Any best practises on managing rooms with Intune/Endpoint Manager?
A. Super excellent article from Craig Chiffers Managing a Microsoft Teams Room (MTR) Device with Intune – Part 1 – Theme – Blog – Chiffers.com
Q. Logitech can extract audio on a Rally Bar/Rally Bar Mini with a USB-A to 3.5mm adaptor
A. Something like this adapter
A2. Yeah, we don’t “whitelist” or certify certain adaptors, but it is a generic implementation. I have tested with about 5 generic ones with success
Q. Hearing Augmentation
A1. Logitech have had mixed feedback. Some customers aren’t too concerned as it becomes an inclusivity issue as some people with hearing difficulties don’t like attention drawn to them by having to wear a device around their neck etc. Also, the feedback we get is that hearing aids/implants are very good now
A2. Officially supporting Dante on all vendors offers an option to extract hearing aug devices