In today’s hybrid work environment, clear communication and effective collaboration are more important than ever. Microsoft Teams Rooms on Windows devices now feature AI-powered speaker recognition technology, expanding its capabilities to all microphones, not just intelligent speaker equipment. This is a huge step in bringing Copilot AI functionality into Teams Rooms. In the past, Microsoft required specific Intelligent Speaker hardware to enable this functionality, but this is no longer necessary as any MTR will be able to provide this capability. In this blogpost, we take a first look at this newly released feature for Teams Rooms on Windows and experience how the new cloud-powered AI speaker recognition makes a difference in an actual meeting.

In this blog post, we go over the procedure on how to analyze call and meeting quality for Microsoft Teams Room Android or Windows devices. The Microsoft Teams Admin Center (TAC) has the ability to allow administrators to perform Call Analytics that provides detailed information about calls and meetings for Teams Room devices. It includes data on devices, networks, connectivity, and call quality. This is especially useful for troubleshooting poor call quality for specific devices, isolate problem areas (e.g., network issues, firewall blockage, proxy delays and other latency problems). Sometimes during a particular meeting, users may experience inaudible or broken audio as well as video freezing or no video at all. Call analytics is one of the best tools available to determine the root causes.

Microsoft Teams Rooms on Windows consoles can now be efficiently deployed, provisioned, and managed using Windows AutoPilot and Autologin. This combination streamlines the process, eliminating the need for physical interaction during setup. Windows Autopilot and Autologin have just been released in PREVIEW this week. In this blog post, we walk through the steps on how to leverage this powerful feature for mass deployment of MTRW devices

In the latest 4.19.57 version of Teams Room on Windows, Microsoft introduced a simplified deployment option using one-time passwords, or OTPs. This is especially useful for those who work with a system integrator. An OTP eliminates the security risk of needing to share room credentials, like usernames and passwords, with your installer. The code is shared with a company administrator, who can remotely provision credentials to the device. OTPs are currently available on Windows devices only. In this blog post, we walk through the steps of deploying MTR Windows using this new option.

The Poly Studio X family includes all-in-one video bars and modular solutions for large boardrooms and training rooms. With incredible audio and video technology, compact sizes, and simple deployment, these devices are ideal for classrooms and environments of various sizes. The devices are equipped with an 8" TC8 or 10" TC10 touchscreen controller that allow users to join meetings, start instant meetings, make calls, share content, and manage participants in a meeting. In this blogpost, we look at some of the frequently asked questions regarding pairing of MTR Android touch controllers.

A Microsoft Teams Signature Room is a dedicated meeting space that is designed to provide the best possible experience for hybrid meetings. It includes a set of hardware and software that is specifically optimized for Microsoft Teams, as well as a carefully designed layout that promotes collaboration and engagement. Microsoft provides design guidance for Signature Rooms using a Jabra Panacast50. In this blogpost, we look at a possible Teams Signature Room layout that uses the Poly Studio E70 camera. Caveat: The information here does not represent any official guidance from HP | Poly or Microsoft. However, it is a real design that has been used in an actual signature room.

Teams common area phones are typically placed in an area like a lobby or another area that is available to many people to make a call: a reception area, lobby, or conference phone. Common area phones are signed in with accounts tied to a Microsoft Teams Shared Devices license which costs USD8.00 per month. 

This article provides an overview of how to deploy and configure Teams phone devices as common area phones for shared spaces. Many of the Teams voice deployment steps were already covered in a previous blog post and here we will use the existing tenant dial plan and voice routing policy. Number assignment will be done using a new cmdlet that were introduced recently. Once complete the phone will be able to display a dialpad and make and receive PSTN calls via direct routing

While the Teams Admin Center (TAC) remains as the main administrative portal for managing Teams as well as Teams Devices including Teams Phones, Teams Panels and Teams Rooms, organizations can now make use of the Microsoft Teams Rooms Pro Management portal to manage Teams Room devices that have the Teams Room Pro license. Note that management service is not available with Teams Room Basic licenses as mentioned in a previous blogpost comparing the Basic vs Pro licenses. Recently, Microsoft added Teams Room on Android (MTRA) devices to this service and so now organizations can manage not only Teams Room on Windows (MTRW) systems but also on Android as well. It's time for a walkthrough of the various management capabilities of the Teams Room Pro Management service and highlight some of the useful features using this portal compared with using the Teams Admin Center.

Large organizations that prioritize security want to migrate to cloud services such as Microsoft 365, but they must ensure that their users can only access approved resources. Companies have traditionally restricted access by restricting domain names or IP addresses. This strategy fails in a world where software as a service (SaaS) apps are hosted in the public cloud and use shared domain names such as outlook.office.com and login.microsoftonline.com. Instead of restricting users to approved identities and resources, blocking these addresses would prevent them from accessing Outlook on the web entirely. Tenant restrictions are a feature in Azure Active Directory (Azure AD) that addresses this issue . In this blogpost, we look at how MTR devices can potentially implement this capability.