Microsoft is sharing some of its Teams Rooms and Teams Meetings feature updates at InfoComm 2023 this week.
These releases include new cameras and live caption technology, collaboration tools, simplified service agent deployment, improved insights, and security enhancements.
UC Today’s Rob Scott discussed the latest updates to Microsoft Teams more broadly with Microsoft Teams Expert and Co-Founder of Empowering.Cloud, Tom Arbuthnot.
Teams Cameras and Captions
A number of the new Teams cameras were first announced at Microsoft Ignite in October 2022, and they are now soon to be released for customer preview or become generally available.
Next quarter, Cloud IntelliFrame for Teams Rooms on Windows will be made available to Teams Rooms Pro license holders.
The Cloud IntelliFrame makes it easier for remote attendees to see everyone’s faces by dividing single video feeds into composite views of attendees within focused video tiles.
Non-intelligent cameras will be supported by Microsoft Cloud AI, which processes the video stream from the room.
Multiple video streams and AI active speaker tracking will soon be available for intelligent cameras.
Customers who have deployed the Yealink SmartVision 60 and the latest Jabra Panacast 50 have had access to intelligent speaker capabilities which recognise in-room speakers through voice recognition and automatically name the speakers within the transcript.
The SmartVision 60 is able to group participants and label each video stream with their names.
Content cameras on Teams Rooms for Android will detect whiteboards and create a zoomed-in view of it as a separate video feed.
Smart camera controls on Teams Rooms Pro for Android give users the ability to change in-room camera framing. You can zoom in on the speaker, crop empty spaces, switch to a composite view, and create a frame for everyone in the room.
A profanity filtering toggle is now available for online meetings, which can be turned on or off for live captions.
Live caption improvements will make it easier to see what is being said and by whom.
The full speaker name will be displayed above their captions, the default number of lines displayed has been increased from two to three, and you can scroll through the last minute of captions.
The ‘Settings’ button will open a new pane beside the meeting window so it is easy to choose a language and style.
Four new customisation options come through the updated ‘Styles’ section, including selecting the font, choosing the font size, changing the height of the caption panel, and positioning the panel.
The caption panel can also be moved to the top or the bottom of the meeting view.
Teams Collaboration Tools
Front Row is turning individual backgrounds into shared backgrounds and making each video feed a uniform size so that attendees appear life-sized to participants, no matter their distance from the camera.
Spatial audio will track video gallery speakers more naturally. It will be added to online meetings as an enhancement to remote meeting experiences.
Together Mode controls for Teams Rooms on Windows are being added, enabling users to choose Together Mode for all participants and find the right layout to fit the meeting.
Support for Breakout Rooms will allow everyone, including those physically present, to join breakout sessions.
1:1 calling between a Teams Rooms and a SIP or H. 323-based VTC will allow Teams Room Pro customers to make one-to-one calls between Teams Rooms on Windows and VTC endpoints.
The redesign of Teams Rooms on Windows has now arrived. It includes a refreshed calendar with a scrollable list, room availabilities, high-level meeting details, intuitive visual cues, and one-touch meeting join via the room console.
Intelligent Recap is now available in English for Teams Premium users. Its intelligent recap generates meeting notes, tasks, and personalised highlights. AI-assisted recording and transcription also let users select and switch to topics which you would like to review.
The enhanced meeting recap experience is now available for all Teams users, allowing them to review the notes and transcript, and view shared content while simultaneously watching meeting recordings.
Collaborative notes will allow meeting attendees to collaborate in real-time on meeting notes, agendas, and tasks. It has been integrated with Teams, Loop, Planner, To Do, Office.com, and OneDrive for Business.
Teams Deployment, Insights, and Security
The Teams Rooms Pro Management service agent will be installed on devices, reducing the workload for IT departments.
Later in the year, there will be out-of-the-box experience improvements to speed up deployments from days to hours.
New device health signals on Windows devices are now available, which include OS alerts and app version of Teams Rooms, Bluetooth disablement, USB power setting, and blocks to Windows updates.
Resource Account Configurations have been added to the Teams Rooms Pro Management portal, allowing IT admins to control resource accounts and mailbox locations, license settings, and configurations.
The Insights Report offers issue summaries, remediation steps taken, and a value calculator.
This month, Teams Rooms Pro customers will gain an improved security profile for Teams Rooms through Microsoft Intune Plan 2 and Microsoft Defender for Endpoint Plan 2.
A meeting ID and passcode to join Teams Rooms meetings on Windows devices are also being launched to increase security.
Similarly, Google Workspace enabled passkeys for over nine million organisations as a replacement for passwords this month.
GCC-H support for Teams Rooms on Android and Teams admin centre is also rolling out imminently.
Finally, Windows 11 support is coming to Teams Rooms on Windows. Customers can choose to delay the update until November.
UC Today recently created a ‘market map’ of the top Microsoft Teams compliance vendors for 2023.
Next week will bring the annual Microsoft Teams event, Commsverse, at Mercedes-Benz World in the UK. The event will host over 50 expert-led sessions, providing professionals with the opportunity to gain a deeper understanding of Teams and Viva.
