Remote Support
31 Mar How to build an effective Microsoft Teams Rooms setup
Hybrid working and virtual interaction are increasingly important for any company to consider. Microsoft Teams Rooms is an essential tool in this, as it allows you to host meetings with remote employees seamlessly — with HD video, audio, and content sharing included.
However, the difference between Rooms and other solutions is that Rooms enables hybrid environments — meaning that you can have a seamless meeting with both remote and in-office employees.
Ensuring that your Microsoft Teams Room is set up properly and effectively is a vital part of having successful meetings with the tool. That’s why in this article, we’re going to go over the things you need to consider when setting up Microsoft Teams Rooms.
What is Microsoft Teams Rooms?
Microsoft Teams Rooms is a hybrid workspace solution that allows on-site employees to collaborate with remote colleagues through a virtual meeting room.
By installing Microsoft-certified hardware in a physical room, you can patch in remote employees and create a robust digital space for your employees to meet, huddle and collaborate.
With these, Teams Rooms aims to be the meeting room of the future. With the ability to have everyone in a large room in a virtual meeting on a single camera — depending on the equipment you have — the possibilities are endless.
Building an Effective Microsoft Teams Rooms Setup
Select the Room
The first thing to do when setting up for Microsoft Teams Rooms is to select the room you want the meeting to take place in.
The room should be a suitable size for the number of physical attendees, so you can capture everyone reasonably — as a large attendance will require more money to be spent on more specialised Microsoft-certified equipment.
This means selecting a room with good coverage and enough space to put cameras and microphones where they need to be is crucial.
Select the Correct Hardware
Hardware is important, as all of the equipment that you use when using Rooms to communicate has to be Microsoft-certified.
Touch Control
There are several specialised hub devices that have full touch screen capabilities for Microsoft Teams Rooms.
For example, the Microsoft Surface Hub 2S was designed by Microsoft to be used in the huddle space. It has touchscreen capability and is perfect for the Microsoft Teams Rooms space.
Camera
Being able to see your coworkers is crucial for any virtual meeting. There are many Microsoft-certified cameras that work with Rooms, and they all depend on the size of your room.
Audio
Being able to hear everyone in the meeting is also important, and a good sound system is crucial to ensuring that anyone in the physical room can hear employees patching in from remote locations.
Microphone
Inversely, another vital aspect is having a good microphone or set of microphones so everyone in the room can be heard by those connecting through the internet.
Ensuring that you have good coverage is important, otherwise, the meetings won’t be as seamless as Rooms is trying to make them.
How to Choose The Best Hardware
With needing to have certified equipment of the best quality, knowing what you actually need for your specific room can be challenging.
However, Microsoft has several Team Rooms ‘packages’ that have everything you need to get started — all of which are designed with certain kinds of rooms in mind.Install the Hardware
Ensuring that the hardware is configured and set up properly is crucial to ensure the success of the virtual room.
- The console needs to be able to access the internet, either through an ethernet connection or WiFi.
- The room will need power outlets at the display(s) and the table.
- Your speaker(s) ideally should be under the display(s), and the camera should be at the eye level of the participant.
- Microphones should be installed on the ceiling or on the tables.
These are the most important of the many considerations that need to be made when installing the hardware in your virtual room.
Getting in contact with a knowledgeable organisation like ourselves is much easier than having to do this all yourself, as the setup process is quite complex.
Complete the Technical Setup and Licensing
Every device running Microsoft Teams Rooms will require its own license and will need to be set up correctly.
The technical process has a lot of steps that need to be done correctly to ensure that everything works, so here’s a video by Microsoft that’ll take you through the lengthy process.
As for licensing, a single license is needed for every singular system running Microsoft Teams Rooms.
According to Microsoft, a Teams Room system can be one of the following:
- A Teams Rooms on Windows compute module and attached touch console
- A Teams Rooms on Android device and touch console connected via either an IP-based or USB connection
- A Surface Hub
There are two different types of licenses — Teams Room Basic and Teams Room Pro.
- Teams Rooms Basic is the core Rooms experience, and can only be used in 25 systems within an organisation. This license essentially lets you run meetings out of the box, and that’s it.
- Teams Rooms Pro is great for medium and enterprise businesses and delivers new experiences such as intelligent audio and video, dual-screen support, and more.
With so many complex considerations, getting in touch with someone knowledgeable to help is the best way to ensure that your business will have the correct licenses and setup for Microsoft Teams Rooms.
Optimise the Experience
Ensuring that everyone within the company has access to Microsoft Teams on their personal devices and a Microsoft Teams Room within the organisation is a great way to optimise the experience and ensure that the virtual and physical aspects of the meeting are seamless.
Furthermore, having a fully native system is far better than having a self-made system that uses non-native devices. This is because a fully native system unlocks key features such as one-touch join and proximity features.
How We Can Help
Microsoft Teams Rooms is an ambitious virtual room project from Microsoft, and utilising it in your workplace is a definite way to ensure that employees can collaborate and work together seamlessly, no matter where they are.
As the world moves forward and looks to more remote solutions for working, Microsoft Teams Rooms is a great solution that further pushes the boundaries of the virtual and physical relationship of collaboration and communication.
However, the process of setting everything up can be a challenge, and quite a lot to take in for someone who hasn’t had experience with the process.
If you’re looking to get started with Microsoft Teams Rooms, contact us today and see how we can help you!
