Microsoft Teams Rooms is introducing new experiences and features to enable equal participation for everyone, regardless of their location. With the shift to hybrid work environments, Microsoft recognizes the need for collaboration tools that accommodate diverse work settings and habits. The goal is to create a fluid experience that allows individuals to choose where and when they work.
The new innovations in Teams Rooms aim to provide a seamless and inclusive meeting experience for all participants, whether they are joining from a conference room, home office, or on the go. Microsoft unveiled their vision for the future of Teams Rooms in March, emphasizing the importance of natural connections and removing boundaries to collaboration.
Throughout the year, Microsoft will introduce a range of new experiences in Teams Rooms to ensure that everyone can be seen, heard, and fully participate in meetings from any location. These features, capabilities, and devices are designed to enhance the hybrid meeting experience and support effective communication and engagement for all users.
Equal Footing Collaboration
With so many people working from home this past year, we shared a more balanced meeting experience, where nearly all participants were joining remotely and on equal footing. As your organization plans for the hybrid work world, you have an opportunity to extend this equitable meeting experience across workspaces, ensuring everyone can collaborate without compromise.
To give people in the room a greater sense of connection to remote participants and support collaboration before, during, and after meetings, we’re introducing a new content layout called front row. Visually, this new layout moves the video gallery to the bottom of the screen so in-room participants can see remote colleagues face to face across a horizontal plane – similar to if they were in the same room.
Meeting content is surrounded by contextual fluid components like the agenda, tasks, and notes, which can be updated in real-time, helping you stay engaged and productive. Additionally, the meeting chat is brought clearly into view so when in a room you can easily see and engage in the conversation in real-time. This layout will be supported across both single and dual display configurations.
Enhancing Inclusivity
Helping remote participants establish a genuine presence in the room is key to delivering an inclusive hybrid meeting experience. Turning on video is one of the best things you can do when joining remotely and with new video layouts for Teams Rooms, we’ll maximize screen real estate by splitting the video gallery across all available displays when content isn’t being shared. With increased screen space, video of remote participants can be seen more clearly, bringing greater attention to the people who aren’t in the room.
New Video Layouts and Interactive Features
We’re also bringing popular features from the personal Teams meeting experience to Teams Rooms. With the ability to pin or spotlight multiple video streams, you can maintain a clear view of the selected videos when in a room. Remote participants can promote their presence in the room by engaging in the meeting, which doesn’t always require speaking up. Live reactions, now visible in a Teams Room, allows you to share sentiments, and when using the classic video grid layout, chat bubbles alert in-room participants to the conversation happening alongside the meeting, so nothing gets missed and all voices are heard.
Optimizing Remote Viewing and Speaker Identification in Teams Rooms
When you join meetings from a personal account, your individual video and profile information makes it easy to identify who said what but faces and voices can get lost in the crowd when joining from a shared meeting space. We are working with our certified OEM partners to deliver audio and video capabilities that allow every person in the room to be seen and heard more clearly.
Meeting transcripts are a great tool for you to catch up on a meeting asynchronously, but traditional transcription services can’t identify or differentiate between speakers. Intelligent speakers, now generally available from EPOS and Yealink, are designed for Teams Rooms and use Microsoft’s voice recognition technology in Teams to identify who is speaking and apply their name to the meeting transcript. After a quick voice enrollment in Teams, speakers are recognized automatically, and biometric enrollment information is securely stored and manageable in the Office 365 Cloud.
FAQs:
What are Teams Rooms?
Teams Rooms are dedicated collaboration spaces equipped with specialized hardware and software, designed to enhance meeting experiences and support seamless communication and collaboration for both in-room and remote participants.
How do the new video layouts in Teams Rooms optimize remote viewing?
The new video layouts in Teams Rooms maximize screen real estate by splitting the video gallery across available displays, providing a clearer view of remote participants for in-room attendees.
What interactive features are available in Teams Rooms?
Teams Rooms offer interactive features such as pinning or spotlighting multiple video streams, live reactions, and chat bubbles to facilitate engagement and ensure all voices are heard during meetings.
How do intelligent speakers enhance meeting transcripts in Teams Rooms?
Intelligent speakers, available from partners like EPOS and Yealink, utilize Microsoft's voice recognition technology to identify speakers in Teams Rooms. This ensures accurate speaker identification in meeting transcripts, improving the ability to review and reference discussions.
Are the intelligent speakers secure in terms of biometric enrollment information?
Yes, biometric enrollment information for intelligent speakers in Teams Rooms is securely stored and managed in the Office 365 Cloud, ensuring privacy and data protection.
Can these features be used in both single and dual display configurations?
Yes, the new features in Teams Rooms, including video layouts and interactive capabilities, are supported in both single and dual display configurations, providing flexibility and compatibility for various room setups.
Conclusion:
With the new video layouts and interactive features in Teams Rooms, Microsoft is dedicated to optimizing the meeting experience for both in-room and remote participants. The split video gallery across available displays maximizes screen real estate, ensuring remote users are seen more clearly and fostering inclusivity in hybrid meetings. The ability to pin or spotlight multiple video streams allows for focused viewing, while live reactions and chat bubbles keep all voices heard and engaged. Additionally, partnerships with certified OEM partners enable advanced audio and video capabilities, enhancing clarity for everyone in the room. Intelligent speakers from EPOS and Yealink further improve meeting transcripts by leveraging Microsoft's voice recognition technology to accurately identify speakers and assign their names to the transcript, enabling seamless asynchronous catch-up.
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