Microsoft Ignite Fall 2022 (12-14th October 2022) is over, and it is a good time to wrap up and summarize highlights for Unified Communications and especially Microsoft Teams
Mesh for Microsoft Teams
Microsoft announced that you can now use mesh avatars in Microsoft Teams private preview. Mesh avatars are now available in the Microsoft Teams App store for Teams to customize and personalize team member avatars in meetings. You can view and select the customizations for each individual avatar. Maybe you have noticed that in Video Conference we are mostly talking and engaging with attendees who have enabled microphone and camera. There are dozens of very good excuses not to use cameras in certain situations. Using Avatars can increase inclusion and visibility here. It’s also fun to use them and their large amount of gesture which need to be controlled within this new Microsoft Teams App called “Mesh”. Not 100% sure how long this fun is going to last. Are Avatars the new funny virtual backgrounds?
Microsoft Teams Phone Mobile now generally available
Microsoft Teams Phone Mobile (formerly known as Operator Connect Mobile)is integrated with a user’s mobile device native dialer, meaning users can use their mobile phone the way they are accustomed to while the organization can enable business calling features and policies on these mobile devices. Calls across networks and devices can be converted from mobile networks to internet-based video calls in Microsoft Teams. Teams Phone Mobile is now available with Rogers in Canada and Telia in Sweden. Deutsche Telekom, BT, Verizon and Swisscom will launch soon as well as, more to follow.
New Cisco Devices announced for Microsoft Teams
Unexpected news from Cisco: For the first time Microsoft Teams meetings will be available native on certified Cisco meeting devices, starting with 6 devices: Cisco Board Pro 55-inch and 75-inch, the Cisco Room Bar and the Cisco Room Kit Pro. As you can see, Cisco wants to span small-to-large meeting rooms spaces. They also announced Cisco Desk Camera 4K – an intelligent USB webcam and will be available by the end of October 2022. This deep integration with Teams allows organizations to use Microsoft Teams as the default meeting solution, this is the end of third-party tools. Default user experience on the devices will be Microsoft Teams but they continue supporting Webex meetings.
Microsoft Teams Rooms Pro Portal
All certified Cisco devices -and of course all other Microsoft Teams certified devices from other vendors – will be managed through the new Teams Rooms Pro management portal. This portal is a different site than Microsoft Teams Admin Center (TAC), administrators can remotely control the devices and monitor the status of each device with incident management for internal use. It does not substitute to create a Microsoft Tech Support Ticket. Installers need to be installed on each room. Additionally, they can set policies and alerts to notify IT about issues such as low battery levels and overheating. Updated and Ring Management is also part of this new portal as well as Service Now integration. Tickets can be assigned to external partners or internally with different access controls.
DTEN announced Microsoft Teams certification for their portfolio
DTEN might be already known as new innovative Zoom focused player for touch-enabled video conference all-in-one solutions. Their products combine 4K monitor screens with microphones, loudspeakers, interactive Whiteboard, and cameras, offering different sizes and form factors. At Ignite they announced that their complete portfolio is going to be Microsoft Teams certified in the close future and development on Windows platform have started, not only Android.
Poly product and certification news
At Ignite Poly announced Microsoft Teams Certification the Poly G7500 video conferencing system. Poly Studio X70 video bar certification is expected in November 2022. Poly Studio X30 and X50 video bars have also been re-certified for Teams with Android 10.Poly CCX 350 is the new entry level IP Desk Phone, supporting Microsoft Teams. Poly Rove DECT IP Phone is now available for deployment on Microsoft Teams SIP Gateway. Poly also highlights their People Framing capabilities based on AI which we could witness in our “Alex & Ragnar Show” about Ignite Highlights.
Neat reveals Microsoft Teams certification for Frame and Bar Pro
Neat revealed that their first-of-its-kind portrait-oriented video device, Neat Frame, and Neat Bar Pro (Video Collaboration Bar) have now been officially certified for Microsoft Teams. In the past they certified already Neat Bar, Neat Pad and Neat Board. Complete Neat portfolio is now Teams certified!
New Microsoft Teams Premium license
In August 2020, Microsoft tried to launch a Teams Advanced Communications add-on license which was everything but successful. One year later, they added more features and at Ignite these capabilities moved into the new Teams Premium license:
- Scaling up Teams Live Events.
- Compliance Recording Integration
- Contact Center Solution Integration
- Customize meeting pre-join experience with custom logos
- Customize Together mode scenes
- Deploy custom policy packages to Teams users
Is it only license renamed? No, Microsoft is adding more and most important – new features like:
- Intelligent recap
- Live translations for captions
- Meeting guides
- Custom branding
- Meeting watermarks
- Auto-application of sensitivity labels to meetings
- Advanced webinars
- Advanced virtual appointments
Find more about these new features at Practical365.
