Microsoft Ignite Overview

Microsoft Ignite took place last week as a digital event. Our UC Specialist Andy Byett was on hand to hear all the latest news. Check out his quick overview of the announcements:

'There were many announcements in the Teams Devices space, from product launches to new categories and programs from Microsoft.  I’ve summarised the main updates below and will add links to the on-demand Ignite sessions where Microsoft delve into more detail.

There are some important changes to the way Microsoft view the category and ever-expanding feature sets from Teams.  Any client currently migrating to Teams will be looking for these features over the coming months. 

The goal from Microsoft is to create people-centric meeting rooms that reduce friction for participants, make remote attendees feel more inclusive and enhance true collaboration and co-creation'.

Microsoft Teams Rooms:

Microsoft have announced that the Android collaboration bars will now be brought under the ‘Microsoft Teams Rooms’ banner and will sit alongside the current Windows 10 Teams Rooms in the portfolio.  Teams Rooms for Android and Teams Rooms for Windows will be delivering an ever-closer feature-set but it is important to note they still do not and will not offer the same experience.

Currently available Android MTR Devices are Yealink VC210  & the Poly Studio X30 & X50

New devices like the Yealink MVC 400 and Audiocodes rxv80 are coming soon. The Poly G7500 will also one day also support Teams as a native device.

Android will also be getting numerous new features, one of these is an official GUI for desk consoles. This will allow a standardised user interface to align with the current MTR.

Intelligent speakers for Microsoft teams Rooms:

Teams Intelligent speakers were announced – these are certified peripherals which will add advanced speech recognition for intelligent transcription; they will recognise and remember an individual’s voice in order to give better note taking and transcription in meeting rooms.  Yealink and EPOS being the first manufacturers later this year.

Microsoft Teams Panels:

A logical extension of the Teams platform; these will be available from Crestron and Yealink initially, with the expected functionality of booking, identifying occupancy, checking meeting details etc. These pair with the Teams Room for a fully connected solution. 3rd party apps can also be integrated to expand the functionality. Also, nearby available spaces can be searched from the console. This will surely be an extremely popular addition to the Teams Rooms meeting space experience.

Microsoft Surface Hub 2

The 85” Hub 2 was announced, with expected shipping dates of early 2021.

Microsoft displayed the two Hubs in their new ‘co-ordinated join’ mode; one hub is driving the meeting with audio and video whilst the other is joining to provide whiteboarding & content display. This feature is now standard and works across phones, laptops and Hubs enabled with Teams.

On-demand sessions on Teams rooms and Surface Devices can be found here:

Keynote: The Future of Work

Microsoft Teams devices for shared spaces

Driving Innovation for Modern Work with Surface Hub and Duo