By far, Microsoft Teams is leading the way in terms of video conferencing for the Remote Workforce. Gone are the days when all you could do was just hold a meeting. Now, there are many functionalities that come with it, in order to give you and your team the most holistic and productive experience ever.
What is Teams Rooms?
Teams now brings to you all of the things that you will ever need: video, audio, and content sharing with all of your colleagues, no matter how long or how large your meeting may be. Specifically, it comes with the following functionalities:
*Applications that can be launched at the touch of your finger on the screen;
*A compute module;
*Any other applications that you may need for your Teams Rooms (it is all custom configured, depending upon your requirements);
*Any other peripheral devices that you might need (which includes the speakers, a microphone and a camera);
*Any external monitors you may need (you can get up to a maximum of two);
*An HDMI interface.
All of the above items can be purchased directly from your Cloud Services Provider.
How To Deploy Teams Rooms
Implementing Teams Rooms is by not necessarily a simple task. Rather, it has to be planned out in different phases, in order to ensure that you get the most productivity out of your meetings. Here is a suggested plan you should consider following:
- Plan your inventory and what functionalities you will need:
In this phase, you will take stock of any existing conference rooms that your organization is using. Then, you need to plan out the extra capabilities that you want each room to have, for example, if you want to have smart cameras, extra whiteboards for project planning, if you need separate visuals in which to display your content, etc. It is very important that you pay close attention to this part of the planning, as it will impact your choice of device selection. A key area to focus on is also the acoustics of the meeting or conference rooms that you currently have.
- The selection of the devices:
Based upon your inventory analysis from the last step, you then need to decide which Teams Rooms solution will work best for your organization. For further guidance, click on this link here.
- The acquisition of the equipment:
Once you have selected the actual equipment and devices that you will need, the next step is to actually procure them. It is important to keep in mind here that you can get your required devices either as individual pieces, or as a complete solution package. You have the choice if you want your Cloud Services Provider to custom configure these devices for you, or you can do it yourself.
- Prepare for launch:
Once the devices have been configured and deployed, the next step is to plan as to how you will manage your Teams Rooms going into the future. You probably should select and designate a dedicated Audio Visual (AV) contact to do this for you, or you can even have Microsoft do this for you, if you subscribe to the Pro plan.
- Plan for the future:
The bottom line is that your organization will change in the coming years, and thus, so will your Teams Rooms needs. It is a highly scalable platform, and you can adjust it to your needs as they change. Most importantly, always keep your employees informed as well as to all the changes with Teams Rooms that will be going on, so that they can adjust accordingly as well.
The illustration below summarizes these steps:
(SOURCE: 1).
The Teams Rooms Plans
There are two types of plans:
- The Pro Plan:
This is deemed to be the most comprehensive and inclusive plan, and it is primarily designed for supporting at least 25 or more unique devices. The Teams Rooms admin can also centrally manage all of the conference and meeting rooms.
- The Basic Plan:
This plan is designed primarily for those organizations that have just a minimal number of devices to be managed, and have very basic conferencing and meeting rooms needs and/or requirements.
But before you can actually purchase a Teams Rooms plan, you need to first select the appropriate licensing scheme. Detailed information about this can be seen here.
Conclusions
Deciding upon how to plan out your Teams Rooms environment can be a daunting task. Contact us today if you need help!
Sources
- https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/microsoftteams/rooms/rooms-plan
- https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/microsoftteams/rooms/requirements
- https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/microsoftteams/rooms/rooms-licensing
