Below is an extract from Microsoft’s website with all the features that it will support.

1. All-in-one dedicated Teams devices
Microsoft Teams displays bring together your favorite Teams features: chat, meetings, calls, calendar, and files into a single device, promoting human connection in the remote workplace. With Teams displays, you can enjoy a high-quality microphone, camera, and speakers (or Bluetooth headset) for a reliable calling and meeting experience.

Dedicated Teams devices like Bluetooth headsets (left) and displays (center) create a more reliable calling and meeting experience.

2. Glanceable ambient personalizable displays
Microsoft Teams displays help you stay on top of your busy work with always-on displays highlighting important activities and notifications and removing distractions from your primary work device. Also, you can personalize your Microsoft Teams displays by changing your wallpaper and additional personalization options will become available.

Microsoft Teams displays can be personalized to include wallpapers and highlight important activities and notifications.

3. Hands-free voice assistance with Cortana
Microsoft Teams displays allow you to speak in natural language to effortlessly join and present in meetings, dictate replies to a Teams chat, and more. You can make requests to Cortana like “What is on my calendar today?”, “Share this document with Megan”, “Join my next meeting”, “Add Joe to this meeting”, “Present the quarterly review deck”.

4. Better together with your PC
Microsoft Teams displays seamlessly integrate with your PC to bring a companion experience that allows for seamless cross-device interaction. You can easily lock and unlock both devices from your connected PC, open files or messages then easily transition to your PC, and join meetings from either device with a distributed meeting experience across both devices.

Using Microsoft Teams displays allows for a distributed meeting experience across devices.

5. Enterprise privacy, security, and compliance
Microsoft Teams displays ensure user’s privacy and meets enterprise-grade security and compliance in several ways:

• With a camera shutter and microphone mute switch, users can feel assured that your conversations and video will remain private.
• IT admins can securely manage, update, and monitor Microsoft Teams displays through the Teams admin portal.
• Users will securely sign in with their enterprise Azure Active Directory credentials.
• Voice assistance experiences are delivered using Cortana enterprise-grade services that meet Microsoft 365 privacy, security and compliance commitments.

The post Microsoft Teams Displays appeared first on Technology Blog.

Let’s take a closer look at the core components of the offering:

24/7 Intelligent operations
Around-the-clock software and machine learning to automate updates, detect and manage incidents, and scale rooms efficiently.

• Real-time monitoring to quickly detect and troubleshoot issues
• Automated update management saves you time and resources
• Real-time alerts to notify you where and how to act
• Proactive remediation resolves certain incidents on your behalf

Dedicated experts
A team of experts provide 24×7 service operations, tiered support, and incident resolution assistance.

• Incident diagnosis with prescriptive guidance on cause and actions required
• Automated and support engineer assistance on troubleshooting
• Single point escalation support for all hardware vendors
• Integration with ServiceNow

Enhanced insights
Benefit from rich analytics, reporting, and proven learnings at scale across many customers.

• Proven learnings at scale that continually improve the operational experience
• Reports and dashboards on daily operations and room performance including inventory, room health, and room reliability
• Insights and recommendations on room usage and incident trend history
• Full transparency on all operations taken on your behalf, and alerts that need your attention using the dedicated admin portal

Microsoft Teams Rooms: Introducing Standard and Premium

The Microsoft Teams Rooms Standard offering, formerly known as the Meeting Room offering, enables inclusive and collaborative meeting room experiences across Microsoft Teams Rooms, collaboration bars, and Surface Hub devices. The Microsoft Teams Rooms Standard offering provides the necessary licenses for Microsoft Teams and Microsoft Endpoint Manager Intune. Furthermore, the offering enables Phone System, necessary for PSTN integration, and Audio Conferencing, where available.

As part of this offering, customers have access to a rich management experience through the Teams Admin Center. Today, we’re announcingseveralnew capabilities in the Teams Admin Centerthat make it easier to deploy and manage a fleet of devices, with improvements across device set-up, bulk management tasks, and health monitoring. With these enhancements, managing Teams devices has never been easier. And because you can now manage your Microsoft Teams Room devices in the Teams Admin Center, you can manage all your Teams devices – including collaboration bars, IP phones, and more—from one location.  

In addition, we’re launching the new Microsoft Teams Rooms Premium offering. Microsoft Teams Rooms Premium includes a remote management service that enables customers to shift the operational responsibility of managing and monitoring Microsoft Teams Rooms to Microsoft. With Microsoft Teams Rooms Premium, our customers have access to intelligent software, dedicated experts, and enhanced insights. This proactive and real-time management service relies on Microsoft technology experts to handle room system operations remotely, enabling you to free up IT and enhance meeting productivity. Microsoft provides 24/7 management and monitoring of your room operating system and software, surfacing insights and alerts around any action needed on-site and taking remote action on your behalf as permitted. Today’s offering is just the beginning, and we look forward to expanding with additional premium experiences in the future.

Microsoft Teams Rooms Standard is available today for US $15 per device per month. You can read more in the blog on Tech Community to get started. Microsoft Teams Rooms Premium is available in select countries* today for US $50 per device per month. You can learn more in the Tech Community blog and https://rooms.microsoft.com.

Full articles and more info

https://www.microsoft.com/en-us/microsoft-365/blog/2020/07/21/microsoft-teams-meetings-hybrid-workplace-options/

https://techcommunity.microsoft.com/t5/microsoft-teams-blog/introducing-the-new-microsoft-teams-rooms-premium/ba-p/1527686

The post Introducing the new Microsoft Teams Rooms Premium appeared first on Technology Blog.

As conversations of returning to the office begin to circulate, operations and facilities leads find themselves in an attempt to plan for a largely unforeseeable future. Although this transition will vary greatly around the world, one notion that seems to be repeated is the need to be prepared for any possible outcome. For many organizations, this means equipping their workforce with technology which enables them to seamlessly transition between remote and in-office working as needed – something that is only possible with the right collaboration gear and platform to serve as the glue holding together a distributed staff.  Since COVID-19, Microsoft Teams has witnessed tremendous growth in its daily active users — from 32 million in early March* to a staggering 75 million by April**. Today, Poly is proud to make another addition to the broadest device portfolio for Microsoft Teams with the certification of the Studio X family.

Already an affirmed devotee of Microsoft Teams? Now, you can order the Studio X30 and X50 with native Teams already running right out of the box. And, if you’ve already purchased and/or deployed the Studio X and would like to run the native Teams app, simply install the Poly Video OS Software 3.1.1 update and select Teams as your preferred collaboration platform.

What’s New?

Proximity Join

Now more than ever, the fewer times throughout the day that you can touch shared devices and high-traffic areas, the better. With the new Proximity Join feature, you can simply walk into any available meeting space and join a meeting from your personal device via the Microsoft Teams app.

Leave Your Device Behind

Joining meetings has never been simpler, now you can walk into the scheduled meeting room and with a simple touch of the Teams button on the TC8 you’re in the meeting.

Content Sharing Via Teams App

Have something to share during your meeting? Now you can easily share content from your phone or laptop via the Teams app.

Consistent User Experience

Familiarizing yourself with different meeting technology is not only frustrating, but it can also cause meeting delays and waste people’s time. A native Microsoft Teams experience means that users can expect a familiar user interface while meeting from their home office, desk, or huddle spaces.

Smarter Tech Meets Unparalleled Poly Quality

Poly has an unparalleled track record of driving innovation and prioritizing quality in the video conferencing space. The Studio X continues in this spirit, featuring Poly’s advanced MeetingAI which uses artificial intelligence and machine learning to combat the common distractions that derail your meetings.

Best Audio – Always

Keep distracting noise and outside conversations from disrupting your meeting with Poly NoiseBlockAI and Acoustic Fence. Common noises such as typing, tapping, paper sliding, and candy wrapper crinkling are all kept out so you can hear the speaker clearly. Additionally, the Studio X’s beamforming microphone array delivers crisp, clear voice pickup so you can be confident you’re being heard, no matter where you sit in the room.

Production-Quality Meetings

Poly MeetingAI makes far-end participants feel like they’re in the room with our built-in production rules that intelligently track the speaker – thereby keeping visual focus on who’s talking. Expanding on speaker tracking and group framing functionality, the smooth tracking feature subtly shifts the camera’s focus to frame a different speaker when the distance between the two speakers is small, instead of a sudden cut.

Insights and Device Management

Now more than ever, IT and Facilities Managers need actionable insights to inform big-dollar decisions about how to equip and manage their workspaces. Poly Lens provides a clear line of sight into device health trends to ensure maximum uptime. Additionally, no matter where your endpoints are deployed, Poly Lens enables IT to inventory and ensure all devices are up to date with the latest software. Together, empowering businesses to maximize their investments and seamless roll outs.

A Teams Device For Your Entire Organization

No matter how or where you work, Poly has a solution to meet your every collaboration need across and outside your organization. As a certified Microsoft partner, Poly offers Microsoft Teams device solutions for Teams Rooms, video conferencing, phones/speakerphones, headsets, and professional services. With a Microsoft Teams Certified device, users experience the very best of Teams including, high-quality audio calls, video conferencing, calendar integration, file sharing, and more.

No Matter What’s Next, Poly’s Got You

Without a doubt, this next year will require patience, persistence and flexibility. And, with all the unknowns, the one thing that is nearly certain will be our increased reliance on quality collaboration tools to keep businesses running smoothly. Poly is here to make sure you look and sound your best – from the boardroom to the living room – Poly’s got you!

Poly Video OS Software 3.1.1 update is available now via Poly’s cloud management tool. Learn more about the Poly Studio X and other Poly solutions for Microsoft Teams.

Article By: Joe Santucci – Poly

– Contact Kathea for more information and pricing on our Poly Solutions!

Deepak Nathoo, Product Manager for Poly Video

Deepak.Nathoo@kathea.co.za

011 844 9915 / 084 602 9069

Video & AV Quoting Desk

videoav@kathea.co.za

011 844 9900

Shane McErlean, Product Manager for Poly Voice

Shane.McErlean@kathea.co.za

011 844 9964 / 082 805 5949

Voice Quoting Desk

voice@kathea.co.za

011 844 9900

The post Native Microsoft Teams Now Available on Poly Studio X appeared first on Technology Blog.

The 3.5mm headset jack adds additional flexibility, allowing the headset to be connected to a mobile device or Yealink DECT handsets for calls on the move. The leatherette ear cushions and lightweight design help prevent fatigue when being used for extended periods. Calls are managed easily through the in-line call control unit, while the noise-cancelling microphone helps fight unwanted interference.

Certified by Microsoft Teams, the Yealink UH36, available in monaural (UH36 Mono) and
binaural (UH36 Dual), is a professional USB wired headset to facilitate the conversations in
ways that your concentration zone and focus is easily got in and the listening fatigue is
reduced as well. Provided with Yealink USB Connect software and Yealink Device Management Platform/Cloud Service, you are easy to check the device information and upgrade
the firmware of one or multiple UH36 headsets.

The post Yealink new UH36 Headset appeared first on Technology Blog.

• Unlimited chat and search
• Video calling
• Team and personal file storage
• Real-time collaboration with Office

You can start using and driving adoption or working together on school projects. Microsoft Teams brings the world closer while still working remotely in different destinations. It is a brilliant tool for collaboration and communication for all types of industries. You can use it while at distance or sitting in the same office working on a document instead of waiting for a boardroom to be available.

Download it here

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