Microsoft Teams Rooms User Experience

I’ve been meaning to do this for a while, but since the recent 4.0.105.0 update to the Skype Room System (SRS) which has now become Microsoft Teams Room (MTR), I thought I would summarise the user experience in and out of a Teams meeting, with and without content, single or dual screen.

Note: The screenshots will show the new ‘Universal bar for in-meeting call controls’ when in a Teams meeting. Whilst announced as part of 4.0.105.0 this is actually being rolled out via the Teams rings that your organisation will be part of. I *think* this is GA in Ring 4 but I’m not 100% sure.

First off, please let me apologise for the horrendous photos of a shiny touch panel. I will update these with some proper screenshots when I have time.

Secondly, we have our dual-display MTR systems setup so that video shows on the left display and content shows on the right.

No meeting — Sharing content — Single display

Not a whole lot to mention here to be honest.

Just plug in the content cable and it will automatically present to the display (if you have this feature enabled in settings). You can choose to stop presenting by tapping the Stop Presenting button on the touch panel.

No meeting — Sharing content — Dual display

As before, just plug in the content cable and the content will automatically present on both displays by default.

If you don’t want content on both displays you can tap the Settings cog icon in the bottom right of the touch panel and tap Stop Duplicating. The left hand screen will return to the normal primary screen with the clock and room name etc.

You can duplicate the content again by tapping the Settings cog and then tapping Duplicate Content.

One thing to note is that you cannot swap the screens around when you’re not in a call. In non-duplicating mode, the content will only be on the content screen.

Teams meeting — No content — Single display

In a Teams meeting, when not sharing content on a single screen display the universal bar is in its most minimal form.

Note: the 3 dots hide the keypad button.

Teams meeting — No content — Dual display

In this scenario we have video on the left display, and nothing on the right as no content is being shared. Because this is a dual display system we have an extra button on the universal bar. The button with two arrows in the centre flips the displays if you want video or content to appear on the other side. This resets once the call is done.

Teams meeting — Sharing content — Single display

When sharing content into a Teams meeting using a single display system the swap button shown on the dual display is replaced by a layout button. By default when content is shared into the meeting, you see the video participants down the right-hand side of the screen.

Pressing the layout button removes the video participants from the right-hand side and makes the content full screen. The layout button changes and allows you to switch back to show the video participants again.

Note the content button now has a cross on it, meaning you can stop sharing content into the call. The content will remain on the front of room displays but will no longer be shared to remote participants. Microsoft use a red outline to the content to indicate it is being shared into the call. In my opinion they need some kind of text to make this clearer (like when you’re in a Skype meeting).

Teams meeting — Sharing content — Dual display

Not a huge difference here to when you’re not sharing content. The swap button is still available to shift the video and content around. Again, the content button allows you to stop sharing into the call. As before content still displays in the room without the red border.

Rate My Call

One new addition that came with the 4.0.105.0 software update was the ability for room attendees to rate call quality once the call finishes. This appears once the call has finished and remains on screen for a few seconds.