Microsoft Teams Rooms is getting a number of new features, including Cloud IntelliFrame, AI-powered active speaker tracking, and more. These new features are designed to make Microsoft Teams Rooms a more powerful and versatile collaboration tool.
Microsoft Teams Rooms is a device as a service solution that is part of the wider Microsoft Teams ecosystem. Since launching in 2019, the service has been used by hundreds of companies. A rebranding of Skype Room Systems, the service provides bespoke Teams hardware from partner OEMs.
Devices allow meetings to begin with a single touch, a feature Microsoft calls “One Touch Join”. Elsewhere, using Microsoft Teams, hardware will be able to detect open conference spaces. Another part of Rooms is the Teams Meeting button, which will now have an “Add a Room” which makes it easier to link multiple conference rooms in a single meeting.
Last September, Microsoft introduced a Pro version of Teams Rooms. With the introduction of Microsoft Teams Room Pro, the company is adding a new pricing layer that provides new features, the managed service platform, and all Rooms feature in a single license. Microsoft points out the service simplifies the subscription options for customers. The new tier costs $40 per user/per month.
New Features Coming to Microsoft Teams Rooms
- Cloud IntelliFrame is a new feature that allows Teams Rooms to break up the single video feed of the room into a composite view made up of focused and framed video tiles that feature in-room attendees. This makes it easier for remote attendees to see the faces of everyone in the meeting.
- AI-powered active speaker tracking is another new feature that uses artificial intelligence to track the person who is speaking in the room and automatically zoom in on their video feed. This ensures that remote attendees always have a clear view of the person who is speaking.
- Content cameras on Teams Rooms on Android will now be able to pick up on physical whiteboards and share a zoomed-in view of the whiteboard as an independent video feed. This makes it easier for remote attendees to see what is being written on the whiteboard.
- Smart camera controls will be available on Teams Rooms Pro on Android this month. Using this feature, users can adjust framing of the in-room camera from the console for cameras that support these capabilities.
- Profanity filtering on online meetings can now be turned on or off. When turned off, live captions and live transcription will display every word as-is, removing any masking or filtering.
- The full speaker name is now displayed above the live caption text. This makes it easier for users to follow along with the conversation.
