Episode 393 – Microsoft Teams Meeting Room Solutions with Alex Mooney

January 17, 2025

Episode Transcript

Welcome to Episode 393 of the Microsoft Cloud IT Pro Podcast. In this episode, Ben is joined on the show by Alex Mooney from Logitech. The two of them discuss the integration of technology into meetings. They start out discussion AI for transcribing in-person meetings, highlighting some of their benefits and then shift into discussion various meeting room systems for Microsoft Teams. They discuss some of the offerings from Logitech including the Rally Bar Huddle, Rally Bar Mini, and Rally Bar and how they are certified for both Android and Windows to work in different scenarios for building out your Microsoft Teams Room system.

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Show Notes

About Alex

With a leadership role at Logitech, Alex has had the exciting opportunity to shape the future of digital workspaces. He’s directed major collaborations, including the impactful partnership between Logitech and Microsoft that’s driving billions in revenue. These aren’t just business deals, they’re transformations—helping companies worldwide navigate the ever-changing terrain of technology.

Creating and implementing innovative solutions is part of Alex’s DNA. Project Ghost, an immersive video conferencing experience, is just one of the many successful initiatives that he’s been proud to lead.

He’s often invited to share my insights on industry trends and strategies at key events and in publications. It’s a role he relishes — helping others grasp the opportunities that this rapid era of technological change brings. His focus is always forward, on the potential of what can be achieved together in the fields of collaboration and efficiency.

Alex on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/alexm00ney/

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See full episode transcriptTranscript is autogenerated by AI

1 00:00:03,600 --> 00:00:04,819 Welcome to episode 2 00:00:05,279 --> 00:00:05,779 393 3 00:00:06,080 --> 00:00:09,300 of the Microsoft Cloud IT Pro podcast recorded 4 00:00:09,359 --> 00:00:11,460 live from Microsoft Ignite 2024. 5 00:00:12,240 --> 00:00:14,814 This is a show about Microsoft 365 and 6 00:00:14,814 --> 00:00:17,054 Azure from the perspective of IT pros and 7 00:00:17,054 --> 00:00:19,295 end users, where we discuss a topic or 8 00:00:19,295 --> 00:00:21,475 recent news and how it relates to you. 9 00:00:21,614 --> 00:00:24,015 In this episode, Ben is joined on the 10 00:00:24,015 --> 00:00:25,875 show by Alex Mooney from Logitech. 11 00:00:26,254 --> 00:00:28,230 The 2 of them discuss the integration of 12 00:00:28,230 --> 00:00:31,369 technology into meetings. They start out the discussion 13 00:00:31,429 --> 00:00:34,309 by talking about AI for transcribing in person 14 00:00:34,309 --> 00:00:36,950 meetings, highlighting some of their benefits. And then 15 00:00:36,950 --> 00:00:39,989 from there, shift into discussion around various meeting 16 00:00:39,989 --> 00:00:43,045 room systems for Microsoft Teams. They discuss some 17 00:00:43,045 --> 00:00:45,524 of the offerings from Logitech, including the Rally 18 00:00:45,524 --> 00:00:48,085 Bar Huddle, Rally Bar Mini, and Rally Bar, 19 00:00:48,085 --> 00:00:50,664 and how they are certified for both Microsoft 20 00:00:50,725 --> 00:00:53,524 Teams on Android and Windows in order to 21 00:00:53,524 --> 00:00:56,164 work in different scenarios for building out your 22 00:00:56,164 --> 00:00:57,864 Microsoft Teams room systems. 23 00:01:00,409 --> 00:01:02,909 So we're sitting here at Ignite, another 24 00:01:03,210 --> 00:01:03,710 interview. 25 00:01:04,090 --> 00:01:05,689 So it's been a good show. It's day 26 00:01:05,930 --> 00:01:07,450 what day is it? Day 2 or 3 27 00:01:07,450 --> 00:01:10,170 now? 2? 3. I I think day 3? 28 00:01:10,250 --> 00:01:12,090 Messed up with Monday. It's Thursday. It is 29 00:01:12,090 --> 00:01:14,854 day 3. Yes. So I'm sitting here with 30 00:01:14,994 --> 00:01:18,135 Alex from Logitech. So we're gonna talk, like, 31 00:01:18,194 --> 00:01:21,334 Teams, Teams Room Devices, Teams Premium, 32 00:01:21,875 --> 00:01:24,194 maybe some Copilot because that's what everybody talks 33 00:01:24,194 --> 00:01:25,094 about at Ignite. 34 00:01:25,474 --> 00:01:28,155 Copilot. Copilot. Copilot. Yeah. Exactly. So I need 35 00:01:28,155 --> 00:01:30,569 to go ahead and introduce yourself, Alex. Tell 36 00:01:30,569 --> 00:01:32,090 us a little bit about you, what you 37 00:01:32,090 --> 00:01:35,049 do, all that. Thanks, Ben. Yeah. So I'm 38 00:01:35,049 --> 00:01:37,530 Alex Mooney. I work at Logitech in our 39 00:01:37,530 --> 00:01:40,489 alliances group, which is basically just means that 40 00:01:40,489 --> 00:01:42,329 I get to do all the fun stuff 41 00:01:42,329 --> 00:01:43,789 of managing our partnership 42 00:01:44,415 --> 00:01:44,994 with Microsoft. 43 00:01:45,454 --> 00:01:45,954 So 44 00:01:46,334 --> 00:01:47,314 product development, 45 00:01:47,854 --> 00:01:48,354 certifications, 46 00:01:48,814 --> 00:01:50,894 everything in that kind of realm, and then 47 00:01:50,894 --> 00:01:51,795 how we deliver 48 00:01:52,174 --> 00:01:53,715 these products to our customers. 49 00:01:54,094 --> 00:01:56,015 Okay. Very cool. So you're gonna tell us 50 00:01:56,015 --> 00:01:58,409 all the stuff that Logitech's working on. Right? 51 00:01:58,490 --> 00:02:00,490 Yeah. All the things. All the things. Excuse 52 00:02:00,490 --> 00:02:02,650 me. This podcast, to listen to this episode, 53 00:02:02,650 --> 00:02:04,350 you have to sign the NDA. No. 54 00:02:04,969 --> 00:02:07,130 So I'm curious, Alex. Like, I know we 55 00:02:07,130 --> 00:02:08,730 were talking a little bit about some of 56 00:02:08,730 --> 00:02:10,409 the devices, and we'll probably get into that 57 00:02:10,409 --> 00:02:12,569 a little bit later. But more from, like, 58 00:02:12,569 --> 00:02:12,730 a 59 00:02:13,665 --> 00:02:16,305 Windows devices. You guys do a bunch. Like, 60 00:02:16,305 --> 00:02:18,465 I've used Logitech devices forever. You have mice. 61 00:02:18,465 --> 00:02:20,385 You have keyboards. You have meeting room devices. 62 00:02:20,385 --> 00:02:21,284 You have headsets. 63 00:02:21,985 --> 00:02:23,985 So with that, I'm you see a lot 64 00:02:23,985 --> 00:02:27,025 of different aspects of more how people are 65 00:02:27,025 --> 00:02:29,990 working, whether it's working on Windows with peripherals, 66 00:02:30,770 --> 00:02:31,670 Teams meetings. 67 00:02:32,129 --> 00:02:34,770 Like, what have you I guess, maybe even 68 00:02:34,770 --> 00:02:37,430 how have you seen the industry change, or 69 00:02:37,650 --> 00:02:39,110 how are do you see people 70 00:02:39,569 --> 00:02:40,069 working 71 00:02:40,584 --> 00:02:41,084 recently 72 00:02:41,625 --> 00:02:44,905 as they incorporate your devices into their day 73 00:02:44,905 --> 00:02:46,284 to day workflow? 74 00:02:46,664 --> 00:02:48,444 Yeah. It's fine. Logitech, 75 00:02:49,384 --> 00:02:51,465 I guess, for the last 40 years, we 76 00:02:51,465 --> 00:02:53,164 have been creating peripherals 77 00:02:53,625 --> 00:02:56,969 to try to create human interaction with software 78 00:02:56,969 --> 00:02:57,629 and tools, 79 00:02:58,250 --> 00:03:01,530 produced by Microsoft and others. And so whether 80 00:03:01,530 --> 00:03:03,449 it's a keyboard, a mouse, a webcam, a 81 00:03:03,449 --> 00:03:05,129 headset, we've been in this space for a 82 00:03:05,129 --> 00:03:06,830 long time. We only just recently 83 00:03:07,129 --> 00:03:09,705 in the last, I'd say, 12 years, got 84 00:03:09,705 --> 00:03:10,205 into 85 00:03:10,585 --> 00:03:13,705 doing meeting room technology. Okay. And just in 86 00:03:13,705 --> 00:03:16,665 that time, we've been able to kind of 87 00:03:16,665 --> 00:03:17,165 skyrocket 88 00:03:17,625 --> 00:03:20,205 into now the number one position 89 00:03:20,639 --> 00:03:23,780 as an OEM creating Microsoft Teams Rooms, but 90 00:03:24,079 --> 00:03:25,139 more more largely 91 00:03:25,519 --> 00:03:28,400 market share wise with just creation of video 92 00:03:28,400 --> 00:03:30,560 conferencing products around the world. And I think 93 00:03:30,560 --> 00:03:32,340 the reason why is because 94 00:03:32,775 --> 00:03:35,735 during that time frame, people's requirements shifted from 95 00:03:35,735 --> 00:03:36,875 these massive codecs 96 00:03:37,415 --> 00:03:38,395 that were complicated, 97 00:03:38,935 --> 00:03:39,435 $200,000 98 00:03:40,055 --> 00:03:41,034 rooms plus, 99 00:03:41,335 --> 00:03:43,675 and we just wanted to make video 100 00:03:44,055 --> 00:03:44,794 and audio 101 00:03:45,270 --> 00:03:47,349 ubiquitous across all the rooms. We wanted to 102 00:03:47,349 --> 00:03:49,110 make it available to all the users in 103 00:03:49,110 --> 00:03:50,870 the organization. So we took the approach of 104 00:03:50,870 --> 00:03:52,949 saying, hey. We're gonna use USB. We're gonna 105 00:03:52,949 --> 00:03:54,949 use open standards. No one was doing it. 106 00:03:54,949 --> 00:03:56,469 People looked at us like we were crazy. 107 00:03:56,469 --> 00:03:58,784 Why is Logitech making a camera? Don't do 108 00:03:58,784 --> 00:04:00,705 that. But it's fun. And I think that's 109 00:04:00,705 --> 00:04:03,044 why we saw this kind of seismic shift. 110 00:04:03,104 --> 00:04:04,245 After 2020, 111 00:04:04,784 --> 00:04:07,504 we we already knew everyone's gonna go work 112 00:04:07,504 --> 00:04:09,840 from home. Everyone's gonna be remote, and everyone's 113 00:04:09,840 --> 00:04:11,539 gonna need ways to connect 114 00:04:11,919 --> 00:04:14,159 whether it's with super high quality audio or 115 00:04:14,159 --> 00:04:16,480 video or other things. They're gonna need ways 116 00:04:16,480 --> 00:04:18,259 to connect with their coworkers 117 00:04:18,959 --> 00:04:20,339 and to keep their workflows 118 00:04:20,720 --> 00:04:22,720 going. So we already knew that, but it 119 00:04:22,720 --> 00:04:24,800 just accelerated all these trends. It brought them 120 00:04:24,800 --> 00:04:26,745 in 8, 10 10 years in terms of 121 00:04:26,745 --> 00:04:27,485 the adoption. 122 00:04:27,785 --> 00:04:30,845 So I think right now, we're all experiencing 123 00:04:31,144 --> 00:04:33,004 the back end of that. Like, it's just 124 00:04:33,225 --> 00:04:35,464 everyone does video. If I get through a 125 00:04:35,464 --> 00:04:37,884 single day without saying, I'm you're on mute, 126 00:04:38,104 --> 00:04:40,930 it's it's a it's a good day. But, 127 00:04:40,930 --> 00:04:42,769 yeah, that's where we are. And I think 128 00:04:42,769 --> 00:04:44,769 there's a there's a big trend right now 129 00:04:44,769 --> 00:04:47,569 within Microsoft Teams Rooms. So saying, do I 130 00:04:47,569 --> 00:04:49,970 want to have rooms deployed on Windows or 131 00:04:49,970 --> 00:04:52,169 on Android? That's a hot topic right now. 132 00:04:52,169 --> 00:04:54,689 I think looking deeper into the management stacks 133 00:04:54,689 --> 00:04:56,595 is a hot topic. What size of room 134 00:04:56,595 --> 00:04:58,355 should we deploy? Maybe we don't need so 135 00:04:58,355 --> 00:05:00,694 many boardrooms. We can do, like, Huddl rooms, 136 00:05:00,995 --> 00:05:02,835 things like that. So there's a lot of 137 00:05:02,835 --> 00:05:04,455 those questions out. BYOD, 138 00:05:04,835 --> 00:05:07,314 how does AI fit into this ecosystem? Like, 139 00:05:07,314 --> 00:05:10,350 Copilot is everywhere, but Yep. Okay. But how 140 00:05:10,350 --> 00:05:13,170 do I incorporate that into my meeting practice? 141 00:05:13,389 --> 00:05:14,750 I think that's the trend of where we're 142 00:05:14,750 --> 00:05:16,509 seeing everyone go. Okay. So what kind of 143 00:05:16,509 --> 00:05:18,110 trends have you seen? We'll just dive right 144 00:05:18,110 --> 00:05:20,030 into meetings because that one's a popular one 145 00:05:20,030 --> 00:05:20,689 with Copilot. 146 00:05:20,990 --> 00:05:23,490 Right? Is Yeah. Copilot, Teams Premium, 147 00:05:24,084 --> 00:05:26,485 meeting transcriptions, what kind of trends have you 148 00:05:26,485 --> 00:05:26,985 seen 149 00:05:28,245 --> 00:05:29,704 from the AI space, 150 00:05:30,404 --> 00:05:30,904 Copilot, 151 00:05:31,604 --> 00:05:32,264 as well 152 00:05:33,284 --> 00:05:33,944 as meetings, 153 00:05:34,245 --> 00:05:35,224 meeting rooms 154 00:05:35,845 --> 00:05:38,069 Yeah. That type of space? So the I 155 00:05:38,069 --> 00:05:40,569 think one of the most compelling use cases 156 00:05:40,870 --> 00:05:41,689 early on 157 00:05:41,990 --> 00:05:44,569 for Copilot is the meeting summaries 158 00:05:45,029 --> 00:05:47,270 and so forth. Because just in terms of 159 00:05:47,270 --> 00:05:49,670 early adoption, like, I haven't quite figured out 160 00:05:49,670 --> 00:05:50,569 how to incorporate 161 00:05:50,995 --> 00:05:54,354 Copilot into my mainstream workflows in Office and 162 00:05:54,354 --> 00:05:56,995 PowerPoint, so forth. Outlook, this is obvious. Help 163 00:05:56,995 --> 00:05:59,875 me rephrase this this email, summarize what I'm 164 00:05:59,875 --> 00:06:01,555 reading, so forth like that. Yep. These are 165 00:06:01,555 --> 00:06:04,330 very early stage adoptions. So they're easy for 166 00:06:04,330 --> 00:06:06,410 users to wrap their minds around. But one 167 00:06:06,410 --> 00:06:09,449 of the most immediate places where you get 168 00:06:09,449 --> 00:06:11,770 the benefit of the time saving is actually 169 00:06:11,770 --> 00:06:13,770 in the meeting room. So it's, I joined 170 00:06:13,770 --> 00:06:16,105 late, catch me up, or I didn't join 171 00:06:16,105 --> 00:06:18,125 the meeting at all, give me the summary 172 00:06:18,504 --> 00:06:19,865 and and so forth. What were the action 173 00:06:19,865 --> 00:06:20,365 items? 174 00:06:20,665 --> 00:06:22,824 Can we make some notes? These kinds of 175 00:06:22,824 --> 00:06:24,824 things. That I think has been really, really 176 00:06:24,824 --> 00:06:26,824 cool. One thing that we've been trying to 177 00:06:26,824 --> 00:06:28,904 really focus on is, okay, this is great. 178 00:06:28,904 --> 00:06:31,084 We have this amazing technology from Microsoft. 179 00:06:31,490 --> 00:06:33,170 How do we help users get the most 180 00:06:33,170 --> 00:06:35,110 out of that? And it actually starts with 181 00:06:35,170 --> 00:06:38,449 super high quality audio capture. So the more 182 00:06:38,449 --> 00:06:40,449 that we can work with our customers to 183 00:06:40,449 --> 00:06:42,230 make sure that the audio is pristine, 184 00:06:42,610 --> 00:06:44,930 that means that the transcript is accurate. And 185 00:06:44,930 --> 00:06:47,175 when you have an accurate transcript, Copilot gives 186 00:06:47,175 --> 00:06:49,654 you accurate insights. So it starts all the 187 00:06:49,654 --> 00:06:51,834 way back with some of our just basic 188 00:06:51,974 --> 00:06:54,134 AV principles, and then making sure that these 189 00:06:54,134 --> 00:06:56,375 things are happening. So trend wise, I think 190 00:06:56,375 --> 00:06:58,634 that we're seeing a lot of 191 00:06:59,009 --> 00:07:01,729 people trying to look into, do I wanna 192 00:07:01,729 --> 00:07:02,870 turn in turn 193 00:07:03,490 --> 00:07:04,149 on recognition? 194 00:07:04,610 --> 00:07:07,009 Okay. Speaker recognition and so forth, which is 195 00:07:07,009 --> 00:07:10,129 where the in Teams room, the Teams room 196 00:07:10,129 --> 00:07:12,689 will actually identify the various users sitting around 197 00:07:12,689 --> 00:07:14,865 the table. So since Alex is saying this, 198 00:07:14,865 --> 00:07:18,224 Ben's saying that Yep. Versus it's just Teams 199 00:07:18,224 --> 00:07:19,444 user, Teams user. 200 00:07:20,064 --> 00:07:21,904 Right. That's an important one. It takes a 201 00:07:21,904 --> 00:07:24,064 lot of data data governance. Like, how do 202 00:07:24,064 --> 00:07:26,144 I want to, you know, update my privacy 203 00:07:26,144 --> 00:07:28,180 policies to allow this? There's a a moment 204 00:07:28,180 --> 00:07:29,459 there that you have to make some key 205 00:07:29,459 --> 00:07:31,879 decisions as an organization. But I think fundamentally, 206 00:07:32,180 --> 00:07:35,139 just let's make sure that we have really, 207 00:07:35,139 --> 00:07:37,639 really, really good audio. Well and that's an 208 00:07:37,699 --> 00:07:38,919 interesting one because 209 00:07:39,300 --> 00:07:39,800 people 210 00:07:40,214 --> 00:07:41,435 have known that 211 00:07:41,735 --> 00:07:44,694 going back in other technologies. Like, you look 212 00:07:44,694 --> 00:07:47,254 at business intelligence. Right? That's been around for 213 00:07:47,254 --> 00:07:49,415 a while now. And I remember when business 214 00:07:49,415 --> 00:07:51,895 intelligence was first catching on, that was a 215 00:07:51,895 --> 00:07:53,495 big thing as people were like, well, if 216 00:07:53,495 --> 00:07:56,409 I put garbage data into business intelligence, 217 00:07:56,949 --> 00:07:59,449 I'm not gonna get the reports, the metrics 218 00:07:59,909 --> 00:08:01,129 out of it that 219 00:08:01,430 --> 00:08:03,829 maybe I'm looking for. And now it sounds 220 00:08:03,829 --> 00:08:05,990 like you've seen the same thing as for 221 00:08:05,990 --> 00:08:07,750 a long time, and I would say even 222 00:08:07,750 --> 00:08:09,529 today, I get in a lot of meetings, 223 00:08:09,834 --> 00:08:11,134 and people don't necessarily 224 00:08:11,834 --> 00:08:14,495 care about their audio. They're using, like, their 225 00:08:14,714 --> 00:08:17,514 laptop speaker with the lid closed in a 226 00:08:17,514 --> 00:08:18,654 clamshell then. 227 00:08:19,034 --> 00:08:20,735 That audio quality isn't 228 00:08:21,115 --> 00:08:21,615 necessarily 229 00:08:22,235 --> 00:08:24,829 there, and that's not something that I know 230 00:08:24,990 --> 00:08:27,069 I don't know that I've necessarily thought about 231 00:08:27,069 --> 00:08:29,629 that either is, what if you want good 232 00:08:29,629 --> 00:08:32,529 transcripts, you want good summaries, really focusing on 233 00:08:32,669 --> 00:08:35,149 the input. The AI model can only do 234 00:08:35,149 --> 00:08:37,950 so much based on the quality of data 235 00:08:37,950 --> 00:08:39,924 going into it. And some of it's user 236 00:08:39,924 --> 00:08:41,605 training. Don't talk over each other in a 237 00:08:41,605 --> 00:08:43,065 meeting because then the transcription 238 00:08:43,684 --> 00:08:46,085 has a hard time keeping up with who's 239 00:08:46,085 --> 00:08:48,004 saying what in the meeting room. So some 240 00:08:48,004 --> 00:08:50,245 of it is just user behavioral training, but 241 00:08:50,245 --> 00:08:50,745 also, 242 00:08:51,205 --> 00:08:52,725 a lot of it is, yeah, you just 243 00:08:52,725 --> 00:08:54,664 need to know what the person said. 244 00:08:55,009 --> 00:08:58,129 And not everyone speaks as loud. Some people 245 00:08:58,129 --> 00:09:01,169 speak softer. There's all sorts of different ranges 246 00:09:01,169 --> 00:09:03,990 of vocal qualities and so forth. And so 247 00:09:04,049 --> 00:09:05,730 making sure that you have a super high 248 00:09:05,730 --> 00:09:07,970 quality audio pickup for every seat in the 249 00:09:07,970 --> 00:09:10,174 room is a critical component to getting the 250 00:09:10,174 --> 00:09:12,674 most out of the AI investment because otherwise, 251 00:09:12,815 --> 00:09:15,534 you're gonna miss somebody's valuable input. And if 252 00:09:15,534 --> 00:09:17,534 you've missed just one voice out of 10 253 00:09:17,534 --> 00:09:19,695 at a meeting room, well, your transcription is 254 00:09:19,695 --> 00:09:21,950 now not accurate. So all the insights you 255 00:09:21,950 --> 00:09:24,850 gain are actually missing the full picture. So 256 00:09:24,909 --> 00:09:26,669 I think that's a a key element. We're 257 00:09:26,669 --> 00:09:28,190 trying really hard to make sure we're doing 258 00:09:28,190 --> 00:09:29,789 this. So we've got this thing called right 259 00:09:29,789 --> 00:09:33,389 site 2. Okay. Right sound 2. Okay. This 260 00:09:33,389 --> 00:09:35,709 is our AI built into our meeting room 261 00:09:35,709 --> 00:09:36,209 technology 262 00:09:36,725 --> 00:09:40,165 that improves the, auto framing for site. So 263 00:09:40,165 --> 00:09:42,105 the visuals Oh, interesting. Okay. 264 00:09:42,644 --> 00:09:45,045 And the audio performance for right sound. And 265 00:09:45,045 --> 00:09:47,205 so it's really cool. We're doing a lot 266 00:09:47,205 --> 00:09:49,225 of AI algorithms to remove 267 00:09:49,730 --> 00:09:51,190 unwanted sounds, typing, 268 00:09:51,730 --> 00:09:54,370 bag crinkling, like potato chips or whatever. How 269 00:09:54,370 --> 00:09:56,449 about somebody eating an apple? That's what I'm 270 00:09:56,449 --> 00:09:57,730 on. I'm like, I can have meetings and 271 00:09:57,730 --> 00:09:59,649 somebody's like, chomps into an apple, and I'm 272 00:09:59,649 --> 00:10:01,429 like, okay. Come on. Really? 273 00:10:02,370 --> 00:10:04,365 Right by the mic pod too. It's always. 274 00:10:04,764 --> 00:10:05,264 Exactly. 275 00:10:05,725 --> 00:10:08,684 Yeah. So so we are looking for voices, 276 00:10:08,684 --> 00:10:11,245 and then we're looking for commonly unwanted sounds. 277 00:10:11,245 --> 00:10:13,245 So it's a little more than just like 278 00:10:13,245 --> 00:10:15,565 a basic noise reduction, which is like an 279 00:10:15,565 --> 00:10:17,679 audio gating. So it's a lot smarter than 280 00:10:17,679 --> 00:10:20,159 that. And we're removing unwanted sounds, and then 281 00:10:20,159 --> 00:10:21,679 making sure that every voice in the room 282 00:10:21,679 --> 00:10:24,399 is auto leveled. Got it. Quiet speakers, loud 283 00:10:24,399 --> 00:10:26,720 speakers, all come across at approximately the same 284 00:10:26,720 --> 00:10:29,815 volume. And that come coupled with obviously things 285 00:10:29,815 --> 00:10:31,674 like echo cancellation, reverberation 286 00:10:32,054 --> 00:10:33,975 reduction, just to make sure you get a 287 00:10:33,975 --> 00:10:37,174 really nice clean capture. Right. It makes a 288 00:10:37,174 --> 00:10:39,654 a really nice front end audio experience. Much 289 00:10:39,654 --> 00:10:41,414 better than what people might hear on this 290 00:10:41,414 --> 00:10:43,575 given the environment we're sitting in and that 291 00:10:43,575 --> 00:10:45,620 we're not recording this with, that type of 292 00:10:45,620 --> 00:10:47,779 stuff. But On on a trade show floor. 293 00:10:47,779 --> 00:10:49,779 Right. On a trade show floor. Fortunately, for 294 00:10:49,779 --> 00:10:51,700 this, we get the post processing, where a 295 00:10:51,700 --> 00:10:53,860 lot of meetings, you're not you don't have 296 00:10:53,860 --> 00:10:56,420 the advantage of post post processing the audio. 297 00:10:56,420 --> 00:10:58,725 So it's doing, like, real time 298 00:10:59,664 --> 00:11:00,485 AI audio 299 00:11:01,105 --> 00:11:01,605 processing 300 00:11:02,225 --> 00:11:05,044 of all these different voices. Yeah. We jokingly 301 00:11:05,105 --> 00:11:06,404 say we want video 302 00:11:06,784 --> 00:11:08,945 to be better than being there. So we 303 00:11:08,945 --> 00:11:11,024 we want the remote experience to be better 304 00:11:11,024 --> 00:11:12,670 than the in person experience. Now this is 305 00:11:12,670 --> 00:11:13,889 obviously an ambitious 306 00:11:14,269 --> 00:11:16,590 concept. But the point is is that if 307 00:11:16,590 --> 00:11:18,670 you were, like, say, watching a sporting event, 308 00:11:18,670 --> 00:11:20,210 you're watching and 309 00:11:20,590 --> 00:11:22,750 every camera that you saw on the screen 310 00:11:22,750 --> 00:11:24,830 was just the headshot of the person running 311 00:11:24,830 --> 00:11:26,845 around, you miss all the context. It's like, 312 00:11:26,845 --> 00:11:28,445 okay. This is cool. I can see everyone's 313 00:11:28,445 --> 00:11:30,605 face, but I don't actually know what's going 314 00:11:30,605 --> 00:11:32,524 on. Yeah. So what you really want is 315 00:11:32,524 --> 00:11:35,004 someone to intelligently switch the camera views for 316 00:11:35,004 --> 00:11:37,424 you so you always see the action. And 317 00:11:37,485 --> 00:11:39,004 when you're listening to the audio, you don't 318 00:11:39,004 --> 00:11:41,404 wanna listen to everything. You really want something 319 00:11:41,404 --> 00:11:43,490 to curate the audio and make sure that 320 00:11:43,490 --> 00:11:45,569 it's really, really clean. All the noises are 321 00:11:45,569 --> 00:11:47,329 removed. So that's what we're trying to bake 322 00:11:47,329 --> 00:11:49,169 in with AI into all of our products. 323 00:11:49,169 --> 00:11:51,009 That's where Right Sight and Right Sound come 324 00:11:51,009 --> 00:11:53,569 in. Right Sight with things like Logitech Sight 325 00:11:53,569 --> 00:11:55,904 in the center of table doing smart switching. 326 00:11:55,904 --> 00:11:58,225 It does this cool thing where it takes 327 00:11:58,225 --> 00:12:00,304 all the camera lenses in the room, and 328 00:12:00,304 --> 00:12:03,105 then it intelligently switches the view of you 329 00:12:03,105 --> 00:12:05,105 in the gallery based on your head position. 330 00:12:05,105 --> 00:12:06,625 So if you turn your head and you 331 00:12:06,625 --> 00:12:08,384 look at the front of room and you're 332 00:12:08,384 --> 00:12:10,629 addressing the far end user, they see you 333 00:12:10,629 --> 00:12:12,470 looking at them. But if I then turn 334 00:12:12,470 --> 00:12:14,950 across the table to talk to someone that's 335 00:12:14,950 --> 00:12:17,350 collaborating in the room, we'll switch the view 336 00:12:17,350 --> 00:12:19,190 to the center of table camera, see all 337 00:12:19,190 --> 00:12:21,429 the remote experience, you always see the person's 338 00:12:21,429 --> 00:12:24,345 face. Got it. So you're able to we'll 339 00:12:24,504 --> 00:12:25,784 move around this around a minute with your 340 00:12:25,784 --> 00:12:27,884 products. You're able to put multiple 341 00:12:28,264 --> 00:12:29,704 cameras in the room. So if you have, 342 00:12:29,704 --> 00:12:32,024 like, the camera under the screen in the 343 00:12:32,024 --> 00:12:34,105 front, but then a camera on the table 344 00:12:34,105 --> 00:12:36,664 or cameras placed around the room, they can 345 00:12:36,664 --> 00:12:38,125 all work together 346 00:12:38,504 --> 00:12:39,970 Yeah. To really intelligently 347 00:12:40,350 --> 00:12:42,029 give you the best. You get, like, an 348 00:12:42,029 --> 00:12:43,889 automated an AI cameraman 349 00:12:44,269 --> 00:12:46,829 Exactly. In the room. Exactly. Yeah. So let's 350 00:12:46,829 --> 00:12:48,669 use an example of a rally bar. It's 351 00:12:48,669 --> 00:12:50,829 a really common all in one video bar. 352 00:12:50,829 --> 00:12:52,745 We would put that under the display. It's 353 00:12:52,745 --> 00:12:53,404 got speakers, 354 00:12:53,705 --> 00:12:55,705 microphones, and the camera all built into it. 355 00:12:55,705 --> 00:12:58,664 And it's 22 lenses, 2 cameras on board, 356 00:12:58,664 --> 00:13:00,264 a wide angle camera, and then one that 357 00:13:00,264 --> 00:13:01,485 can zoom in and focus. 358 00:13:02,105 --> 00:13:04,264 So when you have 2 there, that's great. 359 00:13:04,264 --> 00:13:05,865 You're gonna cover this big room. But what 360 00:13:05,865 --> 00:13:08,110 if my room is say 15 seats on 361 00:13:08,110 --> 00:13:10,029 a really long table, like a bowling alley? 362 00:13:10,029 --> 00:13:12,429 Yep. The lens can only see from the 363 00:13:12,429 --> 00:13:14,110 front of the table. So if somebody leans 364 00:13:14,110 --> 00:13:16,269 forward, they're blocking all the people behind them. 365 00:13:16,269 --> 00:13:18,110 Right. You can't see them. And so what 366 00:13:18,110 --> 00:13:20,669 we really want is to add additional cameras 367 00:13:20,669 --> 00:13:22,815 down the table. That's where Logitech site comes 368 00:13:22,815 --> 00:13:25,215 in. Okay. So now you have this center 369 00:13:25,215 --> 00:13:27,054 of table camera. It can see everyone around 370 00:13:27,054 --> 00:13:28,894 the table's faces and you have the front 371 00:13:28,894 --> 00:13:30,654 of room, but now you need something to 372 00:13:30,654 --> 00:13:33,695 intelligently direct and and switch which camera view 373 00:13:33,695 --> 00:13:35,774 is being shown so the foreign user doesn't 374 00:13:35,774 --> 00:13:37,669 have to do it themselves. And that's where 375 00:13:37,669 --> 00:13:39,509 the AI comes in. We compare all the 376 00:13:39,509 --> 00:13:41,429 views of Ben in the gallery, and we 377 00:13:41,429 --> 00:13:43,750 say, this is the best picture. Ben, show 378 00:13:43,750 --> 00:13:45,350 that to the foreign user. We don't want 379 00:13:45,350 --> 00:13:47,029 the one that's looking in his ear as 380 00:13:47,029 --> 00:13:49,210 he turns and okay. Yeah. 381 00:13:52,985 --> 00:13:55,144 Do you feel overwhelmed by trying to manage 382 00:13:55,144 --> 00:13:58,365 your Office 365 environment? Are you facing unexpected 383 00:13:58,584 --> 00:14:01,705 issues that disrupt your company's productivity? Intelligink is 384 00:14:01,705 --> 00:14:03,304 here to help. Much like you take your 385 00:14:03,304 --> 00:14:05,865 car to the mechanic that has specialized knowledge 386 00:14:05,865 --> 00:14:07,710 on how to best keep your car running, 387 00:14:07,950 --> 00:14:10,750 Intelligent helps you with your Microsoft cloud environment 388 00:14:10,750 --> 00:14:12,290 because that's their expertise. 389 00:14:12,670 --> 00:14:14,910 Intelligent keeps up with the latest updates in 390 00:14:14,910 --> 00:14:17,149 the Microsoft cloud to help keep your business 391 00:14:17,149 --> 00:14:19,389 running smoothly and ahead of the curve. Whether 392 00:14:19,389 --> 00:14:21,389 you are a small organization with just a 393 00:14:21,389 --> 00:14:23,835 few users up to an organization of several 394 00:14:23,835 --> 00:14:26,634 1000 employees, they want to partner with you 395 00:14:26,634 --> 00:14:29,934 to implement and administer your Microsoft Cloud technology. 396 00:14:30,715 --> 00:14:32,174 Visit them at inteliginc.com/podcast. 397 00:14:34,394 --> 00:14:34,889 That's 398 00:14:36,090 --> 00:14:36,590 intelligink.com/podcast 399 00:14:41,529 --> 00:14:43,690 for more information or to schedule a 30 400 00:14:43,690 --> 00:14:45,790 minute call to get started with them today. 401 00:14:46,009 --> 00:14:49,370 Remember, Intelligink focuses on the Microsoft cloud, so 402 00:14:49,370 --> 00:14:51,125 you focus on your business. 403 00:14:53,504 --> 00:14:56,245 So another thing you mentioned earlier was 404 00:14:56,865 --> 00:14:59,284 Teams Room on Android 405 00:14:59,664 --> 00:15:02,065 and Teams Room on Windows. And I know 406 00:15:02,065 --> 00:15:04,324 this is something that we were talking about, 407 00:15:04,509 --> 00:15:05,870 the actually, the other day. I was here 408 00:15:05,870 --> 00:15:08,269 asking you some questions about it because sometimes 409 00:15:08,269 --> 00:15:08,929 the functionality 410 00:15:09,389 --> 00:15:10,529 differs between 411 00:15:10,909 --> 00:15:13,629 those two platforms. There's pros and cons probably 412 00:15:13,629 --> 00:15:15,789 to each one. What are some of those 413 00:15:15,789 --> 00:15:17,490 things that you've seen 414 00:15:17,834 --> 00:15:20,254 in helping people pick between, 415 00:15:20,714 --> 00:15:22,875 maybe I'm okay with Teams Room on Android 416 00:15:22,875 --> 00:15:25,134 or I want Teams Rooms on Android, 417 00:15:25,434 --> 00:15:25,934 versus 418 00:15:26,475 --> 00:15:28,634 when should I maybe start thinking about Teams 419 00:15:28,634 --> 00:15:29,454 Room on Windows 420 00:15:30,190 --> 00:15:32,370 because of how those 2 kinda compare or 421 00:15:32,430 --> 00:15:34,450 contrast or have different advantages 422 00:15:34,830 --> 00:15:36,830 and such? This is a question that we 423 00:15:36,830 --> 00:15:39,310 get from customers all the time that are 424 00:15:39,310 --> 00:15:41,070 people that are just trying to figure out, 425 00:15:41,070 --> 00:15:43,605 I've gotta manage a 1,000 rooms. Which management 426 00:15:43,605 --> 00:15:45,285 ecosystem do I want? I think that's really 427 00:15:45,285 --> 00:15:47,544 what it boils down to, Windows versus Android. 428 00:15:47,605 --> 00:15:49,845 It comes down to the management ecosystem. Okay. 429 00:15:49,845 --> 00:15:51,684 And some of the feature discrepancies between the 430 00:15:51,684 --> 00:15:54,404 two platforms. Microsoft did a a nice article 431 00:15:54,404 --> 00:15:56,629 not too long ago that kind of shared 432 00:15:56,629 --> 00:15:59,610 their position on where the feature development happens 433 00:15:59,669 --> 00:16:02,149 and so forth. So I think people know 434 00:16:02,149 --> 00:16:04,149 Windows is gonna be the platform you want 435 00:16:04,149 --> 00:16:06,230 to use for your Microsoft Teams room if 436 00:16:06,230 --> 00:16:08,309 you're gonna use things like AI and so 437 00:16:08,309 --> 00:16:10,595 forth like that. If you want intelligent speaker 438 00:16:10,595 --> 00:16:13,075 recognition where you would have, say, a rally 439 00:16:13,075 --> 00:16:15,634 bar in the room, but as different users 440 00:16:15,634 --> 00:16:18,754 in the room speak, it identifies them as 441 00:16:18,754 --> 00:16:21,174 their name instead of just So, like, conference 442 00:16:21,235 --> 00:16:23,339 room 1 or yeah. Yeah. You're gonna get 443 00:16:23,339 --> 00:16:25,980 those features on Windows first. This is where 444 00:16:25,980 --> 00:16:28,779 a lot of the development happens. Android is 445 00:16:28,779 --> 00:16:32,299 super simple to deploy and manage. It's built 446 00:16:32,299 --> 00:16:34,220 into the bars, and so you don't have 447 00:16:34,220 --> 00:16:36,535 a separate PC to manage. So a lot 448 00:16:36,535 --> 00:16:38,855 of companies that are coming out of environments 449 00:16:38,855 --> 00:16:40,855 where they're used to managing, they have their 450 00:16:40,855 --> 00:16:41,595 own AVVLANs 451 00:16:41,975 --> 00:16:44,154 and so forth. They're used to the appliance 452 00:16:44,535 --> 00:16:47,654 Yeah. Model of an AV component. They like 453 00:16:47,654 --> 00:16:50,375 the Android experience because it's just easy, simple 454 00:16:50,375 --> 00:16:50,875 device, 455 00:16:51,240 --> 00:16:53,559 all in one. Attach my license, and I'm 456 00:16:53,559 --> 00:16:56,120 good to go. So it fundamentally just comes 457 00:16:56,120 --> 00:16:59,480 down to where does your particular capabilities and 458 00:16:59,480 --> 00:17:01,159 your team lie? Where what are you more 459 00:17:01,159 --> 00:17:04,460 comfortable managing? Windows PCs or Android devices? 460 00:17:04,884 --> 00:17:06,964 And then from there, what are the specific 461 00:17:06,964 --> 00:17:08,964 needs in each room that you may need? 462 00:17:08,964 --> 00:17:11,125 If you want all the AI, go with 463 00:17:11,125 --> 00:17:14,005 Windows. If you like simplicity for maybe smaller 464 00:17:14,005 --> 00:17:16,164 spaces and stuff, Android's a great option for 465 00:17:16,164 --> 00:17:16,904 that. Logitech 466 00:17:17,429 --> 00:17:18,250 doesn't necessarily 467 00:17:18,629 --> 00:17:20,869 want to tell our users which ones they 468 00:17:20,869 --> 00:17:22,730 need to use because it's it's a very 469 00:17:22,789 --> 00:17:25,349 unique decision for every organization. Everybody's needs are 470 00:17:25,349 --> 00:17:27,829 different. And so what we do, which I 471 00:17:27,829 --> 00:17:30,710 think we do uniquely amongst OEMs, is we 472 00:17:30,710 --> 00:17:33,224 dual certify all of our products for both 473 00:17:33,224 --> 00:17:35,704 Windows and Android. So that same rally bar 474 00:17:35,704 --> 00:17:37,785 that has Android built in Yep. You plug 475 00:17:37,785 --> 00:17:39,404 it in with a USB to a PC, 476 00:17:39,704 --> 00:17:42,265 and now it's a certified Teams Rooms on 477 00:17:42,265 --> 00:17:44,585 Windows device as well. So you have that 478 00:17:44,585 --> 00:17:46,190 kind of option. Got it. And this is 479 00:17:46,190 --> 00:17:47,549 what you had to explain this to me 480 00:17:47,549 --> 00:17:48,750 like a few times. I was trying to 481 00:17:48,750 --> 00:17:50,529 wrap my head around it the other day, 482 00:17:50,589 --> 00:17:53,070 where like, Teams Room on Android is technically 483 00:17:53,070 --> 00:17:55,710 running on the devices. So if you pick 484 00:17:55,710 --> 00:17:57,869 up a Logitech device, one of the Teams 485 00:17:57,869 --> 00:17:59,630 Room devices, put it on the wall, hang 486 00:17:59,630 --> 00:18:01,365 it on the TV, plug it into a 487 00:18:01,365 --> 00:18:04,265 network cable, you can be up and going, 488 00:18:04,404 --> 00:18:04,904 running, 489 00:18:05,205 --> 00:18:07,684 we'll say that quickly. There's the licensing and 490 00:18:07,684 --> 00:18:09,365 stuff to think about as well, but then 491 00:18:09,365 --> 00:18:11,865 you're gonna be running Teams Room on Android. 492 00:18:11,924 --> 00:18:14,404 Right. Because Android is what the OS built 493 00:18:14,404 --> 00:18:16,210 into all your operating systems. And if you 494 00:18:16,210 --> 00:18:18,210 want Teams Room on Windows, you do need 495 00:18:18,210 --> 00:18:20,150 to have another device, 496 00:18:20,529 --> 00:18:23,190 some PC device, mini PC, 497 00:18:23,570 --> 00:18:24,630 full blown computer. 498 00:18:25,090 --> 00:18:27,410 I'm assuming people pulling a laptop into the 499 00:18:27,410 --> 00:18:29,570 room and plugging it in, any of those, 500 00:18:29,570 --> 00:18:32,625 and then it just automatically switches to Teams 501 00:18:32,625 --> 00:18:33,525 Room on Windows? 502 00:18:33,984 --> 00:18:35,684 Yes. There's 3 categories. 503 00:18:35,984 --> 00:18:37,125 We'll say it's BYOD, 504 00:18:37,505 --> 00:18:39,825 meaning I brought my laptop in, I plug 505 00:18:39,825 --> 00:18:42,065 it into the room, and my laptop hosts 506 00:18:42,065 --> 00:18:44,869 the meeting. Okay. The second category is I 507 00:18:44,869 --> 00:18:46,630 have a native Teams room. It's got a 508 00:18:46,630 --> 00:18:48,410 Teams room pro license attached, 509 00:18:48,869 --> 00:18:51,029 and I've made the decision to go with 510 00:18:51,029 --> 00:18:53,750 Teams rooms on Android for the management ecosystem. 511 00:18:53,750 --> 00:18:56,265 In which case, the compute that's that's hosting 512 00:18:56,265 --> 00:18:58,365 the meeting is actually built into the bar 513 00:18:58,424 --> 00:19:00,585 on a chipset that's already integrated into the 514 00:19:00,585 --> 00:19:02,305 bar. And that's the one running Android Right. 515 00:19:02,424 --> 00:19:04,025 For everything. And then there's Teams Rooms on 516 00:19:04,025 --> 00:19:05,865 Windows. If you chose to have a native 517 00:19:05,865 --> 00:19:07,965 Teams Room but running on a Windows PC, 518 00:19:08,025 --> 00:19:10,105 you have the Windows PC in the room 519 00:19:10,105 --> 00:19:12,659 connected to the bar, and the Windows PC 520 00:19:12,659 --> 00:19:14,819 is the one that's hosting the call and 521 00:19:14,819 --> 00:19:17,299 providing those streams back to Microsoft in the 522 00:19:17,299 --> 00:19:19,859 cloud. So it really just depends on where 523 00:19:19,859 --> 00:19:21,940 does the Teams client that's hosting the call 524 00:19:21,940 --> 00:19:24,065 live. Got it. Do you dare get into 525 00:19:24,065 --> 00:19:26,625 licensing? Like, do you talk about licensing when 526 00:19:26,625 --> 00:19:29,045 it comes? Because I know that's another topic. 527 00:19:29,184 --> 00:19:31,525 I have some Teams Room devices at home. 528 00:19:31,585 --> 00:19:33,424 I won't say which ones because they're a 529 00:19:33,424 --> 00:19:33,924 competitor. 530 00:19:35,265 --> 00:19:36,785 We can fix that. We can fix that? 531 00:19:36,785 --> 00:19:38,380 Okay. Good to hear. And then I can 532 00:19:38,380 --> 00:19:40,140 get some experience with those. But I know 533 00:19:40,140 --> 00:19:42,720 some of the licensing has changed to around 534 00:19:43,099 --> 00:19:44,799 Teams Room devices and how 535 00:19:45,259 --> 00:19:46,559 you think about even 536 00:19:46,940 --> 00:19:47,839 which licenses 537 00:19:48,140 --> 00:19:50,575 you may want, how you license devices when 538 00:19:50,575 --> 00:19:52,835 it comes to Teams Room and Microsoft 365. 539 00:19:53,455 --> 00:19:56,015 Is that something you get into or talk 540 00:19:56,015 --> 00:19:57,535 about much, or do you leave that up 541 00:19:57,535 --> 00:19:59,695 to You know it. People? It's really up 542 00:19:59,695 --> 00:20:02,335 to the organization where they are, and every 543 00:20:02,335 --> 00:20:04,589 group is a little bit different because of 544 00:20:04,750 --> 00:20:07,069 where they are in the enterprise agreement with 545 00:20:07,069 --> 00:20:09,309 Microsoft. So there's actually a large number of 546 00:20:09,309 --> 00:20:12,929 people that still have Teams Room standard licenses 547 00:20:13,069 --> 00:20:16,130 or Teams Room premium licenses on their tenant. 548 00:20:16,190 --> 00:20:18,589 Okay. Everyone is moving to either a Teams 549 00:20:18,589 --> 00:20:20,634 Room basic license or a Teams Room pro 550 00:20:20,634 --> 00:20:22,955 license. The pro license has a cost associated 551 00:20:22,955 --> 00:20:25,455 with it. The basic license is free. Okay. 552 00:20:25,515 --> 00:20:28,095 So if you were to take a Logitech 553 00:20:28,154 --> 00:20:30,234 device, like the RallyBar out of the box, 554 00:20:30,234 --> 00:20:31,515 plug it in Yep. And you need to 555 00:20:31,515 --> 00:20:33,269 assign a license, you can assign 556 00:20:33,650 --> 00:20:36,529 the Microsoft Teams Room basic license, which is 557 00:20:36,529 --> 00:20:38,450 free to that device, and you're up and 558 00:20:38,450 --> 00:20:40,289 running with the Teams Room. Okay. There are 559 00:20:40,289 --> 00:20:42,529 simply some limitations. You can only have so 560 00:20:42,529 --> 00:20:44,309 many Teams Room basic licenses 561 00:20:44,609 --> 00:20:46,769 on your tenant, and then then you're there's 562 00:20:46,769 --> 00:20:47,829 just no more available. 563 00:20:48,194 --> 00:20:50,994 And the basic license has a few restrictions 564 00:20:50,994 --> 00:20:54,034 from feature sets, like, dual monitor and AI 565 00:20:54,034 --> 00:20:56,515 capabilities and so forth. So really, it comes 566 00:20:56,515 --> 00:20:59,075 down to I think for most users, they're 567 00:20:59,075 --> 00:21:01,734 gonna be migrating into Teams Room Pro, 568 00:21:02,059 --> 00:21:04,700 licenses anyway, which actually is the right decision 569 00:21:04,700 --> 00:21:06,460 to make because it gives you access to 570 00:21:06,460 --> 00:21:08,460 the pro portal, which has some really great 571 00:21:08,460 --> 00:21:10,160 automatic remediation capabilities 572 00:21:10,779 --> 00:21:12,859 and some really good insights for tracking the 573 00:21:12,859 --> 00:21:14,859 health of devices. You can go in and 574 00:21:14,859 --> 00:21:17,164 see which rooms are the most stable versus 575 00:21:17,164 --> 00:21:18,525 the least, and it gives you a lot 576 00:21:18,525 --> 00:21:20,944 of insights as to which devices should I 577 00:21:21,005 --> 00:21:23,884 deploy, which ones are being most utilized. So 578 00:21:23,884 --> 00:21:25,964 if I have to change my floor plan 579 00:21:25,964 --> 00:21:28,605 around, I know which room sizes are the 580 00:21:28,605 --> 00:21:30,769 most commonly used and so forth like that. 581 00:21:30,769 --> 00:21:32,929 So I think for most users, probably over 582 00:21:32,929 --> 00:21:34,529 the course of the next few months, they're 583 00:21:34,529 --> 00:21:36,529 just gonna be either on a basic or 584 00:21:36,529 --> 00:21:38,849 a pro license. Okay. And that's one thing 585 00:21:38,849 --> 00:21:40,929 I noticed too. I think with pro, I 586 00:21:40,929 --> 00:21:43,190 come from the admin side of it is 587 00:21:43,484 --> 00:21:45,085 I found that I needed Pro, like, if 588 00:21:45,085 --> 00:21:47,005 I wanna manage the devices with Intune as 589 00:21:47,005 --> 00:21:49,164 well. Bring them to the portal, I think, 590 00:21:49,164 --> 00:21:52,125 and doing all the device management. And I'm 591 00:21:52,125 --> 00:21:54,144 trying to remember if you even, like, updates, 592 00:21:54,204 --> 00:21:56,305 being able to manage updates on these devices 593 00:21:56,365 --> 00:21:57,950 from Intune, it was 594 00:21:58,730 --> 00:22:00,730 all go by that pro license. Yeah. If 595 00:22:00,730 --> 00:22:03,130 you want to have the benefit of that 596 00:22:03,130 --> 00:22:03,630 meaningful, 597 00:22:04,169 --> 00:22:05,869 serious management ecosystem, 598 00:22:06,250 --> 00:22:08,429 which is really fantastic that Microsoft 599 00:22:08,730 --> 00:22:10,750 has developed for these these devices, 600 00:22:11,075 --> 00:22:12,595 The pro management portal is the right place 601 00:22:12,595 --> 00:22:14,674 to do that. Okay. And so from there, 602 00:22:14,674 --> 00:22:15,954 in order to get that, you need a 603 00:22:15,954 --> 00:22:17,795 pro license. Yep. So it is the right 604 00:22:17,795 --> 00:22:19,255 decision to make for organizations, 605 00:22:19,555 --> 00:22:21,714 I think, if you have, you know, greater 606 00:22:21,714 --> 00:22:25,070 than 20, 25 rooms. Okay. One other question, 607 00:22:25,070 --> 00:22:26,670 maybe we'll wrap up with this one is 608 00:22:26,670 --> 00:22:27,650 you had mentioned, 609 00:22:28,029 --> 00:22:30,430 like, having these devices, having your conference rooms, 610 00:22:30,430 --> 00:22:31,490 being able to recognize 611 00:22:32,110 --> 00:22:33,950 individual people in the room where you can 612 00:22:34,029 --> 00:22:35,875 and you have 10 people in, and as 613 00:22:35,875 --> 00:22:36,694 you're generating 614 00:22:37,075 --> 00:22:39,554 the transcript, if you're doing the AI summary 615 00:22:39,554 --> 00:22:41,714 and you want names associated with people, being 616 00:22:41,714 --> 00:22:42,615 able to recognize 617 00:22:43,394 --> 00:22:45,474 all of the people in the room as 618 00:22:45,474 --> 00:22:45,974 themselves 619 00:22:46,515 --> 00:22:47,015 versus 620 00:22:47,554 --> 00:22:49,269 it's just the conference room, and it could 621 00:22:49,269 --> 00:22:51,430 have been any one of the people. What 622 00:22:51,430 --> 00:22:52,730 type of process 623 00:22:53,109 --> 00:22:55,670 is that to go through in order to 624 00:22:55,670 --> 00:22:57,990 get that set up and configured? Because I'm 625 00:22:57,990 --> 00:23:00,070 guessing you can't just have 10 people come 626 00:23:00,070 --> 00:23:01,714 into the room, and it's like, oh, I 627 00:23:01,714 --> 00:23:03,955 know who that is. I mean, there's a 628 00:23:03,955 --> 00:23:05,714 lot of information about us on the Internet, 629 00:23:05,714 --> 00:23:07,714 but not that much, I hope. This is 630 00:23:07,714 --> 00:23:10,595 not big brother. We're not using some some 631 00:23:10,595 --> 00:23:13,394 big facial recognition, scrubbing your social media. No. 632 00:23:13,394 --> 00:23:15,394 It's just none of that. So it's actually 633 00:23:15,394 --> 00:23:18,089 really simple. As the tenant, as the admin, 634 00:23:18,149 --> 00:23:19,750 you have to go in and opt in 635 00:23:19,750 --> 00:23:22,409 for your organization to have speaker recognition 636 00:23:22,869 --> 00:23:24,950 enabled for your users. What that's using is 637 00:23:24,950 --> 00:23:26,009 Microsoft's biometric. 638 00:23:26,389 --> 00:23:28,950 And so, basically, once you opt in as 639 00:23:28,950 --> 00:23:29,529 an organization, 640 00:23:29,829 --> 00:23:31,669 all the users have the option to go 641 00:23:31,669 --> 00:23:33,805 into their Teams client, go into the settings 642 00:23:33,805 --> 00:23:35,725 right there from their their desktop Okay. Their 643 00:23:35,725 --> 00:23:38,225 Teams client, go into the settings and enable 644 00:23:38,365 --> 00:23:41,184 recognition, and then enroll their voice and face. 645 00:23:41,325 --> 00:23:43,725 So it's a 2 step process. Admin enables, 646 00:23:43,725 --> 00:23:45,565 and once they enable, the users have the 647 00:23:45,565 --> 00:23:48,125 ability to self enroll. Okay. If they've self 648 00:23:48,125 --> 00:23:50,159 enrolled, what happens when they walk into a 649 00:23:50,159 --> 00:23:52,640 Teams room is the that Teams on the 650 00:23:52,640 --> 00:23:54,980 cloud is going to get their voice 651 00:23:55,279 --> 00:23:57,359 and their face, and it's going to compare 652 00:23:57,359 --> 00:24:00,179 it to the enrolled users and then identify 653 00:24:00,240 --> 00:24:02,174 their name in the transcript. So then in 654 00:24:02,174 --> 00:24:04,654 the participants in a Teams call, instead of 655 00:24:04,654 --> 00:24:05,394 just seeing 656 00:24:05,694 --> 00:24:08,734 ignite meeting room 1, it'll say ignite meeting 657 00:24:08,734 --> 00:24:10,755 room 1, and then under it, it'll say, 658 00:24:10,815 --> 00:24:13,294 Ben and Alex. And every time you speak, 659 00:24:13,294 --> 00:24:15,694 it'll show in the transcript that Ben said 660 00:24:15,694 --> 00:24:18,059 this, and when I speak, Alex said this, 661 00:24:18,059 --> 00:24:20,640 instead of just being meeting room 1 said 662 00:24:20,700 --> 00:24:22,960 all of it. Okay. And then what happens, 663 00:24:23,019 --> 00:24:25,420 let's say because, again, you said it relies 664 00:24:25,420 --> 00:24:28,539 on users enrolling themselves. Yes. If you get 665 00:24:28,539 --> 00:24:30,654 10 people, ten's a nice round number, 5 666 00:24:30,654 --> 00:24:31,474 people enrolled 667 00:24:31,855 --> 00:24:33,474 and 5 people haven't enrolled, 668 00:24:33,775 --> 00:24:35,694 do you get then a mix of individual 669 00:24:35,694 --> 00:24:37,855 users, then you still end up with Ignite 670 00:24:37,855 --> 00:24:40,575 conference room 1 that's the other 10? So 671 00:24:40,575 --> 00:24:43,375 the the enrollment only applies to people in 672 00:24:43,375 --> 00:24:45,910 meeting rooms because if you're logged in through 673 00:24:45,910 --> 00:24:47,670 your own account, maybe you're a remote user, 674 00:24:47,670 --> 00:24:50,470 you're already identified. So your identity is already 675 00:24:50,470 --> 00:24:52,309 in the call. So for those users in 676 00:24:52,309 --> 00:24:53,990 the meeting room, if half of them have 677 00:24:53,990 --> 00:24:56,630 enrolled, they'll all be identified and the other 678 00:24:56,630 --> 00:24:59,450 half will not. So it'll say, for example, 679 00:25:00,065 --> 00:25:01,204 unidentified user 680 00:25:01,505 --> 00:25:03,984 1, 2, 3, 4, 4. Doesn't lump them 681 00:25:03,984 --> 00:25:06,065 all into just the conference room. It still 682 00:25:06,065 --> 00:25:08,704 picks out individual users Right. But they're just 683 00:25:08,704 --> 00:25:09,204 generic 684 00:25:09,585 --> 00:25:12,144 Yeah. User 1, user 2. Unnamed user. Yeah. 685 00:25:12,144 --> 00:25:13,900 Okay. And you do have the option to 686 00:25:13,900 --> 00:25:16,220 go back and add the name manually if 687 00:25:16,220 --> 00:25:18,779 you don't use the biometric to self to 688 00:25:18,779 --> 00:25:20,240 identify it for automatically. 689 00:25:20,700 --> 00:25:22,619 You can go in and manually change the 690 00:25:22,619 --> 00:25:25,555 name from unnamed user 1 to Ben said 691 00:25:25,674 --> 00:25:27,275 Right. If you can pick up who said 692 00:25:27,275 --> 00:25:28,875 what or have everybody, like, come in and 693 00:25:28,875 --> 00:25:31,914 introduce yourselves for the for Copilot. Right? Hi. 694 00:25:31,914 --> 00:25:32,734 I'm Ben. 695 00:25:33,914 --> 00:25:36,555 Very cool. So diving into you mentioned a 696 00:25:36,555 --> 00:25:38,634 few of your products too along along the 697 00:25:38,634 --> 00:25:40,849 way here. I There was the Play Bars, 698 00:25:41,470 --> 00:25:41,970 the 699 00:25:42,269 --> 00:25:44,690 I know you have, like, some different headsets. 700 00:25:45,309 --> 00:25:46,289 Yeah. Are there 701 00:25:46,750 --> 00:25:47,250 recommendations 702 00:25:47,630 --> 00:25:49,970 that you would have for users 703 00:25:50,509 --> 00:25:51,250 or companies 704 00:25:51,630 --> 00:25:54,430 looking to maybe start investing in a Teams 705 00:25:54,430 --> 00:25:55,884 room or if there's and I know it's 706 00:25:55,884 --> 00:25:57,484 gonna depend too based on size of the 707 00:25:57,484 --> 00:25:59,404 conference room, based on size of the company 708 00:25:59,404 --> 00:26:02,384 where maybe devices of, like, people getting started 709 00:26:02,605 --> 00:26:06,224 versus people that have massive conference rooms or 710 00:26:06,525 --> 00:26:09,025 just how would they start getting introduced 711 00:26:09,519 --> 00:26:10,960 to rolling out one of these Teams Room 712 00:26:10,960 --> 00:26:14,660 systems or recommendations from that Logitech product line? 713 00:26:14,720 --> 00:26:16,880 Yeah. A super easy tool would be to 714 00:26:16,880 --> 00:26:18,099 go on to logitech.com/microsoft/trial. 715 00:26:21,214 --> 00:26:22,734 And you can fill out a form there, 716 00:26:22,734 --> 00:26:25,295 and that will send me Okay. Along with 717 00:26:25,295 --> 00:26:27,134 the rest of a large team, a message 718 00:26:27,134 --> 00:26:29,134 that says that you would like to sample 719 00:26:29,134 --> 00:26:30,734 some of these products. You'd like to demo 720 00:26:30,734 --> 00:26:33,295 them. And we do offer up to 2 721 00:26:33,295 --> 00:26:35,615 room systems free for you to put into 722 00:26:35,615 --> 00:26:37,919 your your environment. They're yours to keep. And 723 00:26:37,919 --> 00:26:39,519 then you can get Teams Rooms set up 724 00:26:39,519 --> 00:26:41,039 and going, and you can see how these 725 00:26:41,039 --> 00:26:43,200 these products work in your own environment. And 726 00:26:43,200 --> 00:26:46,000 you can feel, experience the benefit of them. 727 00:26:46,000 --> 00:26:48,240 So that's a great starting place. If we 728 00:26:48,240 --> 00:26:50,474 try to make it really simple, our portfolio 729 00:26:51,335 --> 00:26:53,914 is RallyBar Huddle, RallyBar Mini, and RallyBar. 730 00:26:54,214 --> 00:26:56,615 So Huddle is what it sounds like. So 731 00:26:56,615 --> 00:26:59,255 2, 3, 4, 5 people in a small 732 00:26:59,255 --> 00:27:01,815 to Huddle space. Okay. RallyBar Mini is the 733 00:27:01,815 --> 00:27:04,250 small to medium room, and then Rally Bar 734 00:27:04,250 --> 00:27:06,009 is the medium to large room. Got it. 735 00:27:06,009 --> 00:27:07,450 We just try to make it as easy 736 00:27:07,450 --> 00:27:09,289 as possible to pick the one that's the 737 00:27:09,289 --> 00:27:10,970 right for you right one for you. All 738 00:27:10,970 --> 00:27:13,470 of them are dual certified for both Android 739 00:27:13,609 --> 00:27:14,349 and Windows. 740 00:27:14,809 --> 00:27:17,964 All of them natively work with Microsoft Teams 741 00:27:17,964 --> 00:27:19,724 Rooms right out of the box, and all 742 00:27:19,724 --> 00:27:21,984 of them obviously have the certification 743 00:27:22,285 --> 00:27:24,285 and the full support and warranty and everything 744 00:27:24,285 --> 00:27:27,404 from Logitech and from Microsoft. Okay. Awesome. And 745 00:27:27,404 --> 00:27:28,684 we'll put some of those links too in 746 00:27:28,684 --> 00:27:30,890 the show notes. I'll get some different links, 747 00:27:30,890 --> 00:27:33,450 resources from you that we'll include with the 748 00:27:33,450 --> 00:27:35,609 podcast so people can just click on it 749 00:27:35,609 --> 00:27:37,289 to go get a trial and any of 750 00:27:37,289 --> 00:27:40,490 that. Anything else, Alex, that you want people 751 00:27:40,490 --> 00:27:42,169 to know? Or I don't know if you've 752 00:27:42,169 --> 00:27:44,490 made it out of the conference hall, but 753 00:27:44,490 --> 00:27:46,914 just any other highlights from Ignite or anything 754 00:27:46,914 --> 00:27:49,394 like that you wanna share to wrap up? 755 00:27:49,394 --> 00:27:52,674 Yeah. I have loved walking around at Ignite. 756 00:27:52,674 --> 00:27:54,755 I'm just running into people. I mean, the 757 00:27:54,835 --> 00:27:57,154 it's such a fantastic community. You bump into 758 00:27:57,154 --> 00:27:59,119 IT pros all over the place, 759 00:27:59,580 --> 00:28:01,680 from different organizations, from partners, 760 00:28:02,059 --> 00:28:05,019 MVPs that are helping to house sessions or 761 00:28:05,019 --> 00:28:05,519 educate 762 00:28:05,820 --> 00:28:08,480 the community. So it's a great learning opportunity. 763 00:28:08,539 --> 00:28:10,380 I've loved some of the sessions on how 764 00:28:10,380 --> 00:28:13,714 to do AI and enablement across organizations like 765 00:28:13,714 --> 00:28:16,194 workflow adaptations and so forth. So that's been 766 00:28:16,194 --> 00:28:18,595 a fantastic one for me. Obviously, AI is 767 00:28:18,595 --> 00:28:21,075 everywhere. And I think it's been really cool 768 00:28:21,075 --> 00:28:23,394 listening to people react to some of our 769 00:28:23,394 --> 00:28:25,789 new devices. We rolled out, it's called 770 00:28:26,250 --> 00:28:27,070 the k 950 771 00:28:27,769 --> 00:28:28,269 keyboard, 772 00:28:28,570 --> 00:28:29,950 which is k950 773 00:28:30,410 --> 00:28:32,490 for Windows, which means that you get a 774 00:28:32,490 --> 00:28:34,509 copilot key directly on the keyboard, 775 00:28:34,809 --> 00:28:36,650 like, just like you would get on a 776 00:28:36,650 --> 00:28:40,015 copilot PC. Yep. So that's cool. People are 777 00:28:40,015 --> 00:28:42,414 loving that. But I think in general, these 778 00:28:42,414 --> 00:28:43,634 shows are just fantastic 779 00:28:44,015 --> 00:28:45,955 to meet with other people in the community. 780 00:28:46,174 --> 00:28:48,015 They are. That's one thing I've missed over 781 00:28:48,015 --> 00:28:49,775 the last 5 years. Like, it's interesting because 782 00:28:49,775 --> 00:28:52,000 we're sitting here talking about conference rooms and 783 00:28:52,000 --> 00:28:54,240 making it feel like you're in person, but 784 00:28:54,240 --> 00:28:56,000 there is no matter how good the time, 785 00:28:56,000 --> 00:28:57,460 you feel like you can never replace 786 00:28:57,920 --> 00:28:59,680 what you get at these conferences from that 787 00:28:59,680 --> 00:29:01,839 in person. Like you said, just running into 788 00:29:01,839 --> 00:29:04,980 people, conversations you can have with people, something 789 00:29:05,039 --> 00:29:06,474 I know I've missed a lot over the 790 00:29:06,474 --> 00:29:08,875 last 5 years and enjoyed. Yeah. Companies used 791 00:29:08,875 --> 00:29:10,554 to do these big off sites where everyone 792 00:29:10,554 --> 00:29:12,714 from all these different offices would fly into 793 00:29:12,714 --> 00:29:14,954 some city somewhere and hang out together. But 794 00:29:14,954 --> 00:29:17,275 now, I feel like they're doing an on-site 795 00:29:17,275 --> 00:29:19,595 instead. Everyone flies to the office and then 796 00:29:19,595 --> 00:29:21,089 hangs out in the office for a week, 797 00:29:21,169 --> 00:29:23,250 and then goes back home. Yeah. So it's 798 00:29:23,250 --> 00:29:25,490 fun. The on-site is the new off-site. But, 799 00:29:25,730 --> 00:29:27,970 these are great opportunities for that. And you're 800 00:29:27,970 --> 00:29:29,409 right. Just being able to hang out with 801 00:29:29,409 --> 00:29:31,490 people in person is really cool. Yep. Very 802 00:29:31,490 --> 00:29:33,904 cool. Well, thanks, Alex. Appreciate you joining me 803 00:29:33,904 --> 00:29:36,304 and chatting about your products and Teams Rooms 804 00:29:36,304 --> 00:29:38,464 and all of that. And hope you enjoy 805 00:29:38,464 --> 00:29:39,605 the rest of the conference 806 00:29:40,144 --> 00:29:42,464 and have safe travels. We're all headed home 807 00:29:42,464 --> 00:29:44,005 as it's snowing in Chicago. 808 00:29:44,785 --> 00:29:46,660 It is. Yeah. Thanks, Ben. 809 00:29:48,640 --> 00:29:50,880 If you enjoyed the podcast, go leave us 810 00:29:50,880 --> 00:29:53,119 a 5 star rating in iTunes. It helps 811 00:29:53,119 --> 00:29:54,799 to get the word out so more IT 812 00:29:54,799 --> 00:29:57,585 pros can learn about Office 365 and Azure. 813 00:29:58,144 --> 00:29:59,825 If you have any questions you want us 814 00:29:59,825 --> 00:30:01,984 to address on the show, or feedback about 815 00:30:01,984 --> 00:30:04,384 the show, feel free to reach out via 816 00:30:04,384 --> 00:30:06,565 our website, Twitter, or Facebook. 817 00:30:06,865 --> 00:30:08,704 Thanks again for listening, and have a great 818 00:30:08,704 --> 00:30:09,204 day.

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Microsoft Cloud IT Pro Podcast

Ben Stegink, Scott Hoag

On the MS Cloud IT Pro Podcast, Scott and Ben discuss the Microsoft Cloud with a focus on IT Pros. They'll discuss the latest in Microsoft 365 and Office 365 News, Azure news and talk about their experiences with managing the Microsoft Cloud as well as interview industry experts on various cloud technology. They'll cover things such as SharePoint, Exchange, Microsoft Teams, PowerShell, Azure, Azure AD, Security, Networking, Storage, and the many other technologies and products that have made their way into the Microsoft 365 suite and Azure. To stay up-to-date on the latest in Microsoft Cloud news and gain some valuable knowledge as you deploy it within your own organization, make sure to tune in every week! Find out more at msclouditpropodcast.com.

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