The workplace has changed drastically in recent years. Hybrid and remote work have become commonplace among businesses large and small, and flexibility, scalability, and agility are crucial to every company. However, even in this evolving landscape, effective meetings continue to play an essential role in business productivity and performance.

Today’s teams are more reliant on effective meetings than ever before, for sharing knowledge and insights between distributed workers, and preserving company culture. Innovative solutions like Microsoft Teams have become a mainstay of the modern workplace, providing comprehensive tools to unify the workforce.

Not only does Teams offer a platform where staff can share ideas and information, but it offers access to valuable meeting room ecosystems in the form of Microsoft Teams Rooms. With the right Microsoft Teams Room (MTR) setup, companies can re-align their employees, improve productivity, and minimise the gaps between staff. The challenge is in creating a Room experience that facilitates success for the modern workforce.

Here are some of the steps business leaders will need to consider.

Step 1: Define Meeting Room Requirements

The first step in building an effective Microsoft Teams Room environment, is defining the meeting and collaboration needs of the business. In the past, many meeting rooms were large spaces, designed to accommodate groups of around 10-15 people. Now, however, companies can benefit from a wide range of different meeting environments.

In the age of hybrid work, huddle rooms, designed for a smaller number of around six physical participants allow companies to create convenient, and simple environments for ad-hoc hybrid meetings and collaborative sessions. Mid-sized meeting rooms can accommodate more participants, and provide an excellent landscape for brainstorming sessions and extensive discussions.

Alternative, large meeting rooms can be ideal for all-hands meetings where companies need to unify multiple members of in-house staff and remote participants at the same time. Defining the needs of the team will help companies to decide how large their meeting rooms should be, and which tools they’ll need to implement. It can also assist brands in deciding whether they’ll need to leverage integrations with other systems, such as the business PSTN environment, through direct routing.

Step 2: Craft the Right Layout for Inclusivity

Developing the ideal Microsoft Teams Room for the age of hybrid and remote work means rethinking how people will connect in a distributed landscape. Traditional meeting rooms, which placed participants around a shared table may not be appropriate for this new world. Companies may need to reconsider how they structure their room to boost inclusivity and participation.

For instance, all participants within the meeting room should be able to clearly see the display for content sharing and video purposes. Additionally, the space should be designed to ensure every member of staff within the meeting feels included in the conversation, despite physical presence.

Carefully evaluating decisions like where to place video cameras and speakers, where to position displays, and how to manage lighting and acoustics will help to improve meeting quality.

Step 3: Choosing the Right Hardware

After assessing the meeting needs of the workforce, and how meeting environments within the office will be structured, the next step for companies to take is selecting the right hardware. The exact tools required for each meeting room will vary depending on its size and purpose. However, some of the central solutions most companies will need to invest in include:

  • Displays: High-quality displays are crucial for unifying distributed workers, promoting inclusion, and sharing valuable content. In some cases, multiple screens may be necessary to showcase video screens, presentations, and other assets at the same time.
  • Audio devices: Reliable audio devices, such as microphones, speakers, soundbars, and even headphones will be necessary for all meeting participants. In the meeting room, audio equipment should provide clear sound quality, while eliminating echo and noise. Acoustic echo cancellation and noise suppression features can be extremely useful.
  • Cameras: High-resolution cameras capable of capturing clear footage can either be implemented as separate solutions in a modern meeting room, or as part of a complete “video bar” kit. These tools should come with automated pan tilt and zoom solutions, as well as state-of-the-art software to improve streaming quality.

Companies will also need to think about how team members will control and manage the meeting room environment, with user-friendly control panels that integrate seamlessly with Microsoft Teams. These tools will enable participants to control the meeting environment, adjust video and audio settings, and even join meetings with a single touch.

Step 4: Implement Tools to Manage Meeting Rooms

In-room control panels are just one of the meeting room control systems businesses will need to consider when setting up an effective Microsoft Teams Room solution. To ensure tools are configured and deployed correctly, monitored for issues, and upgraded when appropriate, business leaders will also need access to an operations center or control software.

The right solution should enable administrators to manage and monitor Microsoft Meeting Room environments, IP phones, and other devices, for a holistic approach to meeting experience monitoring. With these resources, companies can streamline the lifecycle management of the meeting room toolkit, and even simplify routine tasks like updating firmware.

An effective management solution can also help to reduce issues in the meeting room, with remote troubleshooting and problem detection tools. Plus, it allows systems administrators to control network elements and Teams devices from anywhere.

Step 5: Increasing Meeting Productivity with Insights

Finally, after building a powerful Microsoft Teams Room, companies need to ensure they’re getting the most out of their investment. Comprehensive analytical tools can help to improve the ROI of a meeting solution, with AI-driven insights and guidance.

A comprehensive Meeting Insights platform can capture and organize all meeting-generated content in one place. This allows enterprises to easily retain, share, and store meeting content, and track valuable metrics. Some tools even come with in-meeting voice assistants, which can log real-time action items notes, and meeting summaries. These AI tools can also help to identify speakers in a meeting, and track keywords uttered in a conversation.

With the right toolkit, businesses may even be able to mark crucial moments in conversations, and share content instantly with participants in a meeting after the discussion ends.

Building a Great Microsoft Teams Room

Microsoft Teams Rooms has the power to significantly enhance the value of any company’s Teams investment. However, like any solution for collaboration and communication, the technology needs to be implemented with care and precise planning.

Defining meeting room layouts, choosing the right technology to empower teams, and implementing tools to monitor, track, and enhance user experiences will help businesses to support their staff members, and create a more inclusive workplace environment.



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