Room5.08Floor 5 Microsoft 365
Meeting room technology and Microsoft Teams Rooms
Meeting rooms that start on time: Microsoft Teams Rooms systems chosen for the size of each room, set up with the right accounts and licences, and tested with a real call before we hand them over.
- One-touch join in every room
- Teams Rooms BasicFree for up to 25 rooms
- Rooms sized to how they are used
- Tested with a real call before handover
Meetings that start when the meeting starts
Most meeting rooms waste the first ten minutes of every meeting. Someone hunts for the right cable, the laptop picks the wrong speaker, the remote attendees hear an echo of themselves, and the camera shows the top of everyone’s heads. Multiply that by every meeting in a week and it is a real cost.
A properly set up Microsoft Teams Room fixes it. The room has its own account and its own calendar. Each scheduled meeting appears on the console in the room, and one touch joins it, with the camera, microphones and screen already working together. People bring their laptops for notes, not to run the meeting.
Rooms sized to how they are used
The right equipment depends far more on the size and shape of the room than on the brand. This is the starting point we use, adjusted after we have seen the space.
| Room | Seats | Typical equipment | Worth knowing |
|---|---|---|---|
| Focus room | 1 to 3 | A compact video bar or a personal video setup over USB | Often better as a bring-your-own-laptop room |
| Huddle room | 4 to 6 | An all-in-one video bar with a table touch console and one display | The most common room, and the best value |
| Medium room | 6 to 10 | A larger video bar with extension microphones, one or two displays | Microphone coverage at the far end matters most |
| Boardroom | 10 to 20 | A dedicated room computer, ceiling or table microphones, a tracking camera, two displays | Acoustics and camera placement need planning |
| Training or all-hands space | 20 or more | A designed audio-visual system | We bring in an AV integrator and handle the Teams side |
Android or Windows?
Teams Rooms systems run on one of two platforms. Both give the same one-touch join and the same meeting experience for most people. The difference is in what sits behind the screen.
Teams Rooms on Android
The camera, microphones, speakers and computer are built into a single video bar mounted under the display. There are fewer parts, fewer cables and less to go wrong. For huddle rooms and most medium rooms, it is the sensible default.
Teams Rooms on Windows
A small dedicated computer runs the room, connected to separate cameras, microphones and speakers. That allows a far wider choice of equipment, which is why boardrooms, oddly shaped rooms and rooms that need several cameras or ceiling microphones usually run on Windows.
Joining other platforms
Clients and suppliers do not all use Teams. Teams Rooms can join Zoom and Webex meetings directly on supported devices, which we switch on and test. Google Meet is not supported inside a Teams Room, so for those meetings the room’s equipment can be used from a laptop over a single USB cable.
Teams Rooms Basic or Pro
Every Teams Room needs a room licence assigned to its own account. Microsoft offers two.
Teams Rooms Basic
Free for up to 25 rooms in a Microsoft 365 tenant. It covers the core meeting experience: scheduled meetings, one-touch join, content sharing and the room calendar. For an office with a handful of rooms and no need for central monitoring, Basic is often all you need.
Teams Rooms Pro
Around US$40 per room per month at Microsoft’s list price. It adds the richer audio and video features, such as intelligent cameras and speakers that recognize who is talking, plus the Pro Management portal for monitoring rooms and pushing updates. Pro also includes Teams Phone for the room, so it can dial out to an ordinary phone number.
Basic and Pro can be mixed. A common arrangement is Pro for the boardroom, where a failed meeting is expensive, and Basic for the huddle rooms. If you are adding phone numbers to rooms, see our Teams Phone page for how numbers and calling plans work in Canada.
The setup details that make rooms reliable
A Teams Room that works on installation day and fails a month later has usually been set up as if it were a person’s laptop. Rooms have their own needs, and these are the settings that decide whether people trust them.
- A proper resource account. Each room has its own Microsoft 365 account with a strong password that never expires, so the room does not lock itself out after 90 days.
- Calendar settings that show what is booked. By default, Exchange hides meeting titles on room calendars and replaces them with the organizer’s name. We change the room’s calendar processing so the console shows the real meeting title and accepts bookings automatically.
- Sign-in rules that fit a room. Rooms cannot answer an MFA prompt. Instead of exempting them from security, we restrict room accounts to the room device and your office network through Conditional Access.
- Managed like any device. Rooms are enrolled in Microsoft Intune, kept compliant and updated overnight, never during the working day.
- A wired network connection. Rooms run on a cable, not Wi-Fi, with Teams traffic given priority on the network so video does not stutter when someone starts a large download.
- Display control. The screen switches on when someone walks in or touches the console, and off afterwards, through the display’s HDMI control.
Sound and sight: the parts no software can fix
Most complaints about meeting rooms are not technical at all. They come from the room. We look at these before recommending equipment, because buying a better camera will not fix a room that echoes.
| Problem | Cause | Fix |
|---|---|---|
| Remote attendees hear a hollow echo | Glass walls, hard floors and bare ceilings reflect sound | Acoustic panels, a rug or ceiling tiles before more microphones |
| People at the far end are not heard | They are beyond the video bar’s microphone range | An extension microphone on the table |
| Faces are dark on camera | A bright window behind the people at the table | Blinds, or turn the room around so windows face the camera |
| The screen is hard to read from the back | A display too small for the room | The furthest seat should be no more than about six times the screen’s height away |
| Everyone looks down at the camera | The camera is mounted too high or too low | Camera at roughly eye level for seated people, just above or below the screen |
Tested with a real call before handover
A room is not finished when it powers on. Before we hand it over, we hold a real meeting from the room with someone joining remotely, and check what they see and hear, not just what the room shows.
We test sharing a laptop screen by cable and wirelessly, joining a Zoom or Webex meeting if you need it, and the room booking from Outlook.
A one-page card on the table explains how to join, share and end a meeting. Booking panels outside the door are available if rooms are often double-booked or sit empty after being reserved. Rooms are a common part of our new office IT setup and office relocation projects.
Meeting room work we quote
Equipment, licences and installation are priced as separate lines, after we have seen the rooms or a floor plan with photos.
- Huddle room with an all-in-one Teams video barFixed quote
- Boardroom Teams Rooms system on WindowsFixed quote
- Existing rooms upgraded to Teams RoomsFixed quote
- Room accounts, calendars and licensing set upFixed quote
- Booking panels outside meeting roomsFixed quote
- Room audit for echo, lighting and coverageFixed quote
Questions people ask
Is Teams Rooms Basic really free?
Yes, for up to 25 rooms in a Microsoft 365 tenant. It covers scheduled meetings, one-touch join, content sharing and the room calendar. You still pay for the room equipment and its installation. Beyond 25 rooms, or for the advanced features and central monitoring, rooms need Teams Rooms Pro.
Do we need Teams Rooms Pro?
Not for most small offices. Pro is worth it for boardrooms and important client rooms, where intelligent audio and video help and a failed meeting is costly, and for organizations with many rooms that want them monitored centrally. Pro also includes Teams Phone for the room. Basic and Pro can be mixed room by room.
Can a Teams Room join Zoom or Google Meet calls?
Teams Rooms can join Zoom and Webex meetings directly on supported devices, and we switch that on and test it. Google Meet is not supported inside a Teams Room. For those meetings, a laptop can use the room's camera, microphones and screen over a single USB cable.
Android or Windows: which should we choose?
Android all-in-one video bars suit most huddle and medium rooms because they have fewer parts and are simple to look after. Windows-based systems suit boardrooms and rooms that need multiple cameras, ceiling microphones or unusual layouts, because they work with a much wider range of equipment.
Can people just plug in their own laptop instead?
Yes. Many video bars can work as a USB camera, microphone and speaker for any laptop and any meeting app. That flexibility is useful in focus rooms and for external platforms, but it loses one-touch join and depends on each person's laptop settings, so we usually recommend a full Teams Room for shared rooms.
How big should the screen be?
A useful rule is that the person in the furthest seat should be no more than about six times the screen's height away. A small huddle room may need only a 55-inch display, while a long boardroom often needs two large screens, one for people and one for shared content.
Why does our meeting room echo for remote people?
Hard surfaces reflect sound. Glass walls, concrete or hard floors and bare ceilings make a room sound hollow to people on the call, even when it sounds fine in person. Acoustic panels, a rug or ceiling treatment usually fix it more cheaply than new microphones.
Can you add booking panels outside the rooms?
Yes. A small touch panel outside the door shows whether the room is free, what is booked next, and lets people book it on the spot. Panels can also release a booking if nobody checks in, which frees up rooms reserved by habit and never used.
Tell us what’s going on
Pick how urgent it is and leave a way to reach you. The help desk replies by phone or email. If work has stopped, call 647-812-3775 instead.
Something broken, or something to plan?
For anything urgent, call. A technician answers the emergency line 24/7. For everything else, open a ticket and tell us what is going on.