Welcome to this blog series on Microsoft Teams Calling, in this post we discuss devices used with Microsoft Teams.
Teams devices generally fall into two categories, individual workspaces used by one person at a time or group workspaces with multiple people
Personal devices include peripherals like webcams, headsets as well personal speaker devices available from a wide range of manufacturers. Teams phones can be used as both personal and shared devices, with a range of both touch and non-touch devices available. Microsoft Teams Displays are all-in-one communication devices acting as a dedicated Teams device on a users desk.
Microsoft Teams rooms bring advanced audio and video, presentation and content sharing capabilities to any space.
The user experience is designed for Microsoft Teams providing a familiar experience to users used to using personal and desktop clients.
Microsoft has a device Certification Program which is designed to ensure third-party devices provide a compatible, high-quality experience when used with Microsoft Teams. Teams certified headsets and speakerphones have a Teams button providing deeper integration with Teams. For devices that were certified for Skype for Business, Microsoft has worked with device manufacturers to deliver as much Teams integration as possible with these existing devices without any changes to the original hardware.
Teams phones and displays can have 3 sign-in types:
- User mode, where the device is dedicated to a specific user account
- Meeting Room, providing quick access to the meeting rooms calendar
- Common area phone, for phones in shared spaces.
The search feature can be disabled to restrict access to the corporate address book on devices in shared or public locations.
So what happens if you have already invested in a large number of SIP phones already, or have use cases where simple phones need to be deployed?
The SIP Gateway feature of Microsoft Teams allows for select models of 3rd party SIP phones to register against Microsoft Teams, allowing existing devices to continue to be used. This service will provide dial-tone and basic calling features only, when compared to Teams Phone. Microsoft Teams will support the use of select DECT solution devices and their registration with Microsoft Teams to allow users to be contacted on the device as well as making calls.
Lastly, there may still be some specific analog based solutions (such as door entry phones) that users need access to or to be able to call into Teams from. These can be routed into Microsoft Teams phone via Direct Routing.
What licenses are required?
- Personal devices are covered by the license assigned to the user logging into the device.
- For Common area phones in shared locations there is the Common Area Phone license
- And for Meeting rooms, there is a choice of Basic or Pro licenses.
All three can be paired with Calling Plans or Direct Routing capabilities to enable PSTN calling.
Please get in touch if you’d like to learn more.
