Microsoft Teams Rooms management options

10 minutes

Microsoft Teams Rooms are a combination of certified hardware and Microsoft software to enable the best Microsoft Teams experience in meeting rooms and collaborative spaces.

Microsoft Teams Rooms include audio and video equipment, as well as other peripherals such as consoles, cameras, microphones, panels and displays.

Microsoft Teams Rooms encompass different hardware options, from bars that contain a camera, mic and speakers to modular solutions. There are two platform options; Microsoft Teams Rooms on Windows and Microsoft Teams Rooms on Android. These are similar from a user experience point of view but do have some differing features. They also have different administration and management capabilities.

Microsoft Teams Rooms Basic and Microsoft Teams Rooms Pro licenses

Two license options for Microsoft Teams Rooms impact user features and management capabilities.

Teams Rooms Pro offers improved in-room meeting experiences with intelligent audio and video, front row and large galleries, and dual-screen support. The license includes advanced management features such as remote device management, conditional access policies, and detailed device analytics via the Microsoft Teams Rooms Pro Portal
Microsoft Teams Rooms Basic is a free license that provides essential meeting experiences, including scheduling, joining meetings, content sharing, and whiteboarding. You can assign up to 25 Teams Rooms Basic licenses in your organization. Basic includes limited remote management capabilities and no access to the Microsoft Teams Rooms Pro Portal

Configuring and managing Microsoft Teams Rooms

Microsoft Teams Rooms are managed through a combination of the Microsoft Teams Admin Center, Microsoft Teams Rooms Pro Portal, Device vendor Management Tools and sometimes configuration set on the local device.

Microsoft is moving to a model where management and configuration are primarily done via the Microsoft Teams Rooms Pro Portal and only available for Pro licensed Microsoft Teams Rooms.

Microsoft Teams Rooms in the Teams admin center

With the Microsoft Teams Rooms Basic license you can view an inventory of Microsoft Teams Rooms devices, their online status and collect logs. Device software is updated automatically.

With with Pro license in the Microsoft Teams admin center, you can:

Perform device management like restarting devices and downloading device logs
Apply Teams-specific settings
Check the health status of Microsoft Teams Rooms and their peripherals, including cameras, displays, microphones, and so on
Review current and past meeting activity (such as details about call quality, network health and connectivity, and number of participants)
See peripherals (such as cameras and projectors) connected to Microsoft Teams Rooms (only for Teams Rooms on Windows)
Restart Devices

Teams Admin Center is the primary way to configure and Manage Microsoft Teams Rooms on Android devices. Microsoft Teams Rooms for Android currently have limited management capabilities in the Microsoft Teams Rooms Pro portal but further capabilities are being added over time.

To manage Microsoft Teams Rooms in the Teams Admin Center:

Sign in to Microsoft Teams admin center by visiting https://admin.teams.microsoft.com.
Navigate to Teams devices and select either, such as Teams Rooms on Windows or Teams Rooms on Android.
From there select the specific device you want to manage or configure.

Microsoft Teams Rooms in the Microsoft Teams Rooms Pro Management portal

Microsoft Teams Rooms Pro Management portal is a cloud-based management solution that proactively monitors and updates Microsoft Teams Rooms devices and their peripherals. This is only available to devices with the Microsoft Teams Rooms Pro license.

It provides the following capabilities

Intelligent operations: Software and machine learning that automates updates, problem detection, and problem resolution for Microsoft Teams Rooms
Monitoring: Room health monitoring that detects problems with the room system or peripherals
Troubleshooting and remediation: Automated diagnostics and auto-remediation where applicable
Insights and recommendations: Insights into room health, usage, and equipment reliability
Update management: Automated meeting application and windows update orchestration based on customer configurable deployment rings
Enhanced insights: Rich analytics, reporting and proven learnings at scale across many customers
Room planning and rollout: Room planning capabilities that allow you to understand existing equipment and inform decisions on equipment standards for new room deployments1.

To manage Microsoft Teams Rooms in the Microsoft Teams Rooms Pro Management Portal

Ensure your user account is a Global Administrator role in Microsoft Entra ID, or that you're assigned the MMR Administrator role in Teams Rooms Pro Management.
Sign in to Teams Rooms Pro Management portal by visiting https://portal.rooms.microsoft.com.
You can then navigate to Home, Incidents, Rooms, Reports, Updates, Planning or Settings as appropriate.

Manage Microsoft Teams Rooms on Windows with SkypeSettings.xml

In addition to the remote management capabilities, Microsoft Teams Rooms on Windows have a settings XML file that can be used to configure the device.

At startup, if a Microsoft Teams Rooms finds an XML file named SkypeSettings.xml located at C:\Users\Skype\AppData\Local\Packages\Microsoft.SkypeRoomSystem_8wekyb3d8bbwe\LocalState, it applies the configuration settings indicated by the XML file and then deletes the XML file.

You can use any method you like to transfer this file to the Microsoft Teams Rooms on Windows and trigger a restart on the console device.

Many settings can be set in the XML file, including:

User Account
Direct guest join
Dual screen mode
Front row configuration
Enable Public preview
Theming