Every year, Rapid Circle sends its Converged Communications team to Integrate Expo: Australia’s premier AV and Integration trade show. It’s an opportunity for Rapid Circle to learn about the latest in Microsoft Teams Room hardware, jump into some NDA presentations to see what the future holds, and to mingle with the people behind the brands that make it all happen.

This year, we did things a little different. Working together with Microsoft, Logitech and Extron, Rapid Circle built out their very own Microsoft Teams Signature Space: showcasing what can be achieved when vendors work together to extend on the out of the box experience Microsoft Teams Rooms provide.

CommBox

When walking into the room, it was hard not to notice the impressive CommBox Horizon 105 ultra-wide 5K screen. With a 21:9 aspect ratio, this screen has been designed to support Microsoft Signature Space layouts, allowing for better engagement and a 1st party experience when meeting with remote participants.

A Behind The Scenes Look

Logitech

The Logitech Rally Bar Mini was selected for the front of room all-in-one video bar, specifically for its 120 degree Field of View (FOV). This is an important factor when designing signature spaces, as the camera angle needs to be wide enough to capture all in room participants. The Rally Bar Mini is the perfect device that meets this requirement, and simplifies deployment being an all in one device with microphones, speakers, and the camera. Touch control from the table was also provided by Logitech, with the Logitech Tap touch controller front and centre.

The components outlined above are all you need to complete the Microsoft Teams Room Signature Space solution, but what if you want to do more? Perhaps I want a custom application on my touch controller located on the table, or perhaps I want more control over room AV equipment, or a way for people in room to get in touch with support. How is this achieved? Extron of course!

Extron Control

In partnership with Logitech, solutions from Extron allow us to add additional features and capabilities above and beyond what a typical Microsoft Teams Room space can deliver.

Using the same touch screen that’s controlling the Teams Room, Extron are able to build additional menus on top of the out of the box Teams pages that can be configured to do almost anything. For our showcase space, we also took a lot of care and attention to detail to make the additional menus look and feel the same as the native Microsoft Teams Room menu pages – ensuring a great end user experience, and helping to make the tech “just disappear”. Some examples include:

Catering

Flick over to the Extron menu and order from a full menu of items, shared directly with your in-house café, or in our demo environment, via a Teams Channel.

Additional Information and Support

In addition to supporting native Microsoft Teams meetings, our signature space was configured to support additional room modes – typically required in larger more complex spaces. Rather than simply providing a button to add this capability, the additional touch screen real estate was used to give users more instruction on how to use the space in that particular mode:

Video How To’s & Immediate Support Tickets

Have read the help page but still a little stuck? One click to watch a video on the front of room display to learn how to use the space you’re in. And finally, if the user is still stuck, our solution allowed for an easy way for people in room to get assistance from the service desk. Enter in some basic details, and a support request was delivered directly to a Microsoft teams Support Channel.

VR Room Design

Before we order a single component for your space, Rapid Circle uses the latest in Virtual Reality (VR) room design software to make sure everything is fit for purpose. Rapid Circle also had this on show at Integrate, giving organisations a sneak peak into the behind the scenes process and benefits of this approach.

This is just a sample of what’s possible for Microsoft Teams Spaces when bringing together Rapid Circle, Microsoft, Logitech and Extron to provide a premium room experience, using the latest in VR room design out the front to ensure you only need to deploy once.

Get in touch to learn more.