The 3 biggest developments in Microsoft Teams Rooms

You’ll likely recognise this situation. You start a meeting and, somewhere in the back of your mind, there’s a degree of uncertainty. Will everything work as it should today?

Today, many organisations are still running Microsoft Teams Rooms that were deployed several years ago. On paper, everything works. However, in practice, you start to see things shift. For example, updates fall behind. As a result, devices become less responsive. And with every meeting, the chance increases that something won’t run smoothly.

I regularly speak with IT managers who say: “We know we need to do something, but where do we start?”

It’s a logical question. After all, a lot is happening in the Teams Rooms landscape right now.

About this article

In this article, our colleague Patrique Petit, Microsoft 365 Specialist at AVEX, walks you through the three most important developments currently shaping Teams Rooms:

1. Lifecycle management of your existing Teams Rooms
2. MDEP as a new platform and what it changes at the foundation of your Teams Rooms
3. How AI is changing the meeting room, including technically

“The first generation of meeting rooms is reaching the end of its lifecycle. At the same time, a lot of new developments are coming together.” Patrique Petit Microsoft Office 365 Specialist

After reading this article, you’ll have a clear understanding of these developments and how to avoid making decisions today that you’ll regret tomorrow.

What’s happening in meeting rooms right now?

Many organisations have deployed their meeting rooms in phases. At different locations. Implemented at different moments in time. Often involving different suppliers.

As a result, the impact is often easy to spot:

• Rooms that behave differently from one another
• Users who don’t know what to expect
• IT or facilities teams constantly stepping in to help

Consequently, that creates uncertainty, especially if you’re responsible for keeping these spaces operational.

The 3 developments

At the same time, three major developments are converging. It’s this combination that makes today’s decisions both more complex and more important.

Lifecycle management: the point where decisions need to be made

In many organisations, first-generation Teams Rooms are reaching the end of their lifecycle.

At first, you might not notice it immediately. Because the systems still start up. And meetings still take place. But beneath the surface, things are changing.

1. Updates become less frequent, or stop altogether
2. Support changes
3. Security and performance come under pressure

The risk isn’t one major outage. In fact, it lies in the small disruptions that gradually build up over time. Therefore, many organisations face a choice: Do you continue with what you have? Or do you modernise?

In practice, this is the perfect moment to take a step back and reassess your environment rather than simply replacing hardware. Ask yourself:

1. Are your meeting rooms standardised?
2. Is management set up properly?
3. Does the user experience match your expectations?

Making these decisions now allows you to build a foundation that will support your organisation for years to come.

MDEP: greater control over the foundation of your Teams Rooms

If you’re planning a refresh, another question naturally follows: How should we build our environment going forward?

This is where MDEP comes into the picture: the Microsoft Device Ecosystem Platform. The platform reflects Microsoft’s move towards greater control over how Teams Rooms operate. The objective is clear: less fragmentation and greater consistency.

What does that mean in practice?

1. Updates and management become more consistent
2. The experience across rooms becomes more uniform
3. Integration with the Microsoft ecosystem improves

As a result, this primarily means peace of mind for IT teams. Fewer exceptions. Less dependency on different suppliers all doing things slightly differently. That helps create meeting rooms that simply work. Every time.

However, technology doesn’t stop there. While MDEP strengthens the foundation, AI is changing the way people experience meetings.

AI in the meeting room: from support to active contribution

AI is currently one of the most talked-about topics. I see this coming up in almost every conversation. But it’s important to make it tangible. Not just as a buzzword, but as part of your meeting room.

You can see this on three levels.

What you notice as a user: meetings are becoming smarter and more organised. Support is provided both during and after the meeting. This ensures greater focus and less distraction.

What’s changing technically within the room: there may well be even more happening behind the scenes. AI is becoming part of the entire meeting room environment. Not as a standalone feature, but integrated into:

1. The Microsoft Teams platform
2. The devices in the room
3. Audio and video processing

In addition, cameras and microphones are becoming smarter. They respond better to what’s happening in the room. The technology will help you, rather than you having to deal with it.

What this means for your organisation: AI places new demands on your meeting rooms. But it’s not just about software. It’s also about the:

1. Quality of your hardware
2. Layout of the room
3. Coherence of your platform

Therefore, if these elements aren’t properly aligned, you won’t get the most out of them.

Why you should look at these developments together

What we often see is organisations treating these topics as separate discussions. Lifecycle management as a technical issue. MDEP as an IT decision. AI as something for later.

However, it’s the connection between them that really matters.

• Lifecycle management forces you to take action
• MDEP determines what your new environment looks like
• AI shapes how your users will collaborate in the future

When you look at these developments as a whole, you’re able to make decisions that last longer and deliver greater value. As a result, you avoid having to start all over again in a few years’ time.

What this means for you

The question isn’t whether you’ll have to deal with these developments. The question is when.

If you continue with your current environment, pressure will gradually increase. Small disruptions. More management effort. Less confidence in the technology. If you decide to modernise, you’ll want to get it right the first time. That’s where the challenge lies. And it’s also where the opportunity lies.

Every day, we help organisations create future-proof meeting environments. Not by looking at technology in isolation, but by considering the complete picture, from platform choices to everyday user experience. So your meeting rooms do exactly what they’re supposed to do. Without uncertainty. Without hassle.

We’ll explore these topics in more detail

In the next articles in this series, we’ll take a closer look at each topic:

When lifecycle management becomes a real challenge and how to recognise the signs

1. What MDEP changes within your IT environment in practical terms
2. How AI works in the meeting room, including the technical side
3. Working on a meeting room refresh? Or unsure where to begin?

This is the perfect time to start that conversation.

AVEX is a certified Microsoft Teams Rooms partner

At AVEX, we help organisations make the right choices in a landscape full of possibilities.

AVEX is a certified Microsoft Teams Rooms partner. That means we don’t just supply and install hardware. We advise on the right configuration for every room, integrate Microsoft Teams Rooms into the existing IT environment and ensure everything works together seamlessly.

We work with a range of Microsoft-certified manufacturers, including Cisco, Crestron, HP Poly, Jabra, Lenovo, Logitech, Shure and Yealink. Our experience as a Microsoft specialist means we have extensive expertise in Teams integrations.