Microsoft Teams Rooms vs. BYOD: the differences at a glance

We see organisations looking for ways to improve the effectiveness of hybrid meetings. At AVEX, we help them take the next step.

Many of our customers started hybrid working with BYOD (Bring Your Own Device): connecting a laptop to a screen and, if required, a USB camera or speaker. It does work, especially at the beginning. However, once hybrid meetings become structural, organisations often run into limitations.

In this article, our colleague Patrique Petit, Microsoft 365 specialist at AVEX, explains when BYOD is sufficient and when Microsoft Teams Rooms is the better choice.

“We see that many organisations are looking for ways to improve the effectiveness of hybrid meetings.” Patrique Petit Microsoft Office 365 Specialist

In this article, you’ll read:

• What BYOD is and what its advantages and limitations are
• When BYOD is no longer sufficient
• An introduction to Microsoft Teams Rooms
• The key advantages of a Microsoft Teams Room versus BYOD
• How to decide between both options

After reading, you’ll have a better understanding of the differences between BYOD and Microsoft Teams Rooms, which option fits which situation and how Microsoft Teams Rooms can take hybrid meetings to the next level.

What is meant by BYOD (Bring Your Own Device)?

With BYOD, a user starts the meeting from their own laptop, which is connected to the screen, camera and audio equipment in the room. The laptop functions as the heart of the meeting.

Advantages of BYOD:

• The investment is relatively low
• Deployment is quick and flexible
• The solution is suitable for small rooms or occasional use

But in practice, we also see limitations:

❌ Every meeting starts differently

❌ More dependent on the user’s knowledge and preparation

❌ Greater chance of technical problems

❌ Different settings

❌ Varying audio and video quality

❌ Security levels differ

❌ Limited management capabilities

BYOD is therefore primarily an entry-level solution that works perfectly well for some rooms.

When BYOD is no longer sufficient

As soon as meeting rooms are used more intensively, the need changes*. Think of daily hybrid meetings, meetings with multiple locations, project and management meetings, and customer and partner meetings.

In these situations, reliability and consistency are more important than flexibility. Therefore, users no longer want to think about cables, settings or devices. The meeting should simply start. And run professionally.

*The Work Trend Index from Microsoft shows that workload and the number of meetings remain high: in recent years, weekly meeting time for the average Teams user has increased significantly, and AI is being widely adopted to save time and collaborate more effectively. At the same time, we see that hybrid working is structural: since the pandemic, the volume of online and hybrid meetings has increased significantly; earlier Work Trend Index measurements already showed total meeting time increasing by hundreds of per cent, a trend that has since appeared to have become the new normal. This underlines the need for stable, standardised meeting rooms.

How does Microsoft Teams Rooms work?

Microsoft Teams Rooms (MTR) is a dedicated meeting solution, specifically designed for physical meeting rooms. The room has its own Teams account and works with certified audio and video equipment.

A meeting starts with one press of a button on the touch panel in the room. A laptop isn’t needed. As a result, every room follows the same workflow and this also enables centralised management.

Why this matters: Teams Rooms isn’t “just another device”, but a standard way of working for every room. From this standard, it logically follows what works better: ease of use, audio/video quality, AI/Copilot results, speaker recognition and management/standardisation.

We’ll therefore explore these five points in more detail below.

Below is an overview of the comparison across the five areas.

BYOD vs Microsoft Teams Rooms – comparison across 5 areas:

Let’s take a slightly closer look.

What works more smoothly with a native Microsoft Teams Room compared to BYOD?

1. Ease of use = less hassle

An important difference between BYOD and Teams Rooms is ease of use.

With Teams Rooms:

1. All technology is standard in the room
2. Every meeting starts in the same way with ‘one touch’
3. Users barely notice the technology in the background

As a result, meetings start faster, users experience less hassle and IT teams receive fewer support requests.

2. Better audio and video = more effective meetings

In hybrid meetings, clear communication is crucial. If people cannot hear or see each other properly, engagement quickly decreases.

Teams Rooms is designed for:

1. Multiple people in one room
2. An equal experience for remote and in-room participants
3. Optimal microphone and camera positioning

As a result, a hybrid meeting feels more like one shared meeting, rather than “a call with a group in a room”. Participants are equally visible and audible, making the meeting more effective.

3. AI and Copilot: where Teams Rooms really stands out

More and more organisations are using Microsoft Copilot during meetings. Copilot can:

1. Summarise what was discussed
2. Identify decisions and action points
3. Answer questions during or after the meeting

Copilot also works with BYOD, however, it performs best with Teams Rooms. The reason is simple: as a result of the richer room data, Copilot can deliver more accurate outcomes, such as:

1. Better transcripts
2. Clearer distinction between speakers
3. More context from the room

As a result, users benefit from better summeries, experience fewer misunderstandings and spend less time on minutes and follow-up.[/accordion]

4. “Who said what?” suddenly becomes important

In many organisations, it is important to know:

1. Who made a decision
2. Which participant took ownership of an action
3. What agreements were made

Teams Rooms supports speaker recognition, allowing meeting reports to better record who said what. This makes meetings not only more efficient, but also clearer when it comes to follow-up.

5. Management and standardisation

For IT and facility managers, management plays an important role.

Teams Rooms offers:

1. Centralised management, for example updating all rooms centrally
2. Fixed policies per room
3. Easier rollout across multiple locations
4. Monitoring, to prevent end users from being confronted with equipment that does not work

Consequently, Teams Rooms are particularly interesting for organisations that want to scale or have multiple locations.

When should you choose which?

Looking at different types of rooms, we roughly see the following division:

Conclusion

In conclusion, BYOD remains a perfectly good solution for simple or occasional meeting rooms. However, for organisations that want to improve hybrid working structurally, Microsoft Teams Rooms is the logical next step for many meeting rooms. It provides greater ease of use, better hybrid collaboration and higher meeting quality.

AVEX is a certified Microsoft Teams Rooms partner

At AVEX, we help organisations make the right choices in the enormous jungle of possibilities.

AVEX is a certified Microsoft Teams Rooms partner. This means we do more than just supply and install the hardware. We advise on the right configuration for each room, integrate MTR into the existing IT environment and ensure that everything works together.

We work with various Microsoft-certified manufacturers such as Cisco, Crestron, HP Poly, Jabra, Lenovo, Logitech, Shure and Yealink. Our experience as a Microsoft specialist means we have in-depth knowledge of Teams integrations.