Microsoft Ignite 2021: A Deep Dive into Teams Updates

This week marks the (virtual) occurrence of Microsoft Ignite, Microsoft's primary annual conference geared towards IT professionals. It represents the company’s largest event, having hosted over 26,000 attendees at its last in-person iteration in 2019. Considering its central focus, it’s unsurprising that Microsoft Teams is a prominent feature in this year’s announcements.

Expanding Collaboration with Teams Connect

Teams has become a foundational element of Microsoft’s productivity offerings. The latest announcements encompass a wide range of improvements, from enhanced meeting functionalities to new conference room hardware.

At the heart of Teams – and its competitors such as Slack – lies the capacity for team-based collaboration. Increasingly, this also necessitates collaboration with individuals outside of an organization’s boundaries.

Microsoft is now previewing Teams Connect, a feature designed to enable users to share channels with both internal and external parties. These shared channels will integrate seamlessly alongside existing teams and channels, supporting all standard Teams functionalities.

Administrators will retain complete control over access permissions, ensuring external users are only granted access to necessary data. This feature is slated for broader availability later this year.

PowerPoint Live: A New Presentation Experience

A potentially more impactful update for individual users is the introduction of PowerPoint Live. This feature allows presenters to maintain their usual presentation flow while simultaneously accessing their notes, slides, and meeting chat within a unified view.

For audience members, PowerPoint Live provides the ability to navigate the presentation independently, or utilize a screen reader for improved accessibility. This new functionality is currently available within Teams.

Enhanced Presentation Modes

Further enriching the presentation experience is a suite of new presentation modes leveraging visual techniques to increase engagement.

“Standout mode” displays the speaker’s video feed superimposed over the presentation content. “Reporter mode” positions the content above the speaker’s shoulder, mimicking a traditional news broadcast. The “side-by-side view” offers a straightforward, split-screen presentation.

These modes will launch in March, beginning with Standout mode. Reporter mode and side-by-side view will follow shortly thereafter.

Dynamic View: Personalized Meeting Layouts

The “Dynamic view” is another new feature designed to optimize the visual experience during meetings.

Teams will intelligently arrange meeting elements to provide an optimal viewing experience, tailored to each participant. The system dynamically adjusts the layout based on actions such as joining the meeting, activating video, speaking, or presenting.

A gallery of participants will be positioned at the top of the screen to encourage natural eye contact, without relying on artificial intelligence.

Scaling Meetings and Webinars

Teams now supports interactive webinars accommodating up to 1,000 attendees, both within and outside the organization.

For large-scale presentations, such as those delivered by a CEO, Teams offers broadcast-only meetings capable of hosting up to 20,000 viewers.

The 20,000-viewer capacity was initially scheduled to decrease to 10,000 after June 30, 2021, predicated on the assumption that the pandemic would subside and the demand for virtual events would diminish. Update: Microsoft has extended the 20,000-person limit to the “end of the year.”

Intelligent Conference Room Solutions

Preparing for a return to the office, Microsoft is developing intelligent speakers for conference rooms. These speakers can distinguish between the voices of up to 10 individuals, resulting in more accurate transcripts.

Microsoft is also collaborating with Dell and other partners to introduce new conference room monitors and speaker bars.

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