Hello Readers, I hope you’re well.
Welcome to Episode 45 of the UCStatus Podcast. This episode features me (@randychapman) & Shawn Harry (@shawnharry).
This week we chat about a new licenses Microsoft announced this week for Microsoft Teams Rooms.
There are two new licenses.
- Pro – which includes all of the existing and new upcoming features, Intune (for management) and Azure AD Premium Plan 1 (for Conditional Access), Defender for Endpoints and the old managed service portal, but without the managed service people
- Basic – which includes only basic features, none of the new upcoming features and no managed service portal and actually very little to no management capability since it doesn’t include Intune and no security since it doesn’t include AADP1 or Defender for Endpoints. It also doesn’t include Phone System, so you can’t even use a room with the basic license as a room phone.
These licences replace the existing Standard and Premium licenses with immediate effect. In essence, Pro is a combination of Standard and Premium, but without the managed service people.
In the UK, Pro costs £30.20 per room per month for an annual commitment, or £36.20 for month to month.
In USD the price is $40 for Pro. I’m guessing this is the annual commit price and its more for month to month.
Basic is free but you can only have up to 25 licenses in your tenant. My understanding is that you can add certain licenseable add-ons to basic to start to add things like AADP1 and possibly Intune. And maybe Phone System. But really, it isn’t worth it. You’re still getting such a cut down feature-set that it really isn’t useful even with the add-ons for some management and security.
Microsoft say basic is aimed at small businesses and possibly PoCs. But honestly, we think that if you’re planning to use Basic in production, you’re doing it wrong.
Here is a license comparison
And here is the official blog and docs article.
Here is a short comparison from the docs site
And here is the long list feature comparison. Some highlights of missing features in basic. Dual screen, content camera, a Teams panel, large gallery, and meeting across clouds.
Meeting join
| Microsoft Teams Rooms Basic | Microsoft Teams Rooms Pro | |
|---|---|---|
| Join Teams meetings with 1-touch, proximity, and meeting ID | ✔ | ✔ |
| Start ad hoc meetings from the room | ✔ | ✔ |
| Direct Guest Join for Zoom and Webex meetings | ✔ | ✔ |
| Join meetings across Teams clouds | ✔ | |
| Room checking with Teams Panel | ✔ |
Share and collaborate
| Microsoft Teams Rooms Basic | Microsoft Teams Rooms Pro | |
|---|---|---|
| Share and view all Teams content types | ✔ | ✔ |
| Share whiteboard with Content Capture Camera | ✔ |
Meeting engagement
| Microsoft Teams Rooms Basic | Microsoft Teams Rooms Pro | |
|---|---|---|
| Teams video gallery with multiple layout options | ✔ | ✔ |
| Front row | ✔ | |
| Together mode | ✔ | |
| Large gallery (up to 50 videos) | ✔ | |
| Split gallery across two screen | ✔ |
Calling
| Microsoft Teams Rooms Basic | Microsoft Teams Rooms Pro | |
|---|---|---|
| Make and receive peer to peer and group calls | ✔ | ✔ |
| Microsoft 365 Phone System | ✔ |
Intelligent audio and video
| Microsoft Teams Rooms Basic | Microsoft Teams Rooms Pro | |
|---|---|---|
| Support for Intelligent Speaker live transcript with speaker identification | ✔ | |
| Multi-camera support | ✔ | |
| Panoramic room view | ✔ | |
| AI noise suppression | ✔ | |
| People counting | ✔ |
Security and compliance
| Microsoft Teams Rooms Basic | Microsoft Teams Rooms Pro | |
|---|---|---|
| Secure operating system | ✔ | ✔ |
| System level security (Secure boot, Assigned Access mode, etc.) | ✔ | ✔ |
| Azure AD condition access policies | ✔ |
Device management
| Microsoft Teams Rooms Basic | Microsoft Teams Rooms Pro | |
|---|---|---|
| Teams Admin Center enrollment and inventory | ✔ | ✔ |
| Automatic software updates | ✔ | ✔ |
| Detailed system and configuration information | ✔ | |
| Peripheral health management | ✔ | |
| Remote configuration | ✔ | |
| Device history and activity | ✔ | |
| ITSM integration | ✔ | |
| Custom health alerts | ✔ | |
| Device analytics | ✔ |
Anyway, enough of the detail. You can read that yourself. Here’s what we think. Have a listen below.
As always, we’d love to hear your thoughts. Leave a comment below.
You can listen in-line in this post, or if you prefer, Spotify, Apple Podcasts, Amazon Podcasts, TuneIn or iHeartRadio. The links are below.
If you’ve enjoyed this or any other episodes of the UCStatus Podcast, why not take a second to subscribe, like and share.
We’d love to hear your comments and suggestions for future episodes so why not leave a comment.
ucstatus.com 
Hello, what does Meeting across clouds or teams clouds means? Thank you in advance.
LikeLike
I’ve seen this term “across teams clouds” mentioned in a lot of places too, but have no idea what it means. Any ideas?
LikeLike
It’s a term used to describe communication between the enterprise version on M365 and those of government and education
LikeLike
Thanks for the great article! I have some further questions about the Teams Rooms license and wonder if you have time to share with me?
1. Does the Microsoft Teams Rooms license include the services of Microsoft Teams? If so, which version of Microsoft Teams (such as Free, Essential, Microsoft 365 Business Basic, and Microsoft 365 Business Standard) is included in the plans of Microsoft Teams Rooms Basic and Microsoft Teams Rooms Pro, correspondingly?
2. I already have some devices for meeting rooms, such as headsets, speakerphones, desk phones & teams displays and so on, and they are in the list of Teams devices partners. Can I purchase only the Teams Rooms license from Microsoft and have they installed on my current devices, or should I still purchase both the hardware and the software as a bundle via device partners?
LikeLike
It does include Teams for room systems. Aka Microsoft Teams Rooms. You can buy licenses from Microsoft or a cloud solutions provider or license provider.
LikeLike
Thanks a lot for your reply! For the first question, I did see from your article that both Teams Rooms Basic and Teams Rooms Pro include Microsoft Teams. But I wonder which exact version of Microsoft Teams does these two plans include? Again, Thank you in advance!
LikeLike
Standard Teams for business like any user with an E3 etc. You need a Microsoft 365 for work tenant with Teams enabled.
The fact your asking makes me worried that Microsoft is causing confusion with all the versions out there. Food for thought. And worth a call out in a future podcast episode
LikeLike