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In this training, we introduce Audio Conferencing in Microsoft Teams—the abilityto join a Teams meeting from a regular phone and dial out from a meeting to aphone number. We'll cover the capabilities of Audio Conferencing in Teams inaddition to requirements and planning considerations for Teams.
Teams devices from certified partners help you get the most out of your Microsoft Teams experience. Teams devices from certified partners help you get the most out of your Microsoft Teams experience. Skip to main content. Expand your Teams audio experience into a variety of spaces with the scalable Q-SYS networked AV solution and Sennheiser. Under Audio devices, pick the speaker and mic you want Teams to use by default. Under Camera, select the camera you want Teams to use, and see a preview of that camera's video. If you have multiple certified devices connected to your computer, you can set one as your secondary ringer, which means it'll ring when a call comes in. Adjust your computer's audio output in your system settings, and your Teams audio output in your device settings in Teams. On a Mac, you will need to install a driver the first time you include computer audio in a Teams meeting. Just follow the simple wizard and click Install or Update. It takes about 10 seconds for the installation to complete.
Note
This tutorial includes links to existing content to help connect you with the latest, most up-to-date information. For an optimal learning experience, follow the links to learn and apply. If a link is labeled as 'additional information,' you can consider it optional.
This training is for you if you're:
- An IT pro.
- Responsible for planning, deploying, or managing Teams.
- Considering planning, deploying, or managing Audio Conferencing in Teams.
We'll cover the following sections:
- Audio Conferencing requirements
- Planning steps
- Reporting
Audio Conferencing adds features and functionality to meetings in Teams. Werecommend that you complete Meetings in MicrosoftTeams before this tutorial.
Note
Microsoft Teams is evolving on a regular basis—new features and functionality are added frequently. Please monitor the following resources to stay up-to-date:
- Follow the Teams Blog.
- Read the Teams Roadmap.
- Learn about the latest released features in the Release Notes.
- Participate in the Microsoft Teams technical community to get your feature questions answered.
If you have any questions or feedback about this training, please:
- Post in the comments section at the bottom of the 'Next steps' page of thistutorial
To give us product feedback about Teams, such as ideas for new features, pleasevisit UserVoice.
Audio Conferencing in Teams
With Audio Conferencing, participants use a regular phone to take part in Teamsmeetings—either by dialing in to the meeting from their phone or by usingdial-out functionality from within the meeting. Review the following resourcesto learn more about Audio Conferencing:
- Audio Conferencingfeatures(estimated reading time 1 minute)
- 9 tips for meeting with MicrosoftTeams(estimated reading time for '#1 - Join a meeting via Audio Conferencing' is1 minute; more if you read the whole article)
- Audio Conferencing common questions(estimated reading time 7 minutes)
- Dialing out from a meeting so other people can joinit(estimated reading time 2 minutes)
Scenario – Audio Conferencing
Garth works at Contoso, a company that has multiple offices. Garth frequentlyneeds to connect with people in other office locations, and because he oftenworks from home or goes out on the road, he's a huge fan of Teams meetings. WhenGarth sends out a meeting invitation, it automatically adds information forAudio Conferencing. This makes the following scenarios possible:
Microsoft Teams Audio Test
- Alice wants to attend Garth's meeting but she's on the road and has noaccess to a reliable network. Therefore, she joins the meeting by using thedial-in coordinates from the meeting invitation. During the dial-in process,she uses her PIN to authenticate, so she's recognized by the system as'Alice.'
- Bob, who's currently at a hotel, joins the meeting by using the Teams clienton his PC. Unfortunately, the audio quality over the internet connection inthe hotel isn't great, So Bob dials out to his own phone number from themeeting to join via the public switched telephone network (PSTN).
- If the meeting participants decide during the call that they want to addusers at a different phone number, they can just dial out to the phonenumber and bring additional people into the meeting.
- Other users can also join from the Teams client on their PC, Mac, or mobiledevice.
In Teams, meeting organizers can end a meeting for all meeting participants. This is useful in scenarios such as the following:
- Educators can ensure that students don't stay in a meeting unsupervised after a class is finished.
- For meetings that are being recorded, such as webinars, meeting organizers can ensure that the recording ends when the meeting ends.
- Ending a meeting for all participants can help reduce your organization's PSTN usage and billing.
For example, when the meeting is finished, Garth can click End meeting from within the meeting in Teams to end it and remove all participants from it.
Considerations for Skype for Business customers
If you're already using Skype for Business, you'll need to consider thefollowing:
Skype for Business Server–homed users
Microsoft Teams Audio Conferencing
If you're using Skype for Business Server, Teams meetings scheduled by users who are homed on Skype for Business on-premises will not include PSTN meeting coordinates. If you assigned Audio Conferencing licenses to these users prior to March 1, 2019, you might need to unassign these licenses, wait for 2 hours, and then reassign them for the users to see the PSTN meeting coordinates.
Skype for Business Online–homed users
If users are homed in Skype for Business Online and are already enabled for Audio Conferencing, they'll automatically be enabled for Audio Conferencing inTeams. The PIN they use for authenticating in meetings when they dial in will be the same for Skype for Business and Teams.
Envision Audio Conferencing
The practical guidance covers in detail what's required to plan and successfullyimplement Audio Conferencing. Review the following articles to understand thesetechnical planning steps:
- Define my success - AudioConferencing(estimated reading time 11 minutes)
- Make my service decisions - AudioConferencing(estimated reading time 12 minutes)
- Evaluate myenvironment(estimated reading time 12 minutes)
- Plan my servicemanagement(estimated reading time 5 minutes)
- Plan my users'experience(estimated reading time 5 minutes)
- Document my successplan(estimated reading time 6 minutes)
Onboard Audio Conferencing
Just like envisioning, onboarding is covered in the practical guidance. Reviewthe following articles to understand how to onboard users for AudioConferencing:
- Prepare myservice(estimated reading time 6 minutes)
- Prepare myusers(estimated reading time 2 minutes)
- Deploy myservice(estimated reading time 3 minutes)
- Audio Conferencing troubleshooting and knownissues(estimated reading time for Teams-specific content is 2 minutes)
Exercise – Configure Audio Conferencing
In this exercise, you'll have the chance to test Audio Conferencing in Teams.Although we don't describe how to perform every action, we recommend somescenarios to try out.
Requirements
- An Office 365 organization with appropriate licenses to use Teams
- We strongly recommend that you use a dedicated test tenant.
- If you don't have a test tenant, you can sign up for a trial tenant atOffice 365 Enterprise E5Trial.
- Don't run any tests in your production environment. Changing settings orpolicies might have a negative impact on all users and might affecttheir user experience.
- At least two endpoints
- This can be two PCs, but you can also use the client on your mobilephone.
- A phone that can dial in to meetings and be dialed out to
Suggested scenarios to test
Microsoft Teams Audio App
- Enable users for Audio Conferencing.
- Set different conference bridge numbers for different users.
- Change the default conference bridge number for the tenant.
- Change settings for the conference bridge number (different languages).
- Change global settings for conference bridges (meeting entry and exitnotifications, PIN length, email notifications).
- Observe the email being sent out to users.
- Schedule Teams meetings, and review the meeting invitation.
- Join a meeting from a phone.
- Dial out from a meeting to a phone.
- Use dual-tone multi-frequency controls while in a meeting to mute and unmutea phone.
- End the meeting for all users.
Drive value
From a reporting perspective, you have two areas to look at:
- Usage: How many meetings take place?
- Quality: What is the quality of the meetings?
You should carefully monitor both areas:
- Low usage means that users, for one reason or another, aren't using theproduct. You can only determine the reasons by investigating further.Reasons can range from the perception that meetings are falling short ofuser requirements, to a lack of awareness or training, to quality problems.
- Low quality, on the other hand, means that there are issues withconnectivity between users and Office 365. Low quality can lead to bad userexperience and lower usage. Refer to Microsoft 365 Reports in the Admin Center - Microsoft Teams useractivity(estimated reading time 5 minutes) to learn more about the usage reports.
Microsoft Teams is evolving on a regular basis—new features and functionality are added frequently. Please monitor the following resources to stay up-to-date:
- Follow the Teams Blog.
- Read the Teams Roadmap.
- Learn about the latest released features in the Release Notes.
- Participate in the Microsoft Teams technical community to get your feature questions answered.
If you have any questions or feedback about this training, please:
- Post in the comments section at the bottom of the 'Next steps' page of thistutorial
To give us product feedback about Teams, such as ideas for new features, pleasevisit UserVoice.
Audio Conferencing in Teams
With Audio Conferencing, participants use a regular phone to take part in Teamsmeetings—either by dialing in to the meeting from their phone or by usingdial-out functionality from within the meeting. Review the following resourcesto learn more about Audio Conferencing:
- Audio Conferencingfeatures(estimated reading time 1 minute)
- 9 tips for meeting with MicrosoftTeams(estimated reading time for '#1 - Join a meeting via Audio Conferencing' is1 minute; more if you read the whole article)
- Audio Conferencing common questions(estimated reading time 7 minutes)
- Dialing out from a meeting so other people can joinit(estimated reading time 2 minutes)
Scenario – Audio Conferencing
Garth works at Contoso, a company that has multiple offices. Garth frequentlyneeds to connect with people in other office locations, and because he oftenworks from home or goes out on the road, he's a huge fan of Teams meetings. WhenGarth sends out a meeting invitation, it automatically adds information forAudio Conferencing. This makes the following scenarios possible:
Microsoft Teams Audio Test
- Alice wants to attend Garth's meeting but she's on the road and has noaccess to a reliable network. Therefore, she joins the meeting by using thedial-in coordinates from the meeting invitation. During the dial-in process,she uses her PIN to authenticate, so she's recognized by the system as'Alice.'
- Bob, who's currently at a hotel, joins the meeting by using the Teams clienton his PC. Unfortunately, the audio quality over the internet connection inthe hotel isn't great, So Bob dials out to his own phone number from themeeting to join via the public switched telephone network (PSTN).
- If the meeting participants decide during the call that they want to addusers at a different phone number, they can just dial out to the phonenumber and bring additional people into the meeting.
- Other users can also join from the Teams client on their PC, Mac, or mobiledevice.
In Teams, meeting organizers can end a meeting for all meeting participants. This is useful in scenarios such as the following:
- Educators can ensure that students don't stay in a meeting unsupervised after a class is finished.
- For meetings that are being recorded, such as webinars, meeting organizers can ensure that the recording ends when the meeting ends.
- Ending a meeting for all participants can help reduce your organization's PSTN usage and billing.
For example, when the meeting is finished, Garth can click End meeting from within the meeting in Teams to end it and remove all participants from it.
Considerations for Skype for Business customers
If you're already using Skype for Business, you'll need to consider thefollowing:
Skype for Business Server–homed users
Microsoft Teams Audio Conferencing
If you're using Skype for Business Server, Teams meetings scheduled by users who are homed on Skype for Business on-premises will not include PSTN meeting coordinates. If you assigned Audio Conferencing licenses to these users prior to March 1, 2019, you might need to unassign these licenses, wait for 2 hours, and then reassign them for the users to see the PSTN meeting coordinates.
Skype for Business Online–homed users
If users are homed in Skype for Business Online and are already enabled for Audio Conferencing, they'll automatically be enabled for Audio Conferencing inTeams. The PIN they use for authenticating in meetings when they dial in will be the same for Skype for Business and Teams.
Envision Audio Conferencing
The practical guidance covers in detail what's required to plan and successfullyimplement Audio Conferencing. Review the following articles to understand thesetechnical planning steps:
- Define my success - AudioConferencing(estimated reading time 11 minutes)
- Make my service decisions - AudioConferencing(estimated reading time 12 minutes)
- Evaluate myenvironment(estimated reading time 12 minutes)
- Plan my servicemanagement(estimated reading time 5 minutes)
- Plan my users'experience(estimated reading time 5 minutes)
- Document my successplan(estimated reading time 6 minutes)
Onboard Audio Conferencing
Just like envisioning, onboarding is covered in the practical guidance. Reviewthe following articles to understand how to onboard users for AudioConferencing:
- Prepare myservice(estimated reading time 6 minutes)
- Prepare myusers(estimated reading time 2 minutes)
- Deploy myservice(estimated reading time 3 minutes)
- Audio Conferencing troubleshooting and knownissues(estimated reading time for Teams-specific content is 2 minutes)
Exercise – Configure Audio Conferencing
In this exercise, you'll have the chance to test Audio Conferencing in Teams.Although we don't describe how to perform every action, we recommend somescenarios to try out.
Requirements
- An Office 365 organization with appropriate licenses to use Teams
- We strongly recommend that you use a dedicated test tenant.
- If you don't have a test tenant, you can sign up for a trial tenant atOffice 365 Enterprise E5Trial.
- Don't run any tests in your production environment. Changing settings orpolicies might have a negative impact on all users and might affecttheir user experience.
- At least two endpoints
- This can be two PCs, but you can also use the client on your mobilephone.
- A phone that can dial in to meetings and be dialed out to
Suggested scenarios to test
Microsoft Teams Audio App
- Enable users for Audio Conferencing.
- Set different conference bridge numbers for different users.
- Change the default conference bridge number for the tenant.
- Change settings for the conference bridge number (different languages).
- Change global settings for conference bridges (meeting entry and exitnotifications, PIN length, email notifications).
- Observe the email being sent out to users.
- Schedule Teams meetings, and review the meeting invitation.
- Join a meeting from a phone.
- Dial out from a meeting to a phone.
- Use dual-tone multi-frequency controls while in a meeting to mute and unmutea phone.
- End the meeting for all users.
Drive value
From a reporting perspective, you have two areas to look at:
- Usage: How many meetings take place?
- Quality: What is the quality of the meetings?
You should carefully monitor both areas:
- Low usage means that users, for one reason or another, aren't using theproduct. You can only determine the reasons by investigating further.Reasons can range from the perception that meetings are falling short ofuser requirements, to a lack of awareness or training, to quality problems.
- Low quality, on the other hand, means that there are issues withconnectivity between users and Office 365. Low quality can lead to bad userexperience and lower usage. Refer to Microsoft 365 Reports in the Admin Center - Microsoft Teams useractivity(estimated reading time 5 minutes) to learn more about the usage reports.
Microsoft Teams Audio Cutting Out
Managing quality is outside of the scope of this training, but see the followingtraining material:
Next steps
Microsoft Teams Audio Feedback
We covered the following key learnings in this training:
- Audio Conferencing in Teams
- Requirements for Audio Conferencing
- Reporting
Next steps
Microsoft Teams Audio Not Working
- Start using Audio Conferencing in Teams.
- Send us feedback:
- Post in the comments section at the bottom of this page.
- To give us Teams product feedback or to request a new feature, go to Teams UserVoice.
- Stay up to date:
- Follow the Teams Blog.
- Read the Teams Roadmap.
- Learn about the latest released features in the Release Notes.
- Explore more training and tutorials.
Microsoft Teams Audio Test
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