Tom Arbuthnot's Microsoft 365 Perspective

Many thanks to Ribbon, this month's Empowering Cloud Benefactor. I recently wrote a whitepaper on why On-Premises Telephony Remains Key, even when moving to UCaaS, with examples of use cases for their Ribbon Edge 8000 Series.

It's been a great week at ISE 2025 in Barcelona. It's really become a key show for Microsoft Teams, particularly for rooms and devices. ISE 2025 clocked 85,351 unique verified visitors from 168 countries, a 15.5% increase from the previous year.

I'm writing this email at the airport, ready to head back to London. Such is my dedication to get you the news first :)

This week's big news included a new PanaCast 40 VBS Android MTRoA for the small room. Shure announced a full Microsoft Teams Rooms portfolio, leveraging their audio hardware and software expertise with simple installation. Partnering with Huddly for cameras, including multi-camera.

Huddly announced that Huddly Crew, the AI-directed multi-camera system, is certified for Microsoft Teams for configurations with up to five cameras. MAXHUB showed its pre-launch of its 92" XBoard Microsoft Teams Rooms Interactive Display and MTRoW Board, Yealink also showed its new MTRoW Board. It's nice to see Windows Board options.

I got hands on with the new Logi Rally Board 65, which is certified for MTRoA and soon MTRoW as well. I'm also excited about the potential of the Logi Spot presence and environment sensor.

Just before ISE, Microsoft announced Express Install, A quick and easy installation option that delivers a full Teams Rooms experience in focus and small meeting rooms. Also in that blog they announced support for Microsoft Edge is coming soon to Surface Hub 3 and Teams Rooms on Windows-based touch board form factors. This functionality allows users to access websites and line-of-business web applications on touch boards at any time, both during and outside of meetings.

MDEP continued to be a conversation at the show. Microsoft announced some new partners, including Crestron. I asked the MDEP team the questions I'm hearing from the community and OEMs at the show.

Thanks to everyone who spent time with me this week; some great meetings, briefings and interviews. Check them out below.

Videos from ISE

• ​Full demo Multi-camera and Content Camera on Microsoft Teams Rooms on Android with AudioCodes​
• ​All you need to know about the new Jabra PanaCast 40 VBS android videobar with Josh Blalock​
• ​Neat Center Presenter View Preview with Graham Walsh​
• ​AudioCodes' new bundling of AI Meeting summary capabilities with their MTR and AudioCodes Meeting Insights​
• ​John Bailey at AVI-SPL's thoughts from the show​
• ​Shure's big Microsoft Teams Rooms on Windows announcement​
• ​Talking to the Microsoft MDEP team​
• ​Crestron Three C's with Neil Fluester​
• ​Logitech Rally Board 65 and Logi Spot with Nathan Coutinho​
• ​Microsoft Places with Brennan McReynolds, Product Strategy & Partnerships Lead​

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Live Streams from ISE

The Microsoft team live-streamed a lot of great content from the show. You can catch them on-demand here:

• ​AI-Powered Workplace​
• ​Get Certified. Teams Rooms Sales Challenge​
• ​Master your workplace: Microsoft Places Unveiled​
• ​What's new on Teams Calling, Meetings & Devices​
• ​Live AMA. Behind the scenes with Ilya Bukshteyn​
• ​Power Up Microsoft Device Ecosystem (MDEP) Essentials​
• ​Next-gen collaboration: Teams Rooms and Surface Hub​
• ​What's new in M365 Copilot​
• ​Redefine Meetings: Surface Brings the Future Now​
• ​Teams Rooms deployment made easy with Express Rooms​
• ​AI in the Room: Empowering Meeting with M365 ​
• ​AI + Teams devices: Supercharge your Workplace​

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Microsoft Teams Roadmap

Even while it has been busy around ISE, we still got some interesting updates:

• Queues app will add Monitor, Whisper, Barge, and Takeover. Rollout starting Mid-March MC999443. There is still not much detail on the specifics, but look out for a podcast deep dive coming soon.
• SIP Gateway Preview for early access to new features MC998510.
• Teams location sharing consent is required from users at the application level (Previously exclusively controlled at the OS level) MC993226.
• My favourite for improving user experience. Microsoft Teams client live mic active volume indicator MC993226.
• Occupancy status on Teams Panels based on real-time data from Teams Rooms devices and occupancy sensors MC989975​

Latest Content on Empowering.Cloud

• ​Luware Nimbus Microsoft Teams Contact Center 2025 Roadmap Revealed with Markus Weisbrod, Nimbus Product Manager and Martina Willig, Head of Presales at Luware
• ​What Organisations best fit Microsoft Teams Phone? with MVP Mark Vale, Microsoft Teams Phone Architect
• Whitepaper: 5 Reasons On-Premises Telephony Remains Key, even when moving to UCaaS​

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Teams Insider Podcast

• ​Video Rooms in 2025 with Olly Henderson, Head of Video Product Jabra​
• ​City of Independence, from Analog Phones to Microsoft Teams Five9 over 20 locations with Chris Johnson, Municipal Cyber Center Manager at City of Independence, Missouri
• ​Microsoft Teams Phone Success at Derby City Council with Kathie Anderson, IT Change Manager
• ​Customer Stories and Enhancing Meetings with AI with Brad Hintze, EVP Global Marketing at Crestron

On Apple Podcasts, Spotify, Amazon Music and YouTube​

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Events

Online:

• ​Teams Fireside Chat with Michel Bouman giving us the ISE debrief! - 13th February
• ​Microsoft Teams Devices Ask Me Anything - 19th February
• ​Copilot Fireside Chat with Abram Jackson - 26th February
• ​AudioCodes Webinar - Introducing Interaction Insights: Unlock the Future of Cloud Recording Services - 27th February

In-Person:

• ​Get-CsLatam Conference & Expo - 19-20 February, Mexico City
• ​Microsoft UC User Group London - February 26th, London - all the news after ISE
• ​Enterprise Connect—17-20 March, Florida. I'm excited to have two sessions, and Ilya Bukshteyn, VP of Microsoft Teams Calling, Devices, and Premium Experiences, will give the keynote!

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As always, if you have questions, corrections, thoughts, or feedback, just reply and let me know. I read all the replies.