Now available through the Billing section of the Office 365 Admin Center, you can stock up on new Meeting Room licenses. These licenses are used to allow access to Microsoft’s Cloud Voice services for room devices connected to Teams, like the HP Elite Slice with Logitech Meetup shown below. The These devices run a version of the Teams client for Android with enough functionality included to allow the device to participate in Teams meetings.
Use the Old Office 365 Admin Center
Curiously, I wasn’t able to find the Meeting Room license through the preview version of the redesigned Office 365 Admin Center and had to revert to the older version.
After purchase, you can assign the license to an Exchange room mailbox (which doesn’t need a full-blown Office 365 license) assigned to a Microsoft-approved room devices. The choice of available devices will differ from country to country (here’s the set available in the U.S.), as will prices. The device can then connect into a Teams meeting with voice and video (if the device supports video). Remember that you need to configure the account to use a calling plan or direct routing to enable the device to connect with meetings.
If you use Skype for Business Online, you should read this primer on devices and licenses.
What’s Included in the License
For your $15/month, the meeting room is licensed for:
- Teams.
- Skype for Business Online Plan 2.
- Phone System.
- Office 365 Audio Conferencing (where available).
- Intune (to manage the device).
Teams licensing (in general) is covered here. No good public write-up from Microsoft about the Teams Meeting Room license is available, so the information reported above is what we know for now.
For more information about all you need to know to conduct successful Teams meetings, read Chapter 16 of the Office 365 for IT Pros eBook.
I was so happy to see that MS came up with this new license. Makes our live slightly easier 🙂