Here you can read about updates to the video integration, including service changes, configuration updates, and documentation changes.

New notifications for video integration participants

February 8, 2024

We're introducing notifications that show on VIMT video device screens. These alerts can improve the experience for VIMT users as follows:

• Lobby notification: When people are waiting in the meeting lobby, the VIMT device displays a message that "Participants are waiting to join. Admit using a Microsoft Teams client."

  VIMT devices aren’t allowed to admit participants from the lobby into the Teams meeting. VIMT participants can ask a Teams participant to let them in.

• Live content notification: When someone shares PowerPoint Live content, the VIMT device displays a message that "Live content is being shared. View using a Microsoft Teams client."

  VIMT devices can't receive live content. VIMT participants can ask the person to do traditional application sharing or window sharing instead.

• Transcription notification: When the Teams meeting has active transcription, the VIMT device displays a message that "Teams meeting Transcription now active. View using a Microsoft Teams client."

  The VIMT device can't display the transcribed speech, so VIMT participants can use Teams to read the transcription.

You don't need to update your devices to see these notifications and you can't disable them. They are available for all organizations using our video integration with Microsoft Teams.

The new notifications are currently always in English, but we are localizing them for a future update.

See raised hands of Microsoft Teams participants

January 12, 2024

You can now see when Teams participants raise their hands during Microsoft Teams meetings. The VIMT device shows the name of the Teams participant who raised their hand, in the top-right corner of the display.

You can also see the hand-raised icon next to the name of the Teams participant in the roster list.

To show the name of the participant raising their hand, your device needs the January 2024 RoomOS update.

You can't raise your hand when you're in a Teams meetings on a VIMT device.

Audio boost for devices joining Microsoft Teams meetings

November 17, 2023

We've boosted the volume coming from video devices when they are in Microsoft Teams meetings. This brings the volume to approximately the same level as Microsoft Teams participants in the same meeting. This audio boost is not adjustable.

New video placeholder

September 15, 2023

We're changing the placeholder image (avatar) that other participants see when the VIMT device isn't showing video.

Instead of video from the device, the other participants in the Microsoft Teams meeting see a static image. The avatar is the name of the device in white on a black background.

This change improves compatibility and aligns the avatar experience with other Webex services.

New IP subnet for media in the video integration with Microsoft Teams

February 1, 2023

We are introducing new IP address subnets for media with the VIMT service at existing Azure datacenters. Starting from February 1, 2023, we'll be using these new ranges:

• US East 2: 4.152.214.0/24
• UK South: 4.158.208.0/24
• West Europe: 4.175.120.0/24

Microsoft Teams lobby controls affecting trusted devices

November 28, 2022

A recent Microsoft update is affecting how trusted devices/callers are joining Teams meetings.

If the Who can bypass Lobby? setting is restricted to either Only me and co-organizers or People I invite, then trusted devices are held in the lobby. Before this change, trusted devices were allowed to bypass the lobby.

Trusted devices can still bypass the lobby with less restrictive values for that setting (see Change participant settings for a Teams meeting).

A related issue is the wrong lobby message is shown to users of trusted devices who are waiting in the lobby because of this change. That issue is publicly visible at CSCwd68316.

New IP subnet for media in the video integration with Microsoft Teams

October 10, 2022

We're introducing a new media subnet for the VIMT service. The subnet is 20.120.238.0/23, hosted in the Azure datacenter, West US 2.

Webex App and Webex Devices also use UDP port 9000 instead of UDP port 33434.

See Ports and protocols for video integration traffic in Deploy the Webex video integration for Microsoft Teams.

3x3 Grid view and 1080p

July 19, 2022

The grid view (default when joining) is limited to 3x3 participants as Video Integration for Microsoft Teams (VIMT) only receives nine video streams from Microsoft Teams for VIMT calls. This change will allow for a consistent and better user experience.

Video devices can connect with up to 1080p Full High Definition (FHD) resolution.

During a Microsoft Teams meeting, the resolution is based on the client capability, regardless of what the video device is sending. VIMT uses transcoding to adjust the resolution.

Simulcast changes

May 19, 2022

The number of simultaneous outgoing video streams the (VIMT) service is able to send to a Microsoft Teams meeting has increased from three to four. This change is automatic, has no customer settings or configuration options and requires no action by customers. This change is intended to improve the outgoing picture quality from VIMT participants as seen by other meeting participants, particularly in meetings with a large number of participants or meetings with participants experiencing poor network conditions. This behavior is fully automatic and the degree of improvement will vary based on the runtime conditions of each Microsoft Teams meeting.

Live events support

May 11, 2022

Webex VIMT now has support for Microsoft Teams live events. With VIMT deployed, you can now join live events as a presenter. For details, see Webex Video Integration for Microsoft Teams live events.

Video quality improvements

April 8, 2022

Webex has improved video quality for this integration and will continue to make improvements in conjunction with Microsoft. We've adapted our encoding preferences for video integration. It is more tolerant of low bitrates and high keyframe rates that are accepted by Microsoft Teams.

We're working with Microsoft to further improve the video experience, specifically for large meetings, and we'll post details here when we release these improvements.

Content sharing limitation

March 28, 2022

Microsoft recently introduced a change that governs whether Attendees can share their screens (present content) in Teams meetings.

What this means for users of our video integration with Microsoft Teams is that, under specific circumstances, they cannot share content with the other participants.

To users, it looks like they are sharing but others won't see the shared content. The users also won't see someone else's shared content while they try to share, or after they stop trying to share.

These are the factors that cause this situation:

• There are two roles that a participant can take, with respect to sharing content in the Teams meeting; Attendee or Presenter.
• The change from Microsoft makes it possible—by meeting policy or in-meeting override—to prevent Attendees from sharing. The policy setting is disabled by default, so everyone can share.
• This "Who can present?" option is governed by Teams Meeting policy. If it is set to Everyone (default), then the video integration participants don't experience this sharing limitation. (A sufficiently privileged Microsoft Teams user, like the meeting organizer, could manually block the share of a video integration participant.)
• Participants joining Teams meetings, using our integration, from Trusted devices are always considered to be Presenters. This is irrespective of the "Who can share?" setting.
• Participants joining Teams meetings, using our integration, from Untrusted devices, are considered to be Presenters unless "Who can present?" is not Everyone. Any other value for that setting causes users like this to become Attendees.

That is, if the Teams Meeting policy has the "Who can present?" option set to the more restrictive Specific people, or People in my organization and guests, then users joining on Untrusted devices do experience this content sharing issue.

VIMT now shows single participant when using “Call Me”

We fixed a participant list problem which displayed 'duplicate' participants on Webex Room Systems. This issue happened when Microsoft Teams participants joined the meeting with the "Call me" option. The participant list had an entry for the Microsoft Teams client, and a duplicate participant for the phone call.

Now, we show one, merged entry on the Webex Room System's participant list.

Mute/unmute status for SIP connected participants

August 30, 2021

People using SIP devices to call into Microsoft Teams meetings can now see mute and unmute status indicators in the participant list. The SIP device can also display mute status when a Microsoft Teams participant has remotely muted the SIP device. These features require that the SIP device supports XCCP (v2).

Network requirement change for transmitting HD video to Microsoft Teams clients

August 25, 2021

We updated the Webex Video Integration for Microsoft Teams (VIMT) to a newer Microsoft Media SDK version. This change means that Microsoft Teams participants need at least 2 Mbps of bandwidth to receive 720p video from the video integration participants.

SIP improvement from US-based SIP proxy to GeoDNS based assignment

We changed the SIP DNS SRV records for m.webex.com to resolve with GeoDNS.

The benefit is that we now route SIP calls to cloud proxies (and Webex clusters) in other parts of the world when necessary, instead of routing all SIP calls back to US datacenters.

This change affects the SIP signaling path but does not affect how we assign media clusters. We now process the SIP signaling on a Webex cluster that is geographically nearer to the caller, instead of in the US.

There is no functional difference with this change, so contact us if you experience unexpected behavior.

Latency improvement

April 15, 2021

We optimized the service to reduce the audio and video latency and improve the overall meeting experience for video integration participants. Latency for each call still depends on the relative locations of the participant and the Microsoft Teams meeting, but is now similar to SIP video endpoints connecting to Webex Meetings.

Video quality improvements

April 13, 2021

We made improvements to reduce temporary degradation in outgoing video quality from video integration participants. The degradation involved pulsating or temporary pixelation of the main people video stream and the content video stream. These optimizations streamline video change requests from the Microsoft Teams MCU, and also result in visual improvements for other participants. These changes apply to all participants who connect through the Webex video integration. You don't have to enable them.