Video Integration for Microsoft Teams (VIMT) allows Webex (or any SIP) video device to join as a presenter during a Microsoft Teams town hall.

Town hall events are available to video devices to join as presenters in organizations with VIMT deployed, as long as the device is trusted and coming from the same organization as the event.

Organizers schedule a town hall with the Microsoft Teams client (not with Outlook). The VIMT service doesn't require additional configuration for town halls. Organizers for town halls or meetings are configured using the Microsoft PowerShell command CsVideoInteropServiceProvider. For instructions on how to use this, see Deploy Webex video integration for Microsoft Teams.

Webex (or any SIP) device users join as presenters throughout the entire town hall event lifecycle.

Roles

The following roles exist to host and participate in town halls.

Producer—The director of the town hall. This role is assigned by the event organizer during scheduling. Producers join with a Microsoft Teams client. They use the Microsoft Teams dashboard to control the video stream, who's in the event group, and to start and stop the event.

Presenter—A participant who speaks or presents content during the town hall. Presenters join from a Microsoft Teams client or from a video device using VIMT.

Only trusted devices can join a town hall; therefore, the device should be part of the same organization as the town hall.

An event group includes the producers and presenters of the event. They're the only ones that are seen and heard by the attendees during the broadcast. When presenters using video devices inside of your organization join the event, they wait in a lobby and are admitted by a producer. Presenters are isolated while in the lobby.

Attendees—Participants who watch the town halls from the Microsoft Teams client. The broadcast is one-way for audio and video only. Furthermore, attendees do not send audio or video.

This article isn't an exhaustive guide to the Microsoft Teams town hall experience. See the following articles for more information on using and configuring VIMT:

Known issues

As of today, town hall invites don't include details for video devices; these details have to be found manually after scheduling the town hall in the Teams app, and can then be shared with the VIMT presenter.

If the town hall has already started and the presenter joins, the presenter's microphone will be open, and they'll be able to directly speak into the town hall without further warning.

When a user joins from a non-trusted device, such as a device from outside your organization, they will hear a few seconds of a lobby IVR, then they are immediately dropped from the meeting.

Schedule

Town halls must be scheduled using the Microsoft Teams client. When you schedule a town hall, you’re considered the organizer for the event. There are certain points that you need to take into consideration when inviting Video Integration for Microsoft Teams (VIMT) participants when you set up the invitation.

You invite VIMT participants to a town hall as Presenters. VIMT participants can join either with the Join button, direct-dial, or with IVR. For video device participants to attend using the Join button, you need to add the email for the video device conference room name or user with a personal device in the invitation.

If there are VIMT participants who are not able to join as a trusted participants, you must have Allow External Presenters enabled when scheduling the event to allow them to connect. This setting can’t be changed after the meeting has been created.

When you’ve scheduled the town hall, presenters and producers will get a calendar invite. VIMT participants join using the Video Conference Join information in the calendar invite, or the Join button on the video device if invited directly.

Anyone who has the join information for the event group will be able to join the event group, and potentially live-broadcast.

For more information about how to schedule a town hall from the Microsoft Teams client, see Schedule a Teams town hall.

Join

You can join Microsoft Teams town halls as a presenter from your Webex device with VIMT.

From a Webex device, you can join either by using the Join button or by dialing in.

Join button

The Join button is available on devices where Hybrid Calendar is enabled. When users schedule Microsoft Teams meetings and include Webex devices, a join button appears on the device 5 minutes before the meeting begins. Simply tap Join to enter the live event.

Join by dialing into the town hall

The email invitation you’ve received for the event group includes the call-in information to join with a video conferencing device.

Follow the instructions at the bottom of your email invite. Tap Call and enter the SIP video address that includes the VTC conference ID, or if prompted, enter the conference ID.

Town hall experience

VIMT participants may call into the event group meeting at any time, before or after the town hall starts.

The participant list is available, indicating who is muted. The recording indicator appears on screen when the event is recording.

When content is shared, your device displays the content.

Presenters connecting through VIMT do not directly see the broadcast video controlled by the producer that is sent to all attendees. The audio and video seen by a VIMT participant is the active speaker video device layouts seen in a traditional Teams meeting using VIMT. The audio they hear as part of the event group is the same as sent to attendees, but the video displayed doesn’t include the outgoing video broadcast attendees see.

Once connected, the experience will differ depending on if you are a trusted participant for the organization that is hosting the meeting, or an untrusted participant. Generally, you’re a trusted participant if you’re joining from device that is registered to the same organization that is hosting the town hall. Your device administrator may have configured your device to be a trusted participant. Contact your device administrator to check for the details.

  • Trusted participants: Trusted participants connect immediately to the event group as a presenter. Once joined, you will be live with the rest of the presenters in the event group just as in a regular Microsoft Teams meeting. If the town hall has started, you will be joining with audio. You can mute directly on your device.
  • Untrusted participants: Untrusted participants connecting through VIMT need to wait in the lobby until admitted by a producer from the Microsoft Teams client. Once admitted from lobby to event group, video devices are force-muted from Teams until the producer promotes you from a participant to a presenter. If the town hall has started and you’re a presenter, you will be joining with audio. You can mute directly on your device.

All presenters should be aware whatever audio they send to the event group meeting will be heard by attendees once the broadcast has started. Prior to the broadcast being started by the producer, attendees do not hear or see the event group participants.

VIMT participants

VIMT-connected participants have a different experience compared to presenters using the Microsoft Teams client. Notable differences include:

  • No chat or Q&A windows
  • No live video indicator for which participant is live
  • No town hall status (attendee count, timer, live state)
  • No presenter/producer labels in the Roster List

Presenters can always be invited to use a Microsoft Teams client for these non-audio/video features of the town hall.

Resolution

Video and shared content in town halls broadcasts in 720p.

Dial in information

It's important to control the distribution of VIMT dial-in information, as authentication is not provided for video device participants. As such, any trusted device joins as a presenter if they have the meeting ID.

Untrusted devices

To join, untrusted devices and external participants enter the lobby where the producer admits them to the event group. At this time, their device is muted. The muted state does not display on their device. The producer promotes the device to a presenter to display and remove the mute status.