Webex Video Integration for Microsoft Teams

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

Cross-tenant join any Microsoft Teams meeting

September 9, 2024

We're improving the VIMT service so that devices can join any Microsoft Teams meeting. We're calling this "Cross-tenant join".

Device users can tap the RoomOS Teams button, then enter the Teams meeting ID and passcode. If they're also on Webex Calendar Service, the users see the Join button on any Teams meeting invite (previously they would use WebRTC to join Teams meetings in other tenants).

Cloud-registered or Edge devices must be on the September RoomOS update to use cross-tenant join. Devices registered on-premises also need an upgrade (coming soon) to use this feature.

Related articles:

• Join Microsoft Teams Meetings on Board, Desk, and Room Series

• Enable WebRTC and CVI to join a Microsoft Teams Meeting from Board, Desk, and Room Series

• Deploy the Webex Video Integration for Microsoft Teams

• Webex Video Integration for Microsoft Teams integration reference

New layouts, improved highlighting, and watermarking support

April 30, 2024

We're improving the experience for devices joining Microsoft Teams meetings. We're adding layouts, improving speaker highlights, and supporting watermarked meetings.

Large Gallery layout

We now support the large gallery layout from Microsoft Teams. You can see up to 49 video participants in a 7x7 grid.

You can select this layout from your touch display or with DTMF tones (*2 or *8 to change layouts).

Microsoft Teams composes this layout, so you can expect some small differences to the other layouts. For example, you could see your own video stream in the layout, and the name labels may not match labels seen in other layouts.

Dual-monitor device layouts

You can now select layouts on dual-monitor devices when they're not displaying shared content. Choose from:

• Prominent shows the Active (or focused) speaker on the primary monitor, and a 3x3 grid of video streams on the second monitor. It's the default layout for dual-monitor devices.
• Focused shows the Active (or focused) speaker on the primary monitor, and a full screen view of the most recent speaker on the second monitor.
• Grid layout shows a grid of video streams on both monitors. The layout has up to four streams (2x2 grid) on each monitor.
• Large Gallery shows the Active (or focused) speaker on the primary monitor, and the Microsoft Teams Large Gallery layout on the second monitor (grid of up to 7x7 video streams).

Active speaker highlighting

We're improving active speaker highlighting on devices calling into the Microsoft Teams meeting. The improvements apply to both single and dual-monitor layouts.

Watermarking support

VIMT devices can now show Microsoft Teams video and content streams when the Teams meeting is using watermarking.

You see the device name superimposed over the incoming video or content stream.

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.

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.