Today’s Teams Tip – 21 January

By now, most of you will have encountered the new ‘pre-join’ meeting screen in Teams.

Audio options

Whilst working from home, the best audio option to choose is the first one – ‘Computer audio’. Underneath this it will either show ‘PC Mic and Speakers’ as per the image above, or if you have a headset plugged in, it will show your headset details.

You can learn more about using ‘Phone audio’ from our article on Audio Conferencing.

‘Room audio’ relates to Teams Rooms. When joining a meeting in an equipped Teams Room (on campus), this option can be selected to make use of the inbuilt hardware in the room, like microphones and speakers installed in the desk/ceiling etc.

Finally, ‘Don’t use audio’ is unlikely to be used that often, but might be helpful if you are auditing a meeting, or notetaking but not actively participating. It would also prove useful if for some reason, you needed to join a meeting on two devices (e.g. a phone and a laptop). In this scenario, you should ensure that sound is only on for one of the devices to avoid any feedback.

The ability to mute your mic and turn off your camera can be done at this stage as well, by toggling the respective buttons circled in the image.

Video options

If keeping your camera on for the meeting, you can set your background before joining by clicking on ‘Background filters’ and then either selecting from the options provided or by uploading a background of your own.

Once you’ve set your options, join the meeting.

Together Mode

Microsoft introduced Together Mode last year. Together Mode allows Teams Meetings of between six (yourself plus five other participants) and 49 people to 'sit' in the same virtual 'scene'. It is specifically designed to reduce meeting fatigue and improve personal communication and collaboration.

Well, they have now enhanced the feature and introduced a variety of backgrounds to make things more interesting! The scenes include a coffee bar for those smaller catch ups, a lecture theatre for your event or keynote, and even a mountain retreat for your next team away day! 

You can find out more by reading the dedicated support page on our Teams SharePoint site.

Teams Lunch and Learn opportunity

Would you like to know more about using Teams, specifically for Events? The Events Management Community of Practice has organised a Lunch & Learn session to explain the latest developments as well as give you the opportunity to ask any questions you have about the system.

The session will be on 4 February, from 2 to 3pm and will be delivered by Edd Charnley, SLASH Office 365 Service Manager.

Please complete this online form by 28 January to sign up and indicate the type of topics you would like to find out more about.

If you have any tips for using Teams which have really helped you make the most of the product, please email us or post your tip on Twitter or Instagram with the hashtag #teamstips. For further information about using Teams effectively, please have a look at the Teams SharePoint site. If you are having any specific issues with the set-up of Teams, please contact the IT Services Desk, who are best placed to help you.