Crossover installs audiovisual and videoconferencing systems for event spaces and meeting rooms of all sizes. If you need Microsoft Teams collaboration capability incorporating into your meeting space why not contact us today and find out more.
Microsoft Teams: Event Spaces and Live Events
What's the best way to use Microsoft Teams for large-scale ‘Town Hall’ or ‘All Hands’ meetings?
An increasing number of businesses use Microsoft Teams for their day-to-day communications: chat, videoconferencing, audio calls, file sharing and file collaboration.
It’s also possible to integrate a Teams system with your event space AV systems, giving you audio and video communications during your 'All Hands' / 'Town Hall' meetings . We discuss some of the AV hardware you'd need to do this below.
Teams also has a meeting type called Live Events. This feature of Teams is designed for webinar broadcasting and live streaming to larger, remote audiences of up to 10,000 attendees. Perfect for an executive sharing session, or company broadcast, with less interaction from 'the crowd'. In Live Events mode Q&A is chat-based only for remote attendees. A moderator (or 'producer') would usually manage the incoming questions on behalf of the team delivering the live presentation, much like with most webinar / live streaming formats. The event can be broadcast from a home office if you have good quality videoconferencing hardware at home.
Microsoft Teams for Event Spaces
Teams can be used as a platform for bringing together remote participants into large meeting spaces, Town Hall or ‘All Hands’ style team meetings, or a CEO’s broadcast from an office out to a remote team in satellite offices and/or homes.
This requires the design and installation of a larger more bespoke array of professional-grade components suitable for your space and your preferred way of presenting.
Larger systems of this nature are inherently more complicated to get correct, and present a myriad of potential problems which can hinder the quality of a Teams meeting. A lot of our clients learned the hard way before getting us involved, and we’ve designed and installed these kinds of solutions for countless firms around the UK and beyond, from Blue-Chips such as right through to the most dynamic and fast-growing tech startups, with great success.
Key considerations for an event space presentation:
- Microphones - Different styles of mic will suit different applications - including headset, gooseneck and even throwable mics for an engaging Q&A session. Mics should be tuned and mixed with echo cancellation and simple end user control
- Cameras - Multiple cameras may be needed to capture different presenters and the audience. PTZ (pan tilt zoom) cameras offer flexibility. Switching or video production hardware may be required for multi-camera setups designed to capture different shots in larger spaces.
- Displays - Consideration to display size and positioning, and reinforcement displays to ensure visibility for all
- Lighting - Windows or strong lighting sources behind the presenter should be avoided. Faces should be evenly lit by a diffuse lighting sources. For broadcast or presentation environments, direct lighting will be required to make the presenter look bright and well lit.
- Acoustic Treatment - A Teams call hosted in a poor acoustic environment will result in poor quality audio capture and ultimately unintelligible voice, which can ruin Teams calls. Installing additional ceiling or wall mounted acoustic treatment can remove unwanted audio reflections which is hugely important for intelligible voice reproduction.
Microsoft Teams: Live Events
When interaction from remote attendees isn't as important as broadcasting to a large audience, the Live Events feature of Teams is perfect. Up to 10,000 attendees can join, as simply as clicking a link for a web browser.
Created as simply as a regular Teams meeting, by adding a new calendar event, meeting organisers can invite presenters to the meeting, and set meeting permissions for people and groups. A web link can be sent out to the attendees in advance.
After the event organisers can choose to provide a recording of the online event to the attendees, and generate an attendee engagement report.
During the event the producers have a queue window to audition feeds (cameras, laptop sources for screen sharing) before sending those sources live on the stream. Multi window streams are possible, to show the presenter plus presentation material. Event organisers can also monitor network performance from within the Teams environment to ensure great quality output.
Q&A for remote participants is managed by chat, with questions submitted and moderated in real time.
Read more about our audiovisual systems for conference centres and events spaces here.
Contact us for any further information about migrating to Microsoft Teams or regarding Microsoft Teams systems for large-scale meetings and event spaces.
