Simplify the setup of Microsoft Teams Rooms on Windows with Autopilot
Let's start with some background for context
If you're using Microsoft Teams Rooms (MTR) in your organisation you'll probably know that there are two distinct paths for the architecture of the system that the MTR app runs on. MTR started life as project Rigel, which was an evolution of the old Skype Room System (SRS) and Lync Room System (LRS) before that. The room solutions comprised a Windows compute, and a touch console, such as the Logitech Tap controller.
After a couple of years, Microsoft introduces what was originally called Collaboration Bars. Collab Bars were originally aimed at small and huddle rooms and had fixed lenses and relied on a speaker puck for audio. Rather than a Windows compute, Collab Bars had built in Android compute and an Android Teams app. And rather than a controller, Collab Bars had remote controls with a jog wheel or D Pad for navigating around the on-screen controls. The features offered in Collab Bars was a subset of what was available on the Windows counterpart. But what made Collab Bars compelling to many was the simplicity of setup. You could take a Collab Bar out of the box, get it on the network to install any available updates, sign in with the Teams Room account and be ready to make and receive calls, or join meetings using the join button in the persistent calendar box on the display.
Soon after that, Microsoft started adding features to Collab Bars. And more OEMs started making solutions for this path. Logitech's first Collab Bars were the Rally Bar and Rally Bar Mini. The Rally Bar was certified for medium rooms (although it works for large rooms too), thanks to its 4K optical zoom camera, and a built in mic array that could be augmented with an additional 3 (which has since increased to 4) mic pods. Rather than relying on a remote to navigate, Logitech was able to pair the bars with the same Tap controller which was used on their Windows MTRs. Soon after, Logitech launched an IP controller called Tap IP, which no longer needed that direct connection, but rather paired over the network.
Microsoft were steadily adding features, and more and more people were choosing Collab Bars for some or all of their rooms. Then Logitech launched a device that changed how we think of Collab Bars. The Logitech Roommate. Roommate is an Android compute, to which you add USB cameras, and either first or third party audio. Definitely not a bar. So since Roommate is no longer a Collab Bar, Microsoft renamed the branch to Microsoft Teams Rooms on Android (MTRoA).
These two paths still exist today. There are MTRs for Windows and Android solutions available for everything from huddle spaces to extra large rooms. And thanks to some very recent updates, they look almost identical.
This means a user can walk into either type of room and know how to join their meeting. There are feature differences between the Windows and Android solutions. But until recently, these differences were hardly a deal breaker. People are deploying more new rooms on the Android path. This is thanks to some cost savings by not having to buy the Windows compute, but also for the ease of setup and ease of running the solution.
MTR on Windows requires more setup than the Android equivalent. This is partly because the Windows compute needs more preparation such as Windows, firmware, Bios, driver and Teams app updates. But also because Admins often treat the Windows compute like any other Windows compute, such as a user laptop, on the network. And because they can add proxies, certificates and monitoring software, they sometimes do. All of these updates and system prep take time. Anything from several hours to several days. All this time leads to additional cost for the IT team or integrators doing the work.
Introducing Autopilot for MTR on Windows
At Enterprise Connect 2024, Microsoft announced that they would be supporting Autopilot for Teams Rooms on Windows.
Customers can now utilize touchless remote provisioning of devices, speeding up the deployment process and saving time for IT. We are excited to release Autopilot for Teams Rooms on Windows which combines Windows Autopilot and Auto-login technologies to automate the enrolment and configuration of the devices from the cloud, using the credentials stored in the Teams Rooms Pro Management service. With Autopilot for Teams Rooms on Windows, IT teams can drastically reduce deployment time and cost while improving security and compliance. This feature will be available in Public Preview in April for rooms with a Teams Rooms Pro license.
What this means is with some back end preparation in Intune and the Pro Management Portal, you can deploy a Teams Room in minutes. The target time is sub 30 minutes from start to finish. The reality is approximately 10 minutes from when you start the process to the room being signed in with the account and ready to go.
How to do it
Microsoft has a long and detailed how to guide on how to Use Autopilot and Autologin to easily deploy Microsoft Teams Rooms consoles. This post is a more simplistic guide.
Prerequisites
Autopilot for MTR requires the Teams Rooms Pro license. Ensure you have enough in your environment for the number of rooms you're deploying.
You'll need to access two main portals during the preparation process. So make sure you have rights to access both portals and the necessary RBAC to make the required changes.
Microsoft Endpoint Manager/Intune: https://intune.microsoft.com
Teams Rooms Pro Management Portal: https://portal.rooms.microsoft.com
Create Room Resource accounts for each room you plan to deploy
One time Preparation
The first 7 prep steps are done in Intune. These are one time steps and will be the basis for how you deploy your rooms going forward.
Create a dynamic device group
Enable Windows auto enrolment
Create an enrolment status page (ESP) profile
Create an Autopilot profile
Configure a Local Admin Password (LAPS) policy (optional)
Prepare the Deployment of the Teams Rooms app update tool
Configure your SkypeSettings.xml
You can use the SkypeSettings XML file to choose the settings for each room. Including choosing the default audio and video devices, configuring your content camera, enabling and disabling specific optional settings such as direct guest join and even deploying your MTR background. Learn More
Per device preparation
Then for each new MTR compute you want to deploy you need to get the device hardware hash and add to Intune. The hardware hash is the Windows compute serial number (e.g. BTTG138003NF), which is on the bottom of the MTR compute, plus some PC info. e.g. Device Serial Number, Windows Product ID, Hardware Hash, Group Tag, Assigned User.
You can use PowerShell to download the hardware hash as a CSV which is used to upload into Intune manually. Learn More
Or get the hardware hash and add the device hash to your Intune Tenant automatically
In a command prompt enter
Powershell Set-ExecutionPolicy -Scope Process -ExecutionPolicy RemoteSigned
Install-Script -name Get-WindowsAutopilotInfo -Force
Get-WindowsAutoPilotInfo -online
Enter the credentials for your Intune admin user
You should now see
"connected to Intune tenant <your tenant ID>"
"Gathered details for device with serial number: BTTG138003NF"
The last couple of steps are done in the Pro Management Portal
Sync the devices from Intune to the Pro Management Portal
In the Pro Management Portal, go to Planning > Autopilot devices.
On the Windows Autopilot devices page, select Sync to populate the device list.
Set up Autologin and assign the MTR resource account to the Autopilot device
Select a device from the list. > Select Assign account.
On the Device selection page, the device is preselected. Click Next.
On the Account selection page, select the account you want to use on this device, then click Next.
On the Configuration page select Auto Generate password. This sets a new password for the account.
If you'd rather set your own password, choose manual and enter the password in the field
Now you're ready to deploy the device
All you need to do is boot up the device, connect to the internet (wired is best) and it will do everything for you. During the Out-of-Box experience, select the country and keyboard layout and tap Next. The device may reboot to apply critical security updates if they're available. After the reboot to apply critical security updates, the Autopilot process begins.
During Device setup the Teams Rooms app update tool runs and updates the Teams app. When the device ESP process completes, the Windows Autopilot self-deploying deployment is complete, and the Teams Rooms Out-of-box experience starts.
The Teams Room app now detects the Autopilot profile and initiates Autologin. The credentials for the resource account assigned to this Autopilot device are used to log the device in. When this part is complete, the console will automatically log in and is ready for Teams meetings.
The whole process should take around 10 minutes from start to finish.
