Skype for Business On-Prem is not dead!

Skype for Business On Prem is not dead …

As you probably know, Microsoft's strategy is to move "everyone" into the cloud using teams as a platform for collaboration. But there are still many customers out there who wants to run OnPrem for a long time. Therefore, Microsoft will now comes with the SfB 2019 server. They will not be published publicly for how long On-Prem will be supported, but it will probably continue for some years.

News around the SfB 2019 server is Cloud Voice Mail, Cloud Org Auto Attendant, Cloud Call Data Connector and Streamlined Team Migration.

I personally liked the news about Cloud Call Data Connector, where call analytics are lifted in the O365 portal so that you have one single point for call analytics.

Also featured new modern Skype control panel built on HTML5. Good bye Silverlight! Yes ….

I'm in Teams Only Mode and will not return to Skype ….

Do not hesitate to contact me if you have question regarding the transition from Skype to Teams.

 

Teams - Background blur

Finally, it's here - background blur. Today, "Background blur" was announced here in Ignite, Orlando. You have probably experienced that you need to start cleaning at your home office before starting a video call. Now you do not need this cleaning activity!


Today, all Teams customer can remove distraction and focus your video on what matters most.

When you are in a video call, click on "More actions" - "Blur my background"

As you can see, the background is blured.

Teams Live Events

Live events in Office 365 enable users to broadcast one-to-many video and content to large number of audiences. This is basically a new and improved version of Skype for Business Meeting Broadcast.

Live events in Teams is in public preview at the moment.

See diagram below for the components involved. As far as I know the External encoder is not available yet and the only choice at the moment is Quick start from Teams Client. I will show below how to schedule a meeting.

Who can create and schedule live events?

The following prerequisites are required for the user to schedule a live event in the Preview timeframe:

• User has been assigned an Office 365 Enterprise E3 or E5 license.

• User is enabled for Microsoft Teams, Skype for Business Online, and Microsoft Stream.

• User is enabled for private meeting scheduling in Teams (TeamsMeetingPolicy-AllowPrivateMeetingScheduling is set to True).

• User is enabled for live event scheduling in Teams (TeamsMeetingBroadcastPolicy-AllowBroadcastScheduling is set to True).

User has permissions to create live events in Microsoft Stream (for external encoder production).

Be sure to set "AllowPrivateMeetingSchedule"

AllowBroadcastScheduling

How to Schedule a Live Meeting

NB: This print screen is from Norwegian Teams Client

1: Click on Møte then 2: "Planlegg møte"

Dropp down and then "Nytt livearrangement.."

Add information about the meeting

Add permission for your meeting. If you want people outside your organization to attend, you must choose "Offentlig"

The permission "Offentlig" is default turned off. I suggest to create a new user live events policy for this purpose. Then set "Who can join scheduled live events" = Everyone

Start the Meeting from calendar - "Bli med"

1: Turn video on/off

2: Mute on/off
3: Click on "Bli med nå"

1: Notice the button "Før live"
2: You can choose layout (content/video or only the content)
3: Click on "Del" to share e.g power point

Choose video and power point you want to share in the meeting then press on "Send live"

You will then see the "Start" button change status to active. Press on Start to start the live meeting.

Click on "Fortsett"

When the meeting has started, you will see the red button "Direkte"

1: During the Live meeting you can make note, chat or see attendees.
One of the cool new feature is that you can call into the meeting from mobil phone

1: Click on "Avslutt" to stop the meeting
2: Then click "Fortsett". It is not possible to join the meeting again after you stop.

After the meeting, you can download the recorded mp4 file of the meeting. To access the recording, enter the meeting in the Teams Calendar and then download the file as shown in this picture.