Microsoft Teams Rooms: Deploying the New Home Screen and Custom Backgrounds

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Microsoft Teams consistently pushes the boundaries of innovation, and with its most recent update, Teams Rooms on Windows app 4.17, an array of new and enhanced features are being introduced. These include a refreshed home screen experience and an upgraded custom background feature.

Image showing comparison between a dual front room display with a 16:9 aspect ratio and a single display with a 21:9 aspect ratio in Microsoft Teams Rooms.


The new default home screen, first introduced as an 'opt-in' feature in version 4.16, incorporates a modern UI/UX update and will become the default experience with the 4.17 app version's release this June. This update is designed to provide a streamlined and intuitive user experience for Teams Rooms on Windows users.

In addition to the home screen update, Microsoft has amped up the custom background feature for Teams Rooms Pro users. This feature allows IT administrators to specify up to three background images, and determine which image is displayed on the main room display, extended room display, and room console.

Deploying these enhancements requires certain inputs. For instance, the images must be in PNG, JPG, JPEG, or BMP format. The XML settings for each display type must also be correctly configured. Here's an example of how to specify the background images:

<Theming> <ThemeName>Custom</ThemeName> <CustomBackgroundMainFoRDisplay>file1.jpg</CustomBackgroundMainFoRDisplay> <CustomBackgroundExtendedFoRDisplay>file2.jpg</CustomBackgroundExtendedFoRDisplay> <CustomBackgroundConsole>file3.jpg</CustomBackgroundConsole> </Theming>

In this example, file1.jpg will be the background for the main room display, file2.jpg for the extended room display, and file3.jpg for the room console. It's important to note that these inputs are required depending on whether the device is in single or dual display mode.

Moreover, to avoid image cropping, specific image dimensions based on the display's screen aspect ratio should be adhered to. For instance, for a 16:9 aspect ratio, the recommended dimension is 1920 x 1080 px, while for a 21:9 aspect ratio, 2560 x 1080 px is recommended.

If the dimensions of the image and the display do not match, the image scales to fill the frame while preserving the image aspect ratio (without letterboxing). However, if a 4K image (3840 x 2160 px) is applied to a 4K display, the full image will be shown.

Upon implementing these new custom background XML settings, the legacy custom theme settings will be disregarded. More information will be available on the Microsoft Learn site closer to the release with updated guidelines.

The rollout for these updates is set to begin in mid-June and is expected to be completed by late July. Organizations should prepare their users for this new experience and update their training and documentation accordingly.

As Microsoft continues to innovate and enhance Teams Rooms on Windows, stay tuned for further updates to make this tool even more powerful for collaboration and communication.



Location: London, UK

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