Between 2019 and 2020, the world was hit with a significant challenge that many of us had never experienced before. Covid-19 changed the world a great deal, and it changed the global business community in a huge way. Suddenly, people were forced to socially distance, which meant changes to their work habits had to be made – and made fast. During this time, businesses relied on videoconferencing as their primary means of connecting colleagues.
We reached out to some companies who went remote during the pandemic. One of the companies described how Microsoft Teams became their chosen videoconferencing platform. TechQuarters, who provide managed IT services London companies rely on for their IT management, stated that Microsoft Teams provided all the communication and collaboration functionality they needed to support remote work. The thing that they believes made it better than many other competitors was the meeting experience.
Teams Meeting Experiences
Microsoft worked hard to adapt many of their services to support businesses during the height of the Covid-19 pandemic. They have continued developing Microsoft Teams, as they believe it is the perfect platform for remote communication and collaboration. TechQuarters stated that they have been using it since its launch in 2017, and in that time have seen huge developments to its functionality.
So, how exactly does Microsoft Teams provide the ideal meeting experience for remote businesses? Below is a breakdown of the different areas of the platform that Microsoft have worked on optimizing.
Audio
Videoconferencing is meant to replace the experience of an in-person meeting, which means that it needs to be as immersive as possible – and audio is a big part of creating an immersive experience. Below are some of the developments that have been made in Microsoft Teams to optimize the audio aspect of its video meetings:
Noise Suppression – As all participants in a video meeting are in different environments, the likelihood of their being undesirable background noise is much higher. This is why Microsoft worked on an AI-powered means for Teams to suppress background noise, thus eliminating distractions and making it easier for every to hear each other.
Echo Suppression – An echo effect sometimes occurs in remote video meetings when a participant’s speaker is too close to their microphone, which creates a sound loop that sounds like an echo. Microsoft Teams has another AI-powered feature that can recognise echo and neutralise it.
Video
Remote meetings usually involve the sharing of visual content that is relevant to the topics being discussed in the meeting. Over time, Microsoft have worked on several AI-based enhancements for the video aspect of Teams meetings. Below are some examples of these enhancements.
Screen Optimization – There are so many different types of visual content that are frequently used in video meetings, and there is no way to optimize meetings for all types of content at once. This is why Teams meetings now have real-time screen optimization which changes, depending on the type of content being shared – such as video, static images, text and infographics, etc.
Brightness & Focus Filters – Of course, a video stream will never be a true replacement for face-to-face interactions; however, Microsoft Teams does a good job of giving participants options to help optimize their on-screen image. The brightness and focus filters in Teams meetings help one make their video feed easier to see for their participants. This can contribute to a more immersive meeting.
Conclusion
These are just a few examples of how Microsoft Teams offers perhaps the best professional meeting experience of any video conferencing tool on the market. Many companies rely on it in 2022 – for instance, TechQuarters uses it when providing IT support Essex and London based companies need, and they also rely on it for facilitating internal communications.