Automated Attendant - Windows Beta

Meeting Room 365: Automated Attendant (Windows + Microsoft Teams Public Beta)

This guide will cover getting started setting up a Room PC (with or without a touchscreen control device) which integrates Microsoft Teams or Google Meet.

Features include:

Automatically start and end Video calls
Touchscreen controls to toggle camera, microphone, and volume settings
Wireless screen sharing without starting a call

Recommended Hardware:

Windows 10 device (your Room PC -- this can be a Touchscreen Windows 10 device, such as a Surface Go or the Surface 3 Tablet, a Windows Stick PC, or any other Windows 10 device that meets your needs)
Tabletop microphone
HD Webcam
Television or Professional large-format display

Wiring considerations

The most complex part of project planning is cabling and wiring considerations.

The following restrictions may help plan your device layout:

Maximum length of an HDMI cable: 15 Meters / 50 feet
Maximum length of a USB cable: 5 Meters / 16 feet

While both of these limitations can be overcome by various (but expensive) adapters (such as HDMI over Ethernet), these restrictions guide many of the decisions we have made in designing our automated attendant.

Our default setup is to run our software on a Touchscreen Windows 10 device with the primary (Television) display connected via HDMI, and our Microphone / Webcam device connected over USB.

However, there are many alternative installations that can be adapted to meet your project requirements.

Software Installation & Setup

Software Download

The Meeting Room 365 Automated Attendant (Public Beta 2 -- Windows 10) can be downloaded from the following link:

https://meetingroom365.b-cdn.net/apps/attendant-installer-windows-x64-beta3.zip (Latest, includes alternate remote)

https://meetingroom365.com/apps/attendant-installer-win32-x64-beta2.zip (use if v3 doesn't work)

This will install the software and an audio device management dependency.

Software Setup

The first time you run the software, you will be prompted to set up your automated attendant.

1. Enter your Display Key

This should match the display key you use for your Meeting Room display. This is required to load calendar data from the Meeting Room 365 API.

2. Select single or multiple display mode

This option should be toggled if you are running this software on a touchscreen device to control the video call experience.

3. Select & Configure your video call provider

You will need to select and configure your VTC provider, once prompted. This includes signing in and selecting your camera and microphone. You should also schedule and complete a test call via the automated attendant, after completing the steps described in this guide.

4. Arrange your windows and displays

The last step is to arrange your windows to the correct display, and maximize them (by pressing F11). The automated attendant will remember the positions of each window upon launch.

Performing a Test Call

Once you have competed setup, you should perform a test call.

From Office 365, create a new meeting with a Teams call, on your new Room display. It should appear a few seconds later on your Room PC.

It should attempt to launch Microsoft Teams automatically via a webpage. You do not need to install Microsoft Teams.

You may need to sign in to the new Microsoft Teams window. You should use your Resource Mailbox credentials. You may need to assign a license to your Resource Mailbox user to continue: https://support.microsoft.com/en-us/office/how-do-i-get-access-to-microsoft-teams-fc7f1634-abd3-4f26-a597-9df16e4ca65b

You may also need to select the Microphone and Camera you wish to use with Microsoft Teams.

Additional Setup options

Run the Automated Attendant automatically at launch

You can find more details here: https://support.microsoft.com/en-us/help/4026268/windows-10-change-startup-apps

Disable unused Microphone / Camera devices

We recommend disabling unused camera and microphone devices before handing the system over to your end-users.

You can see a few approaches to this here: https://appuals.com/how-to-change-default-camera-in-windows-10/

Adjusting Configuration Options

You can adjust configuration options by navigating to the settings option in the application menu. This is not available when the application is maximized to fullscreen, so you may need to toggle windowed mode by pressing F11.

Updated on: 14/09/2020