Best practices for Microsoft Teams meetings in PC-based conference rooms

Instead of a dedicated videoconferencing (Cisco or Polycom) unit, many Indiana University conference rooms use a standard PC for collaboration, sometimes referred to as PCVC equipment (Personal Computer for Video Conferencing). These rooms provide flexibility by allowing participants to choose the app needed for each meeting. However, this flexibility requires the user who logs into the conference room PC to take steps to maintain privacy and to ensure a quality meeting experience.

Consider the following tips for a successful meeting when using Microsoft Teams in a PCVC room.

1. To adjust your privacy settings for the Microsoft Teams application, choose one of the following options:
   Note:

   The lobby function in Microsoft Teams is turned off by default for future and recurring meetings. If you wish to modify that setting, see About the lobby in Microsoft Teams meetings at IU.
   • Set your Microsoft Teams status to Do not disturb; for instructions, see Change your status in Microsoft Teams. This will prevent desktop notifications (pop-up messages at the lower right) from appearing during your meeting.
   • Turn off pop-up chat notifications for the Microsoft Teams app; for instructions, see Only get notifications in the app.
   • Log into the conference room PC with an administrative group account (if available) instead of your personal credentials; this will ensure that personal account information is not displayed. The group account will need to be invited to the meeting or the meeting will need to be joinable by any IU account.
2. Close unneeded applications such as email, chat, or any documents that may contain private or sensitive information or that may require restricted access. For more about data classification at IU, see Classification levels of institutional data.
3. To reserve the physical room, include the Outlook account for the room in the meeting invitation; for more, see Schedule meetings and reserve rooms at IU.
4. If you know that a conference room with a Cisco or Polycom unit may be joining the Microsoft Teams meeting, verify that the invitation includes "Join with a video conferencing device" information within the Microsoft Teams meeting dialing instructions. These instructions only appear in Microsoft Teams meeting invitations that were created on or after July 11, 2021; for more, see Connect to a Microsoft Teams meeting from an IU videoconferencing room system.
5. Other participants in the physical conference room can share their screen wirelessly by joining the meeting from the Microsoft Teams application on their personal device. When these in-room participants join, have them choose the video and audio option Don't use audio to prevent audio feedback in the conference room.
6. If you wish, you may add a second device to the Microsoft Teams meeting. When you are logged into the Microsoft Teams application on the conference room PC, and you join from the Microsoft Teams app on your personal device to wirelessly share that device's screen, you'll see a prompt to either Add this device or Transfer to this device; choose Add this device. For more, see Join a Microsoft Teams meeting on a second device.