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Connecting our team with Microsoft Teams

Written by Nancy Knowlton | President and CEO of Nureva Inc. | Aug 19, 2020 12:00:00 PM

While much of the talk on social media and in the mainstream media is all about Zoom, there’s another application/service that many of us are using to conduct our daily connections as we work from home. It’s Microsoft® Teams.

Nureva is, as are many companies globally, a Microsoft shop. We use all the Microsoft applications as part of our Office 365 subscription. That subscription now includes Microsoft Teams for voice, video and data conferencing.

We have hundreds of meetings via Microsoft Teams every day, clocking thousands of minutes. It has been the prime tool through which we made the smooth transition from office to home literally overnight when the pandemic hit.

Before the COVID-19 pandemic and our near-instantaneous decision to leave our offices, many of us had occasionally worked from home, when we needed to be there for a repairman or when we were sick but not too sick to work. We all had the rudimentary set up to allow us to work from home for a half day or day.

Once our WFH arrangement moved from intermittent to full time, we became very discriminating about what was working and what was not. I will share some learnings in future blogs.

Better together

Our daily use of Teams to keep everything running smoothly at Nureva has an extra benefit to us, since we created and continue to develop hardware peripherals that work with Microsoft Teams (in addition to other UC&C products).

Plug in the USB connector and a Nureva® audio conferencing system is recognized as the preferred microphone and speaker device for Teams. This makes it easy to turn a personal experience on a computer into a group one in a meeting room.

If you use Microsoft Teams and appreciate its ease of use, our microphone-speaker bar is the perfect companion to equip your meeting rooms:

  • Easy installation. Insert two screws in the wall on which to hang the HDL200 or HDL300 audio conferencing system. It usually can be done in 30 minutes or less, by you or an integrator – you choose.
  • Plug and play. Nothing is complicated about the setup of our product. Simply plug it in, and the microphone-speaker bar is recognized by Microsoft as the microphone and speaker – easy. No selections to make or configurations to go through – it’s just ready to use.
  • Full-room coverage. Our Microphone Mist™ technology covers the full room, so no matter where speakers move or the direction they face, the system will pick up the audio to share it with those who are attending remotely. There are no microphones to steer.
  • Continuous autocalibration. At first use and continuously thereafter, Nureva systems assess room acoustics to deliver the best audio, even as conditions change.

Which is better – Microsoft Teams or Zoom?

This is a natural question that you might ask, but it’s not really the point of this blog. We use Microsoft applications across the company, so our choice to use Teams as our company standard was easy.

But, we also use Zoom, Webex® and Pexip with others outside our company. Our customers, suppliers and channel have made other choices, and it’s easy to connect with them and collaborate using their preferred UC&C application.

What we like about Teams

Beyond its inclusion in the Office suite, we like that the service has gotten better over time. Most recently, Microsoft shared some of the research that is leading to new features that are “designed to help create a more human connection and to reduce meeting fatigue.”

One new feature that I’m personally excited to experience is Together Mode, which will use artificial intelligence to make it feel like we’re all sitting together in the same room, even if when we’re actually far apart.

Since we began working from home back in March, our remote work approach has continually evolved to become more collaborative and effective. Through it all, I appreciate tools like Microsoft Teams that make it simple to bridge the distance.

 

Audio that’s well connected

Looking for an audio conferencing solution that works smoothly with Teams – or any UC&C application? Check out Nureva audio. It offers true full-room coverage in a simple and flexible package – plus it integrates seamlessly with your preferred platform.