Skype for Business PC build

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waikariboy

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Topic # 238102 3-Jul-2018 11:03

We are moving to office 365 and using S4B more and more. I need to build some meeting room PC for our 4K touch screen monitors for video calls, these could be up to 6 video calls at 6 locations at once. Anyone here have some good readme's or what i should be looking at. Currently have some i3 NUCs but am wondering if these are good enough.

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mdf

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Reply # 2048179 3-Jul-2018 11:33

One of my clients did this reasonably successfully using the Skype Room suggested hardware. Their deployment certainly wasn't 4K though! I can only imagine how hefty a chunk of change you'd expect to pay for a 4K conference camera!

davidcole

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Reply # 2048216 3-Jul-2018 12:19

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mdf:

One of my clients did this reasonably successfully using the Skype Room suggested hardware. Their deployment certainly wasn't 4K though! I can only imagine how hefty a chunk of change you'd expect to pay for a 4K conference camera!

Nobody needs to see their work colleagues in 4k..... <shudder>

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gbwelly

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Reply # 2048225 3-Jul-2018 12:31

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Spend a decent amount on the audio equipment, you would want a single device to handle both the audio input and output so you get echo cancelling and avoid feedback.

Do not attempt to use USB extension cables for either the camera or audio equipment. Mics hanging from the ceiling work well, even high end table top mics get overwhelmed by people rustling their papers.

Do this:

https://answers.microsoft.com/en-us/msoffice/forum/msoffice_sfb/can-a-room-mailbox-also-use-skype-for-meetings/7ca208a0-71e9-4023-a735-a842ff81ce39

so that when a room is invited to a Skype for Business meeting, the users only need to click the 'Meet Now' button in SfB.

Look for cameras with specific support for SfB, as they provide nice things like hardware encoding within the camera.

Here are some other peripherals:

https://partnersolutions.skypeforbusiness.com/solutionscatalog/meeting-peripherals

waikariboy

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Reply # 2048239 3-Jul-2018 12:59

mdf:

One of my clients did this reasonably successfully using the Skype Room suggested hardware. Their deployment certainly wasn't 4K though! I can only imagine how hefty a chunk of change you'd expect to pay for a 4K conference camera!

Thanks for this, we dont need 4k camera, just the screens are 4k with 300% scaling.

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waikariboy

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Reply # 2048240 3-Jul-2018 13:01

gbwelly:

Spend a decent amount on the audio equipment, you would want a single device to handle both the audio input and output so you get echo cancelling and avoid feedback.

Do not attempt to use USB extension cables for either the camera or audio equipment. Mics hanging from the ceiling work well, even high end table top mics get overwhelmed by people rustling their papers.

Do this:

https://answers.microsoft.com/en-us/msoffice/forum/msoffice_sfb/can-a-room-mailbox-also-use-skype-for-meetings/7ca208a0-71e9-4023-a735-a842ff81ce39

so that when a room is invited to a Skype for Business meeting, the users only need to click the 'Meet Now' button in SfB.

Look for cameras with specific support for SfB, as they provide nice things like hardware encoding within the camera.

Here are some other peripherals:

https://partnersolutions.skypeforbusiness.com/solutionscatalog/meeting-peripherals

thanks alot for this. great info.

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antoniosk

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Reply # 2048314 3-Jul-2018 13:50

waikariboy:

gbwelly:

Spend a decent amount on the audio equipment, you would want a single device to handle both the audio input and output so you get echo cancelling and avoid feedback.

Do not attempt to use USB extension cables for either the camera or audio equipment. Mics hanging from the ceiling work well, even high end table top mics get overwhelmed by people rustling their papers.

Do this:

https://answers.microsoft.com/en-us/msoffice/forum/msoffice_sfb/can-a-room-mailbox-also-use-skype-for-meetings/7ca208a0-71e9-4023-a735-a842ff81ce39

so that when a room is invited to a Skype for Business meeting, the users only need to click the 'Meet Now' button in SfB.

Look for cameras with specific support for SfB, as they provide nice things like hardware encoding within the camera.

Here are some other peripherals:

https://partnersolutions.skypeforbusiness.com/solutionscatalog/meeting-peripherals

thanks alot for this. great info.

I second this. I've worked a couple of contracts now where SfB has been 'deployed' but the edge equipment for users and conference rooms has been just pants. You can't ignore the basics of human interaction or the professional grade moron-level you will have. Anticipate that noone can be trained, and that having a big button with the words "Press this" is the level you need to build for.

Enjoy!

________

Antonios K

timbosan

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Reply # 2048393 3-Jul-2018 16:05

Just be aware that Skype for Business will be replaced by Teams, not sure if that makes a difference to you.

https://techcommunity.microsoft.com/t5/Microsoft-Teams-Blog/Updated-roadmap-for-bringing-Skype-for-Business-capabilities-to/ba-p/188007

gbwelly

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Reply # 2048695 4-Jul-2018 07:28

timbosan:

Just be aware that Skype for Business will be replaced by Teams, not sure if that makes a difference to you.

https://techcommunity.microsoft.com/t5/Microsoft-Teams-Blog/Updated-roadmap-for-bringing-Skype-for-Business-capabilities-to/ba-p/188007

Yeah, not the best time to be making a call on a large deployment, Teams is set to replace SfB, but hasn't yet reached feature parity.