Iristick brings remote assistance and collaboration to its smart glasses with Microsoft Teams

Iristick brings remote assistance and collaboration to its smart glasses with Microsoft Teams

Iristick is announcing the launch of Microsoft Teams video conferencing solution on their Iristick.H1 and Iristick.G2 PRO smart glasses. Fully optimized for use with voice commands, see-what-I-see function, screen, and file-sharing capabilities. Providing a completely hands-free option for remote assistance and collaboration.

Iristick Microsoft Teams on Iristick remote video conferencing assistance

The ‘Microsoft Teams on Iristick’ solution allows users to start a call or share files without having to use their hands. During a call, they can livestream, take and share pictures, control the camera view and zoom in for details using voice commands. This way, the solution offers hands-free information exchange, remote assistance and troubleshooting options. The result: better diagnosis of maintenance issues, faster and improved technical assistance, reduced downtime and costs.

Extended Reality and smart glasses are an undeniable part of Industry 4.0, the smart factories of tomorrow and digital health. Leveraging these technologies and their remote assistance solutions will help companies gain competitive advantages and provide them with a better chance to position themselves at the forefront of their respective industries. With Microsoft Azure we significantly simplify the integration of intelligent technology at scale and reduce the time to market for companies like Iristick.” said Joris Aeles, Azure Business Group Lead, Microsoft.

Since the beginning of the pandemic, there has been a significant, 44% increase in the number of professionals using collaboration tools1,” said Johan De Geyter, CEO at Iristick. ”Iristick supports this increased demand by launching a widely used videoconferencing solution on our smart glasses. ‘Microsoft Teams on Iristick’ is an application that connects frontline professionals in every industry to empower them in a digitized future.

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Dubber brings conversational intelligence solutions to Microsoft Teams

Dubber brings conversational intelligence solutions to Microsoft Teams

Dubber Corporation Limited is announcing the ability to capture video recordings and perform advanced recording controls on Microsoft Teams. Dubber video recording for Microsoft Teams will deliver recording on a single platform with real-time search, keyword analytics, and AI-enriched insights.

The advanced recording controls for Microsoft Teams will give users flexibility and control when recording voice or video calls. The features include the ability to pause and resume recordings, record on-demand or selectively manage which types of calls or meetings are recorded.

Dubber Microsoft Teams

James Slaney, COO, Dubber: Businesses increasingly recognise default and basic recording solutions fail to meet their enterprise-grade requirements for security, compliance and data sovereignty. No other company offers the completeness, scalability and robustness of Dubber’s unified call recording and conversational intelligence capability as a Microsoft Teams certified service“.

“Capturing video recordings adds critical context to knowing what was said, particularly as video has become a primary communications medium for every business driven by hybrid work”.

“For example, every customer presentation captured, attached and connected to a CRM significantly improves revenue forecasting, sales coaching, training and more. For compliance intelligence, capturing video completes the requirement to know your customer and employees. The release of advanced recording controls provides flexibility and practical control for administrators and end-users to select the types of calls that are recorded and additionally to record on-demand or pause and resume recording”.

We are addressing the critical need for any service provider or reseller of Microsoft Teams to differentiate, drive revenue and increase retention,” added Slaney.

Feature release details:

  • Video call recording: Capture and unify all your video calls, meetings and voice recording on Microsoft Teams in Dubber’s infinitely scalable Voice Intelligence Cloud. Affordable and flexible plan options start as low as $39.95 (USD) per user/month, with 100GB of storage included.
  • AI-powered video: Enrich video recordings with AI to unlock best of breed Dubber AI capabilities such as intelligent keyword search, transcriptions, analytics, sentiment plus tone analysis and real-time notification and alerts.
  • Pause-resume: Users can effectively pause and resume voice and video calls on mobile and desktop. When initiated, it results in the same consistent experience across the native app as well as calls using Dual-Tone Multi-Frequency codes (DTMF).
  • On-demand: Once configured, when a call/meeting begins, it gets recorded only when the user presses the “record” button in Dubber’s app.
  • Selective recording: Allows Administrator users to select which type of calls/meetings are recorded. The following call types will be supported at launch, including the ability to record all call types.
    • Record external parties (determined by users’ tenancy) only
    • Record meetings only
    • Record PSTN only

Head to the Microsoft AppSource to get the latest control features and learn more about Dubber on Teams.

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New Microsoft Teams feature ‘Together Mode’ reduces fatigue, makes meetings more engaging

New Microsoft Teams feature ‘Together Mode’ reduces fatigue, makes meetings more engaging

Together Mode Microsoft Teams office 365 feature update

To help make virtual meetings look natural as well as encourage more engagements, Microsoft announces ‘Together Mode’ in Teams.

With Together Mode, Microsoft uses AI segmentation technology to digitally place meeting participants in a shared background. Making participants feel like they are in the same room. The feature tries to imitate a real environment so much that participants can lean over and tap each other or make eye contacts.

It doesn’t use the traditional grid boxes, instead, Microsoft is introducing new environments. Starting with an auditorium view now and hopes to roll out new views in the future.

“People can now practice some of the social signaling they would do in real life.”

Microsoft notes that focusing on other people’s faces and body language is important to human interaction. This, research shows reduces the chances of experiencing fatigue during video meetings and interactions.

Here is a video of how the feature works.

Introducing Together Mode in Microsoft Teams

Today we’re announcing a set of new features in Microsoft Teams that make virtual interactions more natural, more engaging, and ultimately, more human“, shares Jared Spataro, Corporate Vice President for Microsoft 365.

It’s all about enabling people everywhere to collaborate, to stay connected, and to discover new ways to be productive from anywhere“, he continues.

The feature comes in a set of updates that will be rolling out to the Microsoft Teams collaboration solution. Other new features are dynamic view, video filter, live reactions, Cortana in Teams, chat bubbles and suggested replies.

Check out some of the new features in action.

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How can learners and facilitators ensure a safe digital learning environment?

How can learners and facilitators ensure a safe digital learning environment?

Microsoft Education Lead for North, West, East & Southern Africa, Levant & Pakistan countries, Angela Nganga, shares on what learners and facilitators can do to ensure a safe digital learning environment as they learn.

safe digital learning environment Microsoft Teams Angela Nganga

Education is the most powerful weapon which you can use to change the world, quoted South African activist and former president Nelson Mandela. Investment in education is one of the biggest investments any country can make for its current and future generation. Currently, around 420 million people across the world would be lifted out of poverty with secondary education consequently improving the quality of life globally by more than half.

Today, as more and more people across the African continent are required to stay home due to government lockdown interventions, we are seeing a massive shift towards remote learning. This has meant the growth in the usage of collaborative tools such as Microsoft’s Teams to create virtual classrooms wherein educators can communicate with their students in real-time.

In the Middle East and Africa Emerging markets alone, over 1.5 Million students and teachers are leveraging Microsoft Teams as the remote learning platform during this period.

Through such platforms, educators can connect with and support students in much the same way they could in person with live meetings wherein they are able to show video, share presentations, and even invite external speakers for virtual field trips.

But, as students and educators move online, naturally there is an increase in the risks to security and safety. 

As we adjust to the new normal and governments take the much needed next steps towards safely re-opening the economies and adopting possible return to school strategies, blended learning will play a key role in ensuring that some of the non – essential aspects of learning that do not require face to face interaction are enabled while ensuring the online safety and security of students.

Educational institutions, therefore, need to take steps to ensure that digital learning environments are safe by setting up concrete policies and restrictions when using these tools to guard students’ safety, while also ensuring that online classrooms remain engaging and giving educators the tools they need to create a focused learning environment.

Restricting access to meetings can safeguard students

There have already been multiple occurrences around the world wherein unauthorised users have gained access to virtual classrooms. 

Just this month alone we’ve seen an online graduation ceremony interrupted with racial slurs by hackers, last month a man gained access to an online class and exposed himself and another online lecture was interrupted by playing audio of inappropriate content.

When educators set up meetings to teach students a link is created which participants can use to enter these meetings. Sharing these links online to reach students can seem like a quick and easy way to communicate with students when and how to enter live meetings but this also opens meetings up to anyone who sees the link.

To ensure the safe digital learning environment of educators and students, administrators should instead create identities (or profiles) for each student and teacher which requires them to log into the tool to join the meeting. Within Teams, administrators can thereafter choose to turn off the ability for anonymous users to join the meeting by changing it within the meeting policies.

Within meetings, educators can also make sure that all students are present in the classroom and there are no unexpected attendees by selecting “show participants” in the meeting controls giving them greater control over who is admitted into the lesson.

Managing the virtual classroom keeps students safely engaged

Educators are often required to manage students in physical classrooms to ensure good behaviour and keep students focused on learning the coursework being taught. This is required when teaching online as well.

Online classrooms introduce a new dynamic for both teachers and students alike making managing disruptions and curbing inappropriate messaging, a task which educators need to perform in new ways. Now, these disturbances can also appear in the form of unauthorised users with disruption often being their main goal.

To manage disruptions while ensuring the safety of students, administrators should limit students’ ability to schedule meetings, initiate private calls, and monitor chat sessions to remove inappropriate messaged in channel meetings. This can be done by restricting meeting roles for students within a meeting.

Educators can control the learning environment further in Teams by creating meetings for classes within specific channels which allows them to disable student-to-student chat if necessary and allows them to track class discussions in context.

Other functionalities such as being able to blur video backgrounds, mute participants, and control who can present during the meeting are key for ensuring safe learning for students with Teams.

A new world of learning

We have entered an unexpected and often challenging time where in just over a month the education landscape has completely transformed. But as we have also seen, technology is a powerful tool that can be used to overcome these challenges and sometimes even improve on functions such as learning. With technology, education can be interactive, engaging, and controlled as long as we ensure digital security to protect students and staff online.

As a way to support educational institutions as they work to ensure a safe digital learning environment, Microsoft has created a more in-depth guide to serve as a foundation to their safety plans, and thus help to give teachers, students, and parents’ peace of mind while also making learning more productive.

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Microsoft increases number of simultaneous videos in Teams meetings

Microsoft increases number of simultaneous videos in Teams meetings

Microsoft is increasing the number of participants who can be viewed simultaneously on the Teams meetings stage from four to nine. The company made the announcement introducing new features to the service.

How this works is that it will optimize for attendees who have video-enabled. It will then place the remaining audio-only participants below the meeting stage. Microsoft notes, “the layout will adapt, based on the user bandwidth and alter the number of videos shown to provide the best meeting experience“.

In addition to this, the company also announced other features. These include Raise Hands, – a feature that lets meeting participants identify they want to speak -, one on one live recording, Background effects and Background Blur for iOS.

The new capabilities will further the experience for our customers“, Microsoft says.

The new features are live and being rolled out in stages. Microsoft says it will take a few weeks if you don’t have it yet.

Microsoft Teams has seen a surge in usage since the outbreak of Covid-19 global pandemic. It currently has more than 75 million daily active users. Recording more than 200 million meeting participants in a single day in April.

In healthcare alone, CEO, Satya Nadella shared there were more than 34 million Teams meetings in the past month. In education, more than 183,000 educational institutions now rely on Teams.

Microsoft recently announced it will start allowing users without an internet connection and those with low bandwidth connectivity to read chat messages on Microsoft Teams platform.

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