It’s the 132nd Practical 365 podcast and Paul and I can’t believe it’s taken this long to get Michel De Rooij, one of my fellow co-hosts of The UC Architects (2012-2017) to join us as a guest on the show. He’s with us for the whole show, and in the second half of the episode, we talk more about his new Practical PowerShell column. And of course, we talk about the biggest news of the last few weeks in the world of Microsoft 365 with a bit of depth and a bit of banter.
Automatic Camera Switching, Multiple Views, and Improved Joining Options Elevate Teams Rooms Experiences
At Enterprise Connect 2024, Microsoft announced a series of updates and new features for Teams Rooms with an aim to foster more inclusive and seamless hybrid meeting experiences.
One of the key improvements is automatic camera switching for IntelliFrame, which uses cloud-based AI to identify the optimal camera feed for remote attendees (as we suggested a while ago, here). The new multiple-camera view feature gives remote users the ability to manually toggle between different perspectives in the meeting space, such as the presenter and the audience.
To allow for more accurate attribution of comments and questions in meeting transcripts Microsoft is expanding speaker recognition capabilities to existing microphones in Teams Rooms, something that’s fairly overdue – much like intelligent cameras, the intelligent speaker ranges didn’t really take off, so why not move it to the cloud. No doubt this is in response to feedback from Copilot customers who’ll really benefit from the improved attribution.
Microsoft also introduces ultrasound proximity join and QR code scanning from mobile devices for meeting join and is enhancing Teams Rooms on both Windows and Android platforms. The Windows version is getting a redesigned Teams app with improved performance, while the Android variant will align its home screen with the Windows experience and add support for 4K HDMI content sharing.
To strengthen security and privacy, Microsoft is enabling the option to require a meeting ID and passcode to join a Teams Room and introducing new capabilities to ensure all panels in large meeting spaces stay synchronized.
Finally, the company is expanding its shared spaces solutions, including bring-your-own-device (BYOD) rooms and bookable desks. These offerings provide IT teams with greater visibility and control over their hybrid work environments while delivering seamless collaboration experiences for users.
While we talked about it last time (and on the show a little today), Microsoft also announced advanced noise suppression for calls and meetings, meaning only you will be heard when you speak rather than other people chatting around you.
Read more at Teams Rooms and Devices: Enterprise Connect 2024 – Microsoft Community Hub and Voice isolation in Microsoft Teams enables personalized noise suppression for calls and meetings – Microsoft Community Hub
Not an April Fool: High Volume Email for Exchange Online?
Microsoft has announced the public preview launch of the High Volume Email (HVE) service for Exchange Online, which aims to support line-of-business applications and other use cases that require sending large volumes of internal emails, going beyond the existing outbound message limits in Exchange Online.
During the public preview period, Microsoft is rolling out HVE to all worldwide customers, with the initial endpoint located in the North American region. The company plans to launch additional regional endpoints in the coming months.
For the preview, Microsoft is offering HVE accounts at no cost, but with a limit of 100,000 recipients per day per tenant. These limits are expected to be expanded when the service reaches general availability. Admins will also be able to set their own volume thresholds on a per-account basis to control costs.
One key difference from regular Exchange Online mailboxes is that the HVE accounts will use a dedicated SMTP endpoint (smtp-hve.office365.com) and SMTP Basic Authentication, rather than the standard recipient and message rate limits. This is intended to provide the necessary flexibility for high-volume internal messaging scenarios.
The public preview of HVE includes an admin experience in the Exchange admin center to manage the HVE accounts, as well as a reporting tool to track usage. During this initial phase, customers will be able to create up to 20 HVE accounts per tenant.
Microsoft emphasized that while HVE is designed to enable higher internal messaging volumes, the existing recipient rate limits will still apply to all outbound and internal messages sent from regular user mailboxes. The HVE limits are intended to be separate from and not cumulative to those standard limits.
Read more at Public Preview: High Volume Email for Microsoft 365 – Microsoft Community Hub
This Week’s guest – Michel De Rooij, Microsoft MVP
Long-time Microsoft MVP and fellow Practical 365 writer, Michel De Rooij joins us to talk about his new Practical PowerShell series.
Michel aims to assist part-time PowerShell developers with practical examples to enhance their scripting skills, focusing on readability and understandability rather than theoretical arguments on code style. The series intends to cover essential topics like functions, flow control, and script self-containment, targeting readers with some PowerShell knowledge and experience with Microsoft 365 PowerShell modules.
In Michel’s first Practical PowerShell article, Michel highlights how PowerShell scripts can be improved for administrators who often take on developer-like roles. He discusses the need for effective error handling and logging in scripts, and the advantages of tools like GitHub Copilot for code validation while stressing the requirement for administrators to have certain skills to use such tools well.
In the next article, Michel explores the details of PowerShell functions and parameterization. He shows how to create reusable code through functions, improve scripts with advanced function features, and use script blocks for initialization and cleanup.
Michel highlights the importance of strict typing for parameters and gives advice on making PowerShell scripts more reliable and user-friendly. The article serves as a guide for writing effective PowerShell scripts that use functions and parameters to simplify tasks and processes. Check out his first 2 installments below:
Welcome to Practical PowerShell | Practical365
Practical PowerShell: Functions & Parameterization | Practical365
On the Show Next Time:
I’ll be back with Rich Dean, and we’re excited to be joined on the show by Microsoft’s Alex Weinert, who is back for his second appearance on the podcast, this time to discuss Identity Threat Detection and Response (ITDR). Plus we’ll be covering all the top Microsoft 365 news, along with a few cyber-security topics too.
