This post is part of the overall MS-700 Exam Study Guide. Links to each topic as they are posted can be found here.
One of the most valuable aspects of Teams to end users is the Teams meeting functionality. Particularly over the past few years when hybrid working has become essential, Teams meetings help people to keep in touch and remain productive while working remotely. In this post we look at how admins can control Teams meeting settings and policies. The areas covered are:
- Configure meeting settings
- Create and manage meeting policies
- Create and manage conference bridges
- Configure live events settings
- Create and manage live events policies
Configure meeting settings
Meeting settings are organization-wide settings that control global configuration items for Teams meetings. The majority of Teams meeting functions are controlled by policies and can be targeted to specific user groups but for these settings they must be defined at the top level.
From here, the following settings (Shown in Figure 1) are controlled:
- Anonymous users can join a meeting – Defines if users can join Teams meetings anonymously. If this is enabled, anyone with a link to a Teams meeting can join anonymously.
- Anonymous users can interact with apps in meetings – Defines if anonymous users, once in the meeting can interact with Teams apps
- Email invitation customization – Defines custom Logos, URLs and footers for organizational Teams meeting invites
- Network – Defines QoS settings if required (more on this topic here)
Create and manage meeting policies
Different to Teams meeting settings, meeting policies control aspects of Teams meetings that are available to users and can be targeted at specific users and groups. Teams policies are assigned in the same way as any other Teams policy and are created and configured from the Teams Admin Center (TAC) under Meetings -> Meeting Policies.
Each meeting policy contains the following areas for configuration:
- General – Controls basic Teams meeting settings such as the ability to book meetings, channel meetings and the meet now functionality. Also controls the Webinar and Engagement Reports functionalities
- Audio & Video – Controls the level of functionality available to end users. Also controls broadcasting and media bit rate settings
- Recording & Transcription – Controls the availability of recording and transcription functions
- Content Sharing – Controls the sharing functionality available such as PowerPoint live, Whiteboard and screen sharing
- Participants & Guests – Controls what functionality is available to Guests for meetings created by users targeted by this policy including automatic admittance settings and anonymous join (if allowed in the meeting settings)
Create and manage conference bridges
Conference bridges are available to users with Dial-in Conferencing licenses. In the conference bridge section of the TAC, the existing conference bridge numbers are listed. From here, you can modify the conference bridge settings (Figure 2) to control the behavior of conference bridges for dial-in conferencing.
After acquiring a toll or toll-free Service Number you can also add it to your conference bridges using the Add function. This allows you to assign a dedicated bridge number.
To update the default shared number for a user to use a new service number, you can run the command Set-CsOnlineDialInConferencingUserDefaultNumber
Configure live events settings
Live events allow users to stream an event or meeting to a large audience without having to try invite them to a large meeting. Live events are designed to cater to large audiences which don’t work well with regular meetings. For example, a Live event can support up to 20,000 attendees with the option to increase this limit using the Microsoft 365 live events assistance program.
In addition to the larger audience, Live events strip out much of the functionality available to attendees as it is not desirable in a webinar type situation.
Live events, like meetings are configured using a combination of global settings and user policies.
From the TAC, the Meetings -> Live events settings section controls the Live event support URL and allows for the configuration of a supported software defined network (SDN) provider, allowing for large scale optimization of content. distribution
Create and manage live events policies
Live events policies are targeted to users in the same way as meeting policies and define the functionality available. The settings available to control in Live events policies are:
- Live events scheduling – Controls if a user can use live events in Teams
- Transcription for attendees – Controls if transcription is available for Live even attendees
- Who can join scheduled live events – Controls who inside and outside the organization can join scheduled live events
- Record an event – Controls the recording functionality for live events
Summary
Teams meetings are a critical function for many organizations and the functionality can be customized using the policies and settings described here. It’s definitely worth getting these settings right before deploying Teams if possible as changing how meetings work after users have started can be quite disruptive.
Sean McAvinue 