Hello Folks,

I work with larger organizations who want to understand how they can operate more effectively and what aspects of collaboration and communications can help be improved upon.  Video conferencing is an essential component of the virtual workplace.  Video conferencing can improve our productivity, improve customer services, accelerate the decision making processes and help ensure that with remote workers who are isolated stay connected to their wider teams.  What makes selling video conferencing easier is that it often pays for itself.  ROI is observed through travel costs and improving upon wasted time traveling.  With less time spent on the motorways and on the train heading to the next big city we can help lower the overall impact to our environment.

There are free and lower cost video conferencing solutions available, however, I can’t in good faith recommend those as they don’t supply the right level of support or quality of experience.  Thankfully, the cost of Skype for Business and Microsoft Teams certified systems are dropping in price.  For example, the Logitech ConferenceCam Connect has dropped from £450 to just £223 with Amazon Prime delivery.

Many video conferencing systems are designed in a way to be permanent or semi-permanent solutions.   Because of the size and the weight of the audio and camera it is difficult to move around.  Some, like the Logitech ConferenceCam Connect, are portable, allowing people like me to take the devices to my customers to show them how easy it is to configure a huddle space.

Turn it up

One item that is often overlooked is the quality of the audio.  This includes both the incoming and outgoing audio.  Laptop speakers are never a good idea, not for one on one meetings and definitely won’t work when you’re trying to have a meeting with others in the same room sat around a conference table.

Professionally created video conference equipment often allow for multiple satellite microphone pickups, multiple base stations, and multiple display outputs.  Another consideration is the background noise, such as doors slamming, wooden heeled shoes, or meeting rooms that are noisier than yours.  Polycom have a solution called NoiseBlock which allow for the identification of the speech that is closest to the device but blocks the noise that isn’t nearby.

Never enough bandwidth

Whenever I’m investigating a new Skype for Business video deployment I always recommend a network assessment be done.  This includes the bandwidth between the video conferencing solutions but also the location of the Skype for Business users, either on-premises or cloud back end.  The last thing you want is for the experience to bee unacceptable for the end users.  If the experience is poor the equipment won’t be utilized and ultimately the investment on the video conferencing equipment will be lost.

For a modest recommendation aim for 1Mbits/sec, but it would be wise to aim for somewhere closer to 6Mbits/sec to ensure that the quality is maintained and consistent.  Again, the network should be maintained for jitter, packet loss, and overall utilization.  Microsoft state that unified communications traffic should not exceed 70% of the overall network.  Do your company a favour, keep the video conferencing solution wired.  Wireless has come a long way but Ethernet is still how it should be deployed.

Room assessment

Make sure that you complete a meeting room assessment.  Just because you have a 55 inch TV in the corner doesn’t mean that’s how it should be used.  If the room is simply a round table with a Microsoft Surface Hub it might not make for the best use for a free collaboration experience for both near and far conferencing users. Assess how the room can best be served and used for the end users in mind. Understand that exciting layouts and configuration of office furniture can be adjusted or exchanged for better collaboration.

Think about how the solutions will be booked.  Surface Hubs, Skype room systems, and some native Skype systems can be booked through Exchange natively but other meeting rooms may benefit from something like a Condeco solution.  This will help ensure that there are no interruptions or double bookings.

Hope this helps!

Jason

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I’ve started a new podcast with my fellow Office 365 MVP Steve Goodman for a regular coffee and chat about All Things 365!

Every couple of weeks, we’re getting together for a brew and chat about hot topics in the world of Microsoft 365, in particular, Office 365, EM&S and getting under the hood of the practicalities of deploying and managing Microsoft Teams, Skype for Business, Exchange Online, Azure AD and much more.

For All About 365 with Jay and Steve we have the benefit that Steve has years of experience through his UC Architects we live a total of 20 miles away from each other, so when we say we’re getting together for a coffee, we’re not kidding. Of course, we’ll be joined from time to time by friends from Microsoft and fellow MVPs – we’ll both be in Seattle this time next month – where better to get a caffeine fix and chat about tech? We tried Techspresso but the name was taken already!

In Episode One – Talking Teams, Steve and I about Teams Video conferencing. In particular, what we are interested in getting to the bottom of is – how ready is Teams to replace your room conferencing systems? What should you consider when picking Teams or Skype for Business Online for a new deployment? What are the weaknesses, and how to overcome them? You’ll find answers to these questions and more in the podcast!

You’ll find Episode One below, at our podcast site, on iTunes, Spotify, TuneIn Radio, Stitcher and you can subscribe with your favourite podcast app using the feed

The post Episode 1 – Talking Teams appeared first on Oh, Say Can UC....

Our second episode of the All About 365 podcast with my fellow Office 365 MVP Steve Goodman for a regular coffee and chat about All Things 365!

In Episode Two – Office 365 Network Performance, Steve and I talk All About Office 365 network performance. We talk where to identify problems, how to gather information, best practices for deployment and what we see in real life deployments.

You’ll find Episode Two at our podcast site, on iTunes, Spotify, TuneIn Radio, Stitcher and you can subscribe with your favourite podcast app using the feed.

Every couple of weeks, we’re getting together for a brew and chat about hot topics in the world of Microsoft 365, in particular, Office 365, EM&S and getting under the hood of the practicalities of deploying and managing Microsoft Teams, Skype for Business, Exchange Online, Azure AD and much more.

For All About 365 with Jay and Steve we have the benefit that Steve has years of experience through his UC Architects we live a total of 20 miles away from each other, so when we say we’re getting together for a coffee, we’re not kidding. Of course, we’ll be joined from time to time by friends from Microsoft and fellow MVPs.

The post Episode 2 – Office 365 Network Performance appeared first on Oh, Say Can UC....

Our third episode of the All About 365 podcast with my fellow Office 365 MVP Steve Goodman for a regular coffee and chat about All Things 365!

In  Episode three – How Windows 10 affects your Office 365 deployment, Steve and I talk All About understanding how Windows 10 will impact your Office 365 deployment. We talk about Microsoft 365 and the various versions available, what trends are being seen out in the wild, the impact of the Windows 7 deployment lifecycle, future proofing for the upcoming version of Office, where management and security is affected and of course Windows 10 autopilot.

You’ll find Episode Three at our podcast site, on iTunes, Spotify, TuneIn Radio, Stitcher and you can subscribe with your favourite podcast app using the feed.

Every couple of weeks, we’re getting together for a brew and chat about hot topics in the world of Microsoft 365, in particular, Office 365, EM&S and getting under the hood of the practicalities of deploying and managing Microsoft Teams, Skype for Business, Exchange Online, Azure AD and much more.

For All About 365 with Jay and Steve we have the benefit that Steve has years of experience through his UC Architects we live a total of 20 miles away from each other, so when we say we’re getting together for a coffee, we’re not kidding. Of course, we’ll be joined from time to time by friends from Microsoft and fellow MVPs.

The post Episode 3 – How Windows 10 affects your Office 365 deployment appeared first on Oh, Say Can UC....

Our fourth episode of the All About 365 podcast with my fellow Office 365 MVP Steve Goodman for a regular coffee and chat about All Things 365!

In  Episode four – Dealing with Mergers and Acquisitions with Teams & Office 365, Steve and I talk All About how to migrate data between Office 365 tenants.

You’ll find Episode Four at our podcast site, on iTunes, Spotify, TuneIn Radio, Stitcher and you can subscribe with your favourite podcast app using the feed.

Every couple of weeks, we’re getting together for a brew and chat about hot topics in the world of Microsoft 365, in particular, Office 365, EM&S and getting under the hood of the practicalities of deploying and managing Microsoft Teams, Skype for Business, Exchange Online, Azure AD and much more.

For All About 365 with Jay and Steve we have the benefit that Steve has years of experience through his UC Architects we live a total of 20 miles away from each other, so when we say we’re getting together for a coffee, we’re not kidding. Of course, we’ll be joined from time to time by friends from Microsoft and fellow MVPs.

The post Episode 4 – Dealing with Mergers and Acquisitions with Teams & Office 365 appeared first on Oh, Say Can UC....

Our fifth episode of the All About 365 podcast with my fellow Office 365 MVP Steve Goodman for a regular coffee and chat about All Things 365!

In  Episode five – Talking skills, Teams and delving deeper on migrations, Steve, Tony Redmon and I talk about a variety of topics ranging from skills needed for IT Pros, Teams functionality, we dig a little deeper on Episode 4’s tenant to tenant question and we chat about the possibility of a freemium option for Teams

You’ll find Episode Five at our podcast site, on iTunes, Spotify, TuneIn Radio, Stitcher and you can subscribe with your favourite podcast app using the feed.

Every couple of weeks, we’re getting together for a brew and chat about hot topics in the world of Microsoft 365, in particular, Office 365, EM&S and getting under the hood of the practicalities of deploying and managing Microsoft Teams, Skype for Business, Exchange Online, Azure AD and much more.

For All About 365 with Jay and Steve we have the benefit that Steve has years of experience through his UC Architects we live a total of 20 miles away from each other, so when we say we’re getting together for a coffee, we’re not kidding. Of course, we’ll be joined from time to time by friends from Microsoft and fellow MVPs.

The post Episode 5 – Talking skills, Teams and delving deeper on migrations appeared first on Oh, Say Can UC....

Our sixth episode of the All About 365 podcast with my fellow Office 365 MVP Steve Goodman for a regular coffee and chat about All Things 365!

In  Episode six – Talking Microsoft 365 and personal productivity with OneNote, Steve, Ståle Hansen and I discuss with how  Ståle’s helping partners roll out Microsoft 365 to organisations and talks us through how to hack your own personal productivity using OneNote.

You’ll find Episode Six at our podcast site, on iTunes, Spotify, TuneIn Radio, Stitcher and you can subscribe with your favourite podcast app using the feed.

Every couple of weeks, we’re getting together for a brew and chat about hot topics in the world of Microsoft 365, in particular, Office 365, EM&S and getting under the hood of the practicalities of deploying and managing Microsoft Teams, Skype for Business, Exchange Online, Azure AD and much more.

For All About 365 with Jay and Steve we have the benefit that Steve has years of experience through his UC Architects we live a total of 20 miles away from each other, so when we say we’re getting together for a coffee, we’re not kidding. Of course, we’ll be joined from time to time by friends from Microsoft and fellow MVPs.

The post Episode 6 – Talking Microsoft 365 and personal productivity with OneNote appeared first on Oh, Say Can UC....

Howdy Folks,

I’m working with a customer who requires being able to lock down the network to and from the Trio and VVX devices.  I’ve been trying to work with Polycom to get a definitive list of URLs, as well as IP, addresses but it seems quite hard going to obtain them.  I’ve got a pretty impressive Cisco Meraki home network so I started the network monitoring and this is what I’ve found out.

Networking Reports

For the VVX

For the Trio:

What makes up the group Windows Office365 according to Meraki.

What can we understand about the above, the VVX hadn’t been online in a while so we know that the downloads.polycom.com was me updating the devices. Anything running from 192.168.0.* is from my internal network while I was doing device configuration.

We saw late last year that Microsoft are simplifying the required IP addresses and ports: https://techcommunity.microsoft.com/t5/Skype-for-Business-Blog/Simplified-port-requirements-for-Skype-for-Business-Online/ba-p/77094  

We also know that the required URLs for the client are outlined on: https://support.office.com/en-us/article/Office-365-URLs-and-IP-address-ranges-8548a211-3fe7-47cb-abb1-355ea5aa88a2?ui=en-US&rs=en-US&ad=US&fromAR=1#bkmk_lyo

The current list of IP addresses utilised by Skype for Business Online for IPv4 is:

13.67.180.128/32
13.70.151.216/32
13.71.127.197/32
13.75.126.169/32
13.72.245.115/32
13.73.1.120/32
13.76.241.210/32
13.78.94.7/32
13.79.153.60/32
13.89.240.113/32
13.91.252.242/32
13.95.234.10/32
13.107.3.0/24
13.107.8.0/24
13.107.64.0/18
23.97.78.16/32
23.99.101.118/32
23.99.112.73/32
23.99.113.163/32
23.99.121.38/32
23.101.61.176/32
23.101.112.170/32
23.101.151.89/32
23.103.176.128/26
23.103.176.192/27
23.103.178.128/26
23.103.178.192/27
40.69.45.108/32
40.74.62.125/32
40.78.146.128/32
40.83.17.24/32
40.83.124.144/32
40.84.28.125/32
40.115.1.44/32
40.117.145.132/32
40.122.44.96/32
40.123.43.195/32
40.127.129.109/32
40.127.169.165/32
51.140.62.120/32
51.140.79.167/32
51.140.126.38/32
51.140.143.149/32
51.140.155.234/32
51.141.28.50/32
51.141.42.151/32
51.141.49.0/32
51.141.51.76/32
52.112.0.0/14
52.163.60.30/32
52.163.126.215/32
52.163.225.1/32
52.165.150.215/32
52.165.238.202/32
52.166.61.83/32
52.170.21.67/32
52.172.185.18/32
52.175.37.105/32
52.177.200.188/32
52.178.94.2/32
52.178.161.139/32
52.178.198.107/32
52.187.79.90/32
52.228.25.96/32
52.231.36.175/32
52.231.207.185/32
52.238.119.141/32
52.242.23.189/32
52.244.160.207/32
104.41.208.54/32
104.44.195.0/24
104.44.200.0/23
104.45.18.178/32
104.46.62.41/32
104.47.151.128/32
104.208.28.54/32
104.209.188.207/32
104.210.9.95/32
104.215.11.144/32
104.215.62.195/32
137.116.66.252/32
137.116.248.105/32
137.117.128.25/32
138.91.237.237/32
168.61.145.101/32
168.63.245.120/32

All of my media traffic appears to be going to 52.122.0.0/14 subnet.  It didn’t seem to make a difference whether I went through a PSTN conference or through a standard Microsoft Phone System, clearly, this was my media traffic was being routed to.

The one thing, however, I want to call out that I can’t find anywhere in Polycom documentation is why there was communication to/from the VVX on Port 12345.   I set up a second NIC on my Surface Pro and hooked the VVX daisy-chained and the port was only being used for BToE.

Next steps are as well to see if the VVX or the Trio are speaking to anything other than the Office 365 and Skype for Business approved URLs.

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Howdy folks!

I’ve been working on a large scale migration the last few weeks and one of the outcomes was “Can you get me an export of the phonebook, please?”

I couldn’t find an easy way of doing this so now I’ve put together this PowerShell.  You will need to connect to Skype for Business Online Module as per your normal methodology.  I have a previous post should you need any assistance with it – you can find it here 

The PowerShell you’ll need is :

Get-CsOnlineUser -Filter { EnterpriseVoiceEnabled -eq $true } | select DisplayName,UserPrincipalName,LineURI | Export-CSV -nti c:\phonebook.csv

You can change the output location to suit your needs.

The post Microsoft Teams and Skype for Business Online – Phonebook export appeared first on Oh, Say Can UC....

Howdy folks,

I’ve been a long time user of Meraki equipment and I am thoroughly thrilled to bits on how well it performs and how easy it is to configure.  One thing I have noticed while doing testing on my Microsoft Teams deployments with direct routing is that  I couldn’t see the Quality of Service, QoS, tagging being honoured by the network.  Here is how I’ve done it and I hope it helps you too.  In this post, I’ll show you how to configure a Security Appliance, Switches, and Wireless Access Points.

Before we get started on the Meraki side of things, make sure you enable QoS in Microsoft Teams.  Mark Vale has written a complete guide of enabling this within the Admin Center:  https://blog.valeconsulting.co.uk/2018/07/24/microsoft-teams-quality-of-service/  

By default, QoS is turned off on Meraki equipment.  Let’s work our way through the Meraki Dashboard and we’ll show you how to enable the Traffic Shaping and QoS functionality.

Security Appliances:

Select Security Appliance, Traffic Shaping, and then go to Traffic shaping rules.

Select the Enable default traffic shaping rules and click save.

Switches:

Go to Switch, Switch Settings, and Quality of Service

You will initially be greeted with the QoS service being turned off.

Click the Add a QoS rule for this network

We want to honour the QoS tagging on both TCP and UDP, this is a protocol of Any.

In addition, we want to Trust incoming DSCP configuration

We can view what the trusted DSCP to COS Mapping like however, this matches the Microsoft Recommendation.

Microsoft Teams QoS configuration can be found here:

https://docs.microsoft.com/en-us/microsoftteams/qos-in-teams

Finally, don’t forget to save

Wireless AP:

To enable QoS on Meraki Wireless Access Points, you will need to go to Wireless, Firewall & traffic shaping and enable

By default nothing is selected, you will need to enable traffic shaping by dropping down the Share Traffic on this SSID

Select the default Rules and drop down the Enable the default traffic shaping rules, from the drop-down.

You’ll see the required items for Teams is there, DSCP tags 46, 34, and 18.

Click Save.

Do this for all SSID that require to have the Traffic Shaping and QoS Rules applied.

Conclusion

That’s it, once this has replicated back to your equipment this should then have the correct QoS and Traffic Shaping information on your Meraki Network.

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