Logitech Rally Bar + Mini Zoom Rooms - Microphone and video issues when connecting to Teams meetings

[TonyFZ]

We have around 25 Rally Bars + Mini's around Europe, and we are running the latest CollabOS/firmware.

They are all configured with a Zoom Room licence, and many users use the Teams Direct Guest connect feature. Since we bought the units we've had on and off issues when connecting to Teams meetings, like the microphone not working or the video freezing on one frame or generally terrible quality.

Firmware updates don't seem to help much and it feels as it's got worse since the last update. I've logged tickets with Logitech and just don't seem to get anywhere with them. They ask the usual (factory reset etc. etc.) but nothing really improves it.

A reconnect will sometimes get the microphone working or the video might then work for a bit, then might freeze and stay frozen.

Zoom meetings work perfectly.

Is anyone else having these same issues? Maybe there are settings we can make to improve this or network changes?

Thank you

Tony

[newl]

Hi @TonyFZ,

I also use Logitech Rally Bars, Meetups and RoomMates to service a large university campus with Zoom Rooms.

I wish I could give you a soild answer but, we have paired it down to one of a couple possibilities:

#1 - Zoom's implementation that allows Teams Guest/Teams Rooms to connect.

I don't really feel that this is the issue, I'm not giving Zoom a pass but when hosting/attending meetings with other meeting services like WebEx, GoToMeeting, or Google Meet; we do not have the issues presented when interfacing with a Teams meeting.

#2 - It is NOT a hardware issue.

We have a large number of other rooms, outfitted with various manufacturers, cameras, microphones and computers, all running Zoom Rooms with various versions of the Zoom Rooms client and we are experiencing the same issue in those rooms with Teams.

#3 - Teams/Teams Room Configuration

We have a course where a Zoom Room (Meetup+Mac Mini) connects to a Teams meeting and has NO ISSUES!!

After digging in a bit, the institution that is hosting the Teams meeting has an world-class IT team and is fully entrenched in running their enterprise operation using Microsoft. Bottom-line we suspect that many of the issues (audio/video) are related to how Teams is setup. 

#4 - Network Connection / Bandwidth / Internet Congestion

This is kind of a no-brainer, but honestly, it comes up a lot more than it should with situation like this. It is not uncommon to have smaller organizations connected to the Internet with a consumer cable modem, which limits the ability to maintain normal Internet connectivity while a Teams meeting is taking place. We have also seen folks trying to run a large meeting while connected to a Wi-Fi network that is heavily congested, or they are VERY far from the WiFi AP and then they wonder why their meeting quality is poor.

I know these aren't "answers" but I figured I'd weigh in with our experiences with the hope that this provides some insight with what you are seeing, maybe other Zoom Community members will find this information valuable as well.

Cheers!

[TonyFZ]

Thank you for your reply @newl - That's great feedback.

I often find that performing a Teams test where there are only two participants (one being yourself), it tends to not be that bad, but we find that when there are multiple participants, it really struggles.

I'm also sure it's way worse since the last update, which I believe contained a new version of the Teams client. Previous to this version, the Teams client used to have a black background, now it has a white background.

I don't think it's bandwidth, our Zoom meetings never struggle, however, I have a spare unit and I might connect it up to one of our 1gb internet connection and do some testing.

I'll report back with any findings. I've also logged 'another' ticket with Logitech, but I'm not holding my breath.

Should you have any progress, please also share your experiences,

Thank you

Tony