Microsoft to Bring Teams Rooms to Next-Gen Surface Hub 2S
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Microsoft announced today that its Teams Rooms subscription service will be made available only on a coming second generation of the Surface Hub 2S collaboration displays.
“Surface Hub 2S will join the Microsoft Teams Rooms family,” Microsoft’s Kate Canfield announced. “When all new Surface Hubs ship with the Teams Rooms experience starting later this year, Surface Hub 2S will become the first touch-enabled board running Teams Rooms on Windows.”
Let’s see if we can figure this one out.
Microsoft launched Surface Hub 2S in 50- and 85-inch sizes in April 2019, one year before the global pandemic, but only the smaller version was made available for sale that year. And then because of that pandemic, it retrofitted Surface Hub 2S to work with Windows 10 Pro and Enterprise instead of Surface Hub OS, allowing individuals to use the device normally during a time when coworkers weren’t meeting in the same room. Then, one year ago, it announced a smart camera for Surface Hub 2S and a software update that included Whiteboard/Microsoft Teams integration.
Teams Rooms was another pre-pandemic idea. Introduced in 2019 as a replacement for Skype Rooms, Teams Rooms was originally positioned as a way to enhance Teams meetings for people who were gathered together in a room and potentially meeting with one or more others from outside the room. With the pandemic winding down in 2022, the firm introduced Teams Rooms Pro, making a Basic version available for free.
What Microsoft is announcing now is that a coming second-generation Surface Hub 2S display will include Teams Rooms functionality, which will require enterprises to pay a per-month fee. It will achieve feature parity with Teams Rooms on Windows PCs, and will include the latest Teams Rooms features like Front Row and chat. And it will still support hybrid meeting capabilities, including multi-person Whiteboard usage.
Given the age of the existing Surface Hub 2S, one might naturally wonder about support. Here, Microsoft says only that Surface Hub 2S machines that were migrated to Windows 10 will be supported with security updates and critical fixes through October 14, 2025. That new Teams Rooms experience will only be available to 2nd generation Surface Hub 2S devices.