The NHS has made significant investments over the years to stay better connected and increase efficiency through collaboration; NHS trusts around the United Kingdom have invested in high-quality video conferencing equipment for their meeting spaces.
Many of these consist of Cisco and other “standards” based video conferencing tools, still regarded as some of the best hardware available for reliability and inclusivity. The NHS then moved to an agreement with Microsoft, known as the N365 service. This service meant that many end users needed to find a way to dial into Microsoft Teams video meetings with the hardware they had already invested in. This requirement was only increased during the start of the coronavirus pandemic as more users became familiar with the Microsoft Teams toolset.
Cloud video interop (CVI) was set up by NHS digital; this was a tool that many trusts still use today to enable the meeting room equipment to dial into the scheduled “Teams” meetings.
NHS Digital released the following statement:
“The Teams Cloud Video Interoperability (CVI) service will be retired on 28 October 2022 at 19:00.”
This does mean that Cisco, Poly, and other non-Microsoft-based video conferencing appliances will not be able to connect to Microsoft Teams meetings from that date.
How can ISDM help?
- Perhaps an NHS trust wish to retain its existing meeting room hardware to maximise the investment made and retail until its support period is expired. Some trusts are also retaining equipment due to end user familiarity and confidence in reliability.
ISDM can:
- Supply updated licencing for their existing Cisco Room kit hardware to enable easy “one touch join” of any scheduled MS Teams meeting.
- Set up a very simple on-premise (SIP) server that lets all standards-based hardware join any MS Teams with “one touch join”.
- Install a “bring your own device” USB cable solution to the desk; this allows end users to utilise their own laptop to run and join a meeting while using the screen, camera, speakers and microphones from the in-room system.
2. Perhaps the Trust wish to move to the Microsoft native meeting room experience with fully approved Microsoft Teams Rooms hardware./
ISDM can:
- Discuss and assist with new meeting room standards as a certified Microsoft partner.
- Supply and install a full easy-to-use Microsoft Teams Room solution. This usually involves a single touch panel on the desk for “one touch join” of meetings and lots of meeting controls, including hand-up, pin participants and volume controls. The room system can run on an appliance-style Android device or kiosk mode Windows compute with USB peripherals.
