Microsoft Team Conference Calls Now Support Spatial Audio

Microsoft Teams has introduced a new feature of ‘Spatial Audio’ on its platform to enhance user experience on its video conferencing platform. The feature of spatial audio is introduced to improve communication and enhance the audio and video conferencing experience. It aims to replicate the feel of an in-person conversation by separating the voices of participants based on their spatial positions which will provide a more natural auditory experience.

Microsoft Teams users can now access the Spatial Audio feature through Microsoft Teams’ desktop applications and enable it in the settings menu. With the help of spatial audio in Microsoft Teams, participants' perceived audio positions will match their corresponding video representations. The feature is beneficial as it will make it easier for users to track the active speaker when multiple speakers are involved. This will automatically reduce meeting fatigue and cognitive strain during the meeting. In order to illustrate how spatial audio works and what kind of impact it poses Microsoft has also provided a demo video.

How to set up spatial audio before the Teams meeting?

In order to set up spatial audio before starting a Microsoft Teams meeting, given steps need to be followed:

• Open Settings and more
• Go to Devices
• Select your compatible device under Speaker in the Audio Devices section
• Turn On the Spatial Audio

After following the given steps these changes will be automatically saved and applied to all future Teams meetings.

How to set up spatial audio in the Teams meetings?

In order to set up spatial audio in the meeting given steps need to be followed:

• Go to Teams calendar
• Select the meeting you would like to join
• Select Device settings before you join the meeting
• Select your compatible device, under Speaker
• Turn on the Spatial Audio

It is to be noted that this feature requires a device capable of stereo audio, such as a wired headset or stereo-equipped laptop. Bluetooth devices are currently not compatible due to existing protocol limitations. But, Microsoft has mentioned that future LE Audio technology will support stereo enable Bluetooth devices.