In short: Microsoft Teams Rooms are certified meeting room systems for Teams, running on Windows or Android with a touch console, plus Teams panels outside the room. Each room needs Teams Rooms Basic, free for up to 25 rooms, or Teams Rooms Pro, which adds enhanced meetings, advanced management and security and includes Teams Phone Standard for calls.
What Teams Rooms is
Microsoft Teams Rooms is Microsoft's platform for meeting rooms. A certified room system runs a dedicated Teams experience on a resource account, not a person's login, so it is always ready for the next meeting. People join with one touch from the room console, by proximity from their laptop, or with a meeting ID.
Rooms work with the rest of Teams: they appear in Outlook and Teams for booking, show content shared from laptops, and can join meetings hosted on other platforms through Microsoft's Direct Guest Join. With the right licence and a PSTN option, a room can also make and receive phone calls using Microsoft Teams Phone.
Room system types
| Type | What it is | Typical rooms |
|---|---|---|
| Teams Rooms on Windows | A compute module with a touch console, plus certified cameras, microphones and speakers | Medium and large meeting rooms and boardrooms |
| Teams Rooms on Android | An all-in-one video bar or system with a touch console, connected over IP or USB | Small and medium rooms |
| Surface Hub | A large interactive screen that Microsoft counts as a Teams Rooms system | Collaboration and whiteboarding spaces |
| Teams panels | Small touch screens mounted outside the room for booking and room status | Any bookable room, including BYOD rooms |
| BYOD rooms | Rooms where people connect their own laptop to the room's camera and audio by USB | Focus and huddle rooms |
We describe devices generically and recommend specific equipment after looking at room size, layout and acoustics.
Teams Rooms Basic vs Teams Rooms Pro
Microsoft licenses each room system with one of two licences:
| Teams Rooms Basic | Teams Rooms Pro | |
|---|---|---|
| Cost | Free | Paid per room: ask us for a quote |
| Limit | Up to 25 rooms; one room system per licence | No limit |
| Meetings | One-touch join, ad hoc meetings, content sharing, whiteboard, video gallery | Adds front row, large gallery, dual screens, meeting chat, intelligent audio and video, multi-camera |
| Calling | Peer-to-peer and group Teams calls | Adds Teams Phone Standard for phone calls, and end-to-end call encryption |
| Management | Enrolment, inventory and automatic updates in the Pro Management Portal | Adds remote configuration, health alerts, device analytics and ITSM integration |
| Security | Secure operating system and system-level security | Adds Intune, Entra ID P1, Defender for Endpoint Plan 2 and Conditional Access |
| Panels | Not licensed for Teams panels | Can license Teams Rooms systems and Teams panels |
Microsoft positions Pro for medium and large organisations, and for smaller ones with more rooms or advanced needs. Older Teams Rooms Standard and Premium licences can be used until they expire, after which Microsoft recommends moving to Pro; legacy licences do not convert automatically.
Phone calls from meeting rooms
Teams Rooms Pro includes Teams Phone Standard, so a room can dial a phone number or receive calls on its own number once you add a PSTN option. Microsoft's guidance is that a room's resource account should only carry the Teams Rooms licence plus any licences needed for calling, such as a Calling Plan.
Your options for the room's phone connection are the same as for users: a Teams Calling Plan, Operator Connect or Teams Direct Routing, including Forever Teams. Meeting dial-in for remote attendees is provided by Audio Conferencing on the organiser's licence.
Teams Rooms and Teams Shared Space
Two licences cover shared spaces, and Microsoft keeps them separate:
- Teams Rooms Basic or Pro is for certified Teams Rooms systems. Microsoft says Shared Space licences do not work on Teams Rooms devices.
- Microsoft Teams Shared Space (named Teams Shared Devices before April 2026) covers common area phones, Teams panels in BYOD rooms and desk docks for bookable desks. One Shared Space licence can also enable Shared Space - Single Space licences for further bookable desks or BYOD rooms.
So a typical office might have Teams Rooms Pro in its boardroom, Shared Space on the panel outside a BYOD huddle room, and Shared Space on the kitchen phone. See Teams phones for the phone side.
Planning a Teams Rooms rollout
A good room is about more than the box on the table:
- Survey each room: size, seating, screens, acoustics, cabling and network points.
- Choose Windows, Android or BYOD for each room, and decide where panels help.
- Pick Basic or Pro per room. Basic covers up to 25 room systems; choose Pro for more rooms, remote management or Teams Phone calling.
- Create resource accounts, licences and booking policies in Microsoft 365.
- Add a PSTN option for rooms that need phone calls.
- Install, test with real meetings and train staff on one-touch join.
Contact us for a Teams Rooms plan and quote.
Why choose your cloud phone system with Forever Systems
We are vendor-neutral. Forever Group supplies and supports several cloud phone platforms, so we recommend the one that fits how your organisation works rather than the one we happen to sell.
- Side-by-side comparison of hosted 3CX, Microsoft Teams Phone, Forever UC, Forever Teams and Webex Calling for your users
- Contact centre and call recording options matched to your call volumes and CRM
- Number porting, handsets and set-up handled for you, including the move off analogue and ISDN lines
- Connectivity checked so call quality is right from day one
- UK support for moves, adds, changes and faults
- For BT Cloud Voice, see our BT Business Partner site cloudvoice.cloud
We work with businesses, schools, charities and public sector organisations. We do not sell consumer phone services.
Want a vendor-neutral cloud phone system comparison and quote?
Tell Forever Systems what you need and we will come back to you by email with options, not a hard sell.
Contact usFrequently asked questions
Is Microsoft Teams Rooms Basic free?
Yes. Microsoft provides Teams Rooms Basic at no extra cost for up to 25 Teams Rooms systems. Each licence covers one room system, and you still add it through the Microsoft 365 admin centre. Rooms beyond 25 need Teams Rooms Pro.
What is the difference between Teams Rooms Basic and Pro?
Basic covers core meetings, content sharing and basic management. Pro adds enhanced meeting experiences such as front row and dual screens, advanced remote management and analytics, security features including Intune and Entra ID P1, and Teams Phone Standard for phone calls.
Can a Teams Room make phone calls?
Yes, with Teams Rooms Pro, which includes Teams Phone Standard, plus a PSTN option such as a Calling Plan, Operator Connect or Direct Routing assigned to the room's account.
What licence does a Teams panel need?
A Teams panel can be licensed with Teams Rooms Pro, or with a Microsoft Teams Shared Space licence when it is used for a BYOD room. Teams Rooms Basic does not cover panels.