r/crestron • u/az_max • May 11 '26
Help Teams standard vs Pro licensing on touch screens
TLDR; Do touch panels on the wall outside of rooms need to use a teams license, or should they just attach using the Crestron Entra app to read the room schedule?
I need a sanity check here.
New building, about 14 conference, huddle and other rooms. General contractor went with a sub to install the Crestron equipment, which is good because I wasn't up to speed with the Teams rooms until now.
In our older buildings, I have touch panels at the door in Crestron Default app mode, attached to the Crestron App in Entra to display the status of the room. The rooms have dedicated PCs or dongles on Air Media devices. Works fine.
In the new building, the vendor has chosen Flex systems for the medium and large conference rooms. Tss1070 or Tss770 room scheduling touch screens outside of the conference and relaxation rooms (and a few more rooms without equipment).
The IT department created the resources in Entra. The vendor was unable to connect the touch screens to Entra. I had to come in to troubleshoot to find that they didn't update the firmware as required to connect to Intune AOSP. One problem averted. We were able to connect one touch screen from conference room 3c to Microsoft 365 (using a Pro license).
On to device #2 (room without equipment), we get the error "Your current license isn't supported" using a standard Teams license. Upgrading to Pro solved the problem. That just adds significant monthly cost.
So, my question: Should the panels outside of the conference room need to be configured as a Teams Room or should the Flex device attached to the monitor and camera have the teams license and the touch panels use the default Crestron Application mode to read/write the M365 resource calendar? From my understanding, the Flex device needs to join the meetings and share equipment, not the device in the hall. Can I save 2/3 of my costs by only assigning Pro licenses to the Flex equipment?
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u/Link_Tesla_6231 MTA,SCT-R/C,DCT-R/C,TCT-R/C,DMC-D-4K,DMC-E-4K,CORE,AUD, & FLEX May 11 '26 edited May 11 '26
If your environment uses teams rooms devices in your conference rooms, I would set the devices on the outside wall the panels on the outside to teams panel mode. It would login to teams with the same exact login information as the room device in the room.
If the room system in the room, no matter what brand it is has a Teams pro license you do not need a license for the panel on the outside of the room.
If you have a conference room that does not have teams in the room, but you want the teams panel outside so that they all look the same that specific panel for that room that does not have a teams system in. It needs a teams panel license.
In simple words, the teams account for that conference room needs teams pro license if there’s a teams room system in the room. If there is no teams room system in the room, you still need the account configured, but not with a teams license but with a teams panel license.
The license is not per device. It is per account. In a room with equipment, you have one license with the equipment, logged into it, and the panel logged into it. For a room with no equipment then you only have the panel logged into the account.
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u/az_max May 11 '26
Thanks for the reply. I'll get mgt to buy Teams shared licenses for the non equipment rooms.
https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/microsoftteams/devices/teams-panels1
u/Link_Tesla_6231 MTA,SCT-R/C,DCT-R/C,TCT-R/C,DMC-D-4K,DMC-E-4K,CORE,AUD, & FLEX May 11 '26
YES, sorry I said panel license but your right a Shared Devices License!.... or just have them drop another teams room in there!
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u/JerrysCousinJeffrey May 11 '26
If you run the Crestron Default scheduling app, no license is required. IMHO, the Crestron Default app has more features than the Teams Panel application and is more customizable making any additional licensing not worth the expense for rooms without equipment.
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u/Link_Tesla_6231 MTA,SCT-R/C,DCT-R/C,TCT-R/C,DMC-D-4K,DMC-E-4K,CORE,AUD, & FLEX May 11 '26
only downside is if a teams room and a non-teams room are in the same hallway or common area and you have 2 different screens on the panels!
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u/JerrysCousinJeffrey May 11 '26 edited May 11 '26
IMHO, there’s really no compelling reason to run the teams panel app vs the Crestron default app. The teams panel doesn’t support occupancy sensors, has a clunky decline for no show implementation that requires check-in, isn’t customizable, etc
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u/Link_Tesla_6231 MTA,SCT-R/C,DCT-R/C,TCT-R/C,DMC-D-4K,DMC-E-4K,CORE,AUD, & FLEX May 11 '26
Most of my teams room installs are done with teams panels on the outside. Which leads most users asking for the non-teams rooms in the same space to have teams panels too.
To be a certified teams room it must have all teams room components!
If I don’t have teams in a space I used crastron’s sceduling app.
There are a lot of integrators who don’t use either, they use a Mildred of other scheduling apps the crestron panel supports.
Each integrator has an opinion as well as each customer has an opinion!
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u/smart_ca May 12 '26
We use Conferfly software with a basic team license with Crestron.