Using Teams at the office

The network at our offices may struggle to support video conferencing in Microsoft Teams. This could result in poor video and audio quality when you participate in Teams meetings while at a Parks Canada office.

To help with this situation, we are working with Shared Services Canada to make some critical upgrades to our network. We are also enabling Teams video meetings in our boardrooms, deploying Teams on mobile devices, and adding some WiFi hotspots in National Office (30 Victoria).

Until our network is upgraded, here are some pointers to keep in mind when using Teams at the office - and on the go.

Using Teams on your desktop

• Turn off your camera and switch to audio only. Or only turn on your camera when it's your turn to speak. (Video can use up to 10 times the bandwidth of audio.)
• Turn off incoming video feeds. From the Teams meeting window, select the three-dots icon. A menu appears. Select Turn off incoming video.
• If you are still having connection issues, you may want to use your mobile device to attend a Teams meeting while at the office. You should change a setting in your Teams mobile app to reduce the amount of data used in video calls and meetings - see below.

Using the Teams mobile app

• Join a meeting using the Teams mobile app on your smartphone (you can only do this on a Parks Canada-issued device).
• We recommend you turn off the camera and use audio only. Or only turn on your camera when it's your turn to speak. Important: Change your settings (accessible only on the Parks Canada network) in the Teams mobile app to optimize data.
• You can seamlessly switch from your phone to your computer (and vice-versa) without leaving a Teams meeting.
• It may be easier for you to dial in to a Teams meeting rather than attend using the desktop or mobile app.

Dialling in to a Teams meeting

• Dial the regional number provided in the meeting invite.
• We will be providing a toll-free dial-in option for Teams meetings soon.

Using Teams in a boardroom

Use your boardroom for Teams meetings (especially large Teams meetings). Most of our boardrooms our equipped for Teams meetings.

Making calls in Teams

Calls are a quick way to connect in Teams. You can have one-on-one calls or calls with several people.

• Turn a chat into a call - use the Video or Audio buttons in the chat.
• Use the Calls feature - here you can see your call history, search for a colleague and call them, or make a call from your contacts.

Don't forget the phone!

On the odd occasion, you might be best off picking up the good old smartphone for smaller meetings and calls.