Microsoft Teams conference calls will now support spatial audio

Microsoft has updated its video-conferencing platform Teams with a new feature to improve the user experience. The tech giant has added spatial audio to the collaborative tool to improve communication and reduce meeting fatigue in audio and video conferences. This feature will try to mimic an in-person conversation by spatially separating the voices of individual meeting participants. Microsoft claims that this will result in a more natural listening experience.

Microsoft Teams Spatial Audio: Availability and how to setup
The Spatial Audio feature is generally available on the Microsoft Teams desktop apps and can be enabled by going to the settings menu. Here, users will get the “Devices to turn on spatial audio” option to enable or disable the feature.

However, users will need a stereo-capable device such as a wired headset or a stereo-capable laptop to access the feature. Bluetooth devices are currently not supported due to protocol limitations. The company has confirmed that the next-generation LE Audio will support stereo-enabled Bluetooth devices.

How Spatial Audio will work in Microsoft Teams
Spatial Audio in Microsoft Teams will align the perceived audio location of each participant with their video representation to make it easier for users to track who is speaking. This will also help users to understand better when multiple speakers are simultaneously speaking and will also lower meeting fatigue and cognitive load. The company has also shared a demo video to showcase the difference spatial audio can make.

Importance of Spatial Audio in Teams
In a blog post, Microsoft says that creating realistic and engaging audio and video experiences that simulate dynamic real-world scenarios is challenging. The company explains that users rely on binaural hearing (using both ears) to help identify and distinguish the sources of sounds in the physical world. However, most audio and video communication apps only offer monophonic audio where speech signals from different participants are transmitted in a single audio channel. This removes the spatial context that human minds can already anticipate.

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