Sennheiser TeamConnect Intelligent Speaker

General

The Sennheiser TeamConnect Intelligent Speaker (TC ISP for short) is a USB speakerphone for small to medium-sized conference rooms. It has both microphones and speakers and, as a unique selling point, offers the ability to identify up to ten speakers in a meeting room and transcribe them live in combination with Microsoft Teams. Furthermore, integration with Cortana is available.

Technical sheet

Seven Beamforming-Microphone-Array
Connectivity: USB-A
Microsoft Teams certified
Capacitive mute button
LED Ring for status display
Dimensions: 128,3 x 56,3 mm
Weight: 469 g

Box contents

Sennheiser TC ISP
Power & Data Box
AC adapter
Quick guide
Regional adapter
Desk mounting accessories
Adhesive pads

Installation

The Sennheiser TC ISP is connected to the computer via the included and fixed USB-A cable and supplied with power via Power & Data Box. Unfortunately, the device can only unfold its function as a hands-free device under Windows: Under Linux, only a speaker is recognized, but not the microphone array.

In the list of Windows recording devices, three devices are displayed after connection (see image on the right).

There is a dedicated microphone for Cortana functions and a "normal" one with echo cancellation called "UAC2_TEAMS".

In a conversation with Sennheiser, it turned out that the bottom device is currently not used despite permanent full noise (but at the same time no transmission of speech), but possibly in a future update.

Test

Features

The TC ISP works as a hands-free device without any problems, but the unique feature of live transcription with speaker identification is only possible with Microsoft Teams. You still need a Teams Rooms license to unlock this feature. No Teams Rooms license was available at the time of testing, so no statement can be made about this functionality.

According to Sennheiser, the recognition of the people works via a prior voice recording, in which each person has to speak individually in advance.

Also, voice control via Cortana has not been testable due to privacy settings of the Windows version used.

LED Anzeigen

When connected and not in use, the ring lights up white. If you are in a team call, the ring turns green and signals that it is ready for operation or that sound is already being transmitted from the microphone.

Touching the button with the crossed-out microphone mutes it.

Experiences

There was basically nothing to complain about in the tests at the VCC. The somewhat unintuitive playback device list and the complete microphone failure under Linux are a bit unpleasant at first, but ultimately things you can live with.

Only the capacitive mute button was not as responsive as we are used to and occasionally had to be pressed several times to mute the microphone.

Bottom line

This rather specific product from Sennheiser has a very clear use case: meetings for up to 10 people in a smaller meeting room or huddleroom, where Microsoft Teams is paired with a Microsoft Teams Rooms license and which also uses live transcription with speaker identification.

For this usecase, the device is designed and does its job (presumably, see above) very well.

For all other use cases, which deviate from the outlined, this device is technically capable, but simply uneconomical since there are products with comparable performance characteristics for a fraction of the price on the market.

The bottom line, therefore, is that if your scenario is identical, or at least very similar, to the one described, then we can make a recommendation for the Sennheiser TeamConnect Intelligent Speaker.

If not, look around for any other products.