Microsoft Teams Room annotation or whiteboard not working with secondary touchscreen

Hi @Tim Evanow,   

Welcome to the Microsoft Q&A forum.   

Thank you very much for reaching out regarding integrating the Yealink MeetingBoard Pro as a touchscreen secondary display in your Microsoft Teams Room. I appreciate your patience and the level of detail you’ve shared in your message. 

Below is a clear and concise explanation of what’s happening, why certain features behave differently on Teams Rooms, and how to configure the system for the best experience. 

A - Quick summary 

• The MeetingBoard Pro can function as a Front‑of‑Room touch display for Teams Rooms on Windows, allowing direct interaction with Microsoft Whiteboard, as long as HDMI (video) and USB (touch) are properly connected and Windows recognizes it as a touch device.  
• Collaborative Annotations (the overlay drawing tool) cannot be started from a Teams Rooms device. This feature is only available when a desktop Teams client shares its full screen and initiates annotations. That’s why the annotation button disappears when the MTR is the sharing device. 
• To have a collaborative and saved Whiteboard, the meeting needs at least one non-Room user (a regular Teams user in the same tenant). Two Room devices alone cannot collaborate or save Whiteboard sessions. 

B - Why you saw the issue 

1/ The second display shows a cursor but stays blank 

This usually happens when either touch is assigned to the wrong display (commonly assigned to the table console instead of the MeetingBoard), or HDMI ingest is connected but not shared from the Teams Rooms console.  

2/ Annotation options disappear when the MTR joins 

This is expected behavior: 

• Only desktop clients can start Collaborative Annotations. 
• MTR cannot initiate or host the annotation overlay, regardless of display hardware. 

3/ Whiteboard doesn’t become collaborative 

Whiteboard on MTR creates a temporary session, and only becomes collaborative/savable when a regular user joins the meeting. Two Rooms devices cannot collaborate with each other.  

C - Recommended next steps 

Please follow the steps below 

1/ Verify all cabling 

• HDMI OUT (MTR compute) > HDMI IN (MeetingBoard) 
• USB‑A (MTR compute) > USB‑B/USB‑C Touch Upstream (MeetingBoard) 

2/ Assign touch to the correct screen in Windows 

1. On the MTR console > More > Settings > Windows settings 
2. Open Control Panel > Tablet PC Settings > Setup (Touch) 
3. Connect a keyboard 
4. When the prompt appears on the table console > press Enter to skip 
5. When it appears on the MeetingBoard > touch the screen to assign correctly  

3/ Ensure HDMI content is actually shared 

After plugging in HDMI: 
On the MTR console, tap Share > HDMI to display content on the Front‑of‑Room screen.  

4/ Apply recommended display settings 

• Set FoR displays to 1920×1080 @ 60Hz 
• Disable Windows sleep/hibernate for stability  

5/ Test Microsoft Whiteboard 

• Start a meeting > Share > Microsoft Whiteboard 
• Verify touch inking works on the MeetingBoard 
• Invite a regular user to convert the session into collaborative mode and allow saving  

For additional information, you can refer to these articles: 

• Whiteboard on Teams Rooms - Microsoft Teams | Microsoft Learn 
• M365 Changelog: (Updated) Collaborative Annotations on Presenter Shared Screen - Petri IT Knowledge… 
• How to configure touch input on a CommBox screen for Microsoft Teams Room (MTR) 

Please note that this information is being provided by the moderator solely for your convenience. The referenced sites are not managed or overseen by the moderator, and therefore we cannot guarantee the accuracy, security, or suitability of any software or content available there. We recommend reviewing all information carefully and ensuring you understand any associated risks before following suggestions from the provided link.   

D - Answers to your questions 

• Can the MeetingBoard Pro be used as a touchscreen for the QSC MTR solution? 
  Yes. It works very well for Microsoft Whiteboard interaction when connected correctly. 
• What configuration might be missing? 
  The most common missing step is assigning touch to the correct display inside Windows. 
  Also remember to press Share > HDMI for content to appear on the FoR screen. 
• Do I need to schedule the meeting or assign special permissions? 
  Not required. Ad-hoc meetings work fine, but you must have at least one non-Room user join to enable Whiteboard collaboration and saving. 

E - Contact Support 

If you require more in-depth guidance for these steps or if you notice unexpected behavior beyond the expected Teams Rooms limitations, I recommend contacting your organization's IT administrator, who can submit a support request to Microsoft through the Microsoft 365 Admin Center. They’ll be able to access system-level information to investigate the issue thoroughly and provide assistance. At the very least, they can offer the most effective workaround to ensure your experience remains smooth and secure.      

We kindly ask for your understanding that, as moderators, we do not have access to the administrative tools or permissions required to investigate or modify these configurations. We also do not have the capability to initiate remote sessions for direct assistance. Our role is to guide users to the appropriate resources and support channels.     

I hope this information is helpful. Should you have any further questions or need additional assistance, please feel free to reach out.      

I look forward to hearing your thoughts on this. 

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Teams Rooms on Windows supports interactive whiteboarding and in-meeting annotation only when the touch capability is presented as a supported front-of-room touch display in a certified configuration. A second all-in-one Teams device such as a Yealink MeetingBoard Pro is not supported as a generic USB/touch “sidecar” for a separate Teams Rooms compute in the way being attempted.

Key points from supported configurations:

1. Touch interaction model in Teams Rooms
   • For collaboration-focused spaces, the supported configuration is a touch board: an all-in-one device with built-in touch display, compute, and peripherals, where all meeting content and controls are on that touch display and users interact directly with it.
   • In dual-display scenarios, only one front-of-room display can be touch-enabled and must be part of a certified Teams Rooms configuration. Dual touch-enabled front-of-room displays are not tested or certified.
   • Extended displays can be touch-enabled to allow interaction with Whiteboard or other content, but this assumes a supported Teams Rooms on Windows display configuration, not another independent Teams endpoint.
2. Whiteboard behavior in Teams Rooms
   • Whiteboard in Teams meetings is available for Microsoft Teams Rooms.
   • If the room system has a standard (non-touch) display, Whiteboard is view-only.
   • Inking (annotation) is available only when the room system is equipped with a touch display that is recognized as such by the Teams Rooms system.
   • The current client also shows an “Open in App” button that does not function on Teams Rooms and will be removed; this does not affect whether inking is available.
3. Multi-device / side-of-room scenarios
   • For adding a touch board as a side-of-room device, the supported pattern is Coordinated meeting join with multiple Teams Rooms devices in the same room, each running its own supported configuration.
   • In this pattern, the touch board (for example, a Surface Hub or other certified touch device) joins the meeting as its own Teams Rooms endpoint and is used for co-creation, while the primary Teams Rooms device handles room audio/video.
   • Coordinated meeting join is supported only on Teams Rooms on Windows and each device maintains its own display configuration constraints.
4. Implications for the described setup
   • Using a Yealink MeetingBoard Pro purely as a USB/touch monitor for a separate QSC Teams Rooms compute is outside the documented, tested configurations.
   • The fact that it works as a touch display when a laptop runs Teams (BYOD scenario) does not guarantee that Teams Rooms will expose annotation/Whiteboard inking on that same hardware, because Teams Rooms enforces specific certified display and touch configurations.
   • The behavior described—extended desktop visible, mouse cursor present, but no meeting content/annotation UI and Whiteboard reverting to non-inking behavior when the room joins—is consistent with the room system treating that display as an unsupported or non-touch collaboration surface in its configuration.
5. What is supported / recommended instead
   • For a single Teams Rooms compute with touch interaction:
     • Use a certified touch board or touch front-of-room display in a supported configuration so that Teams Rooms recognizes it as the primary collaboration surface and enables inking.
   • For using a MeetingBoard or similar as a co-creation surface in the same room:
     • Configure the MeetingBoard as its own Teams Rooms/Teams endpoint and use Coordinated meeting join with the QSC Teams Rooms device, so each device participates in the meeting within its supported role.
   • For traditional whiteboards:
     • Use a content camera with intelligent capture to bring analog whiteboard content into the meeting if a touch board is not used.
6. Answers to the specific questions
   • “Should I be able to add a Yealink Meetingboard Pro as a touchscreen to this QSC Compute Teams Room bundle and use Microsoft Whiteboard and Teams annotations in the meeting?”
     Based on supported configurations, this scenario is not documented or certified. Teams Rooms expects either a certified touch front-of-room display or a separate touch board device joining as its own endpoint (for example via Coordinated meeting join), not an all-in-one Teams board repurposed as a generic touch monitor.
   • “Do I need to schedule these meetings or initiate them in a specific way or give members specific privileges?”
     Meeting scheduling or presenter privileges do not change the underlying display/touch support. Whiteboard and collaborative annotations are already enabled in policy; the limitation is the room’s hardware and display configuration, not how the meeting is started.

To achieve in-room inking and Whiteboard with this customer, use either a supported touch board configuration directly attached and certified for Teams Rooms on Windows, or configure the Yealink MeetingBoard Pro as its own Teams/Teams Rooms device and use it via Coordinated meeting join alongside the QSC room system.

References:

• Meeting room guidance for Teams
• Use Whiteboard in Teams meetings for Microsoft Teams Rooms