Learning Centre

Solution Accelerators

Workplace+ Solution Accelerator

Set up MeetingRoom365 platform with the Workplace+ Solution Accelerator

Book or release a meeting room automatically with the Workplace+ Solution Accelerator devices and display the environmental parameters.

Introduction

Did you ever go to the meeting room only to found out that it’s booked and you lost your precious time for good? I don’t say walking in this story is to be ignored, au contraire! - it’s good to stretch your legs and rest your mind for a while. But the time when you've been looking for a place to sit down and do an online meeting could be used better, giving you and the other side a sense of success and desired outcomes of the meeting.

We have investigated several cases in this regard and found a partner who easily integrates your displays (TV, PC/laptop, Tablet, Smartphone) with already existing office365 account and your Google, Exchange or Outlook calendars. Isn’t that exactly needed to look upon when walking towards the meeting room? Let alone the option that you can remotely see if the meeting room is booked at the given time, along with the temperature, humidity and CO2 levels for the environmental comfort. Now, you can improve your meeting management and more important, to use your precious time as much constructively as possible.

Covered in this article

Who is MeetingRoom365?
Integrate office365 with meetingroom365
Using an ALSO IoT ground with WP+ Elsys devices to feed data to Meetingroom365
Configure sensors to free up meeting reservations
Feed environmental data to meetingroom365

Who is MeetingRoom365?

Meetingroom365 is a company that delivers a meeting display software solution for your office. It is affordable, easy to setup and use. Meetingroom365 can be integrated with Microsoft Office365, Exchange and Google calendars.

This solution comes as a SaaS model based on a monthly subscription per display. Displays can run on most popular tablets, smartphones and PC’s. To cover your needs, they support both iOS and Android.

Meetingroom365 Features:

Instant reservations
Extend meetings
End meetings early
Room finder
Report room issues
Message banners
Your own logo
Dynamic background
and more!

Integrate office365 with meetingroom365

As mentioned, the MeetingRoom365 displays are fully compatible with your Office 365 suite. Here is the list what you need to do for the full integration:

Create the Room Resource Mailboxes in Office 365
Create the meeting room (or any other common area) display in Meeting Room 365
Visualise, monitor and enhance the behaviour of your display

Below is the tutorial that shows the first two step and create your first display when the office365 and meetingroom365 are properly integrated.

Furthermore, here is a guide to help you set up your first meeting rooms for Office 365 in the meetingroom365 platform. Also, we provide you with the full tutorial how to create a Resource Mailbox in your office365, needed to link that room and present it at your display.

NOTE: for creating a resource mailbox and a dedicated room, you have either to be an Admin or contact your admin of the office365 account for this integration.

Here are the links for two other integration that you can use with the meetingroom365:

Workplace+ Solution Accelerator

In the first part of the article and the integration between office365 and meetingroom365, manual reservation was needed to get your room booked at a desired time. But to get this solution on the higher scale, we implemented our Workplace+ Solution Accelerator devices and ALSO IoT Platform with the meetingroom365 displays and created even more competitive offering for the shared workspaces on the market.

By implementing ALSO IoT Platform and Workplace+ Solution Accelerator devices, we implemented the automatic booking or releasing any meeting area, which can be easily presented on any display.

The first use-case is about feeding the data from WP+ SA devices towards meetingroom365. We use the “occupation” sensor data forwarded from the Eye Device placed in our meeting room. This will allow us either to book or free up meeting rooms depending on the device’s measurements data.

A second use-case is to feed environmental data such as temperature, humidity and CO2 levels of the meeting room or any other area of choice, so that attendees and/or facility managers can have a view on the environmental conditions of the meeting rooms.

Use case 1: Configure sensors to free up meeting reservations

1. Choose the BEHAVIOR tab

Go to manage.meetingroom365.com and enter the Edit mode of your display. Set all the parameters as shown on the image below.

2. In the HARDWARE tab, enable “Receive IFTTT Events”

3. Create a webhook In your ALSO IoT Ground

Go to the ALSO IoT Platform , enter your Ground and go to Rules on the left sidebar, to create one. This will trigger data going from ALSO platform to the the meetingroom365 display when presence is detected in the meeting room ("occupancy" > 0).

1. use a Device’s asset data “occupancy” to create a trigger (in this example it’s a Desk device)
2. drag the COMPARISON tile to the ACTIONS tile
  1. set the comparison of “occupancy” sensor <> 0
3. Drag the WEBHOOK tile to the “YES” tile below the comparison
  1. select the GET webhook and paste the URL from the IFTTT event in your meeting room (such as https://ifttt.meetingroom365.com/motion?key=deviceId)
  2. NOTE: deviceID is the “Display Key” under Edit Display Configuration screen in the display settings
4. Click on CREATE RULE

Use-case 2: Feed environmental data to meetingroom365

1. Create a webhook in your ALSO IoT Ground

1. Use the CO2, Humidity and Temperature device assets to create a TRIGGER
2. Drag the WEBHOOK tile to the ACTIONS tile
  1. Add a Webhook (POST) which points to https://states.mr365.co/displaystate
3. Add a Header: Content-Type, application/json
4. Add a Body in the following format:

{
 
"key": "displayKey",   //DisplayKey is also shown in the "MAIN" tab of the display
 
"temperature": 0,
"humidity": 0,
"co2": 0
 
}

e. Click on CREATE RULE

DisplayKey: The unique identifier for your display in the meetingroom365 platform,
DeviceId : The unique ID of the Environmental device (go to your Device > Upper right corner > SETTINGS > Authentication) in the ALSO IoT Platform.

2. Add a script within the meetingroom365 display

To visualize the data on your display, you have to add a script in the meetingroom365 display settings:

go to https://manage.meetingroom365.com/
Select your meetingroom display and go to Edit Display Configuration
Click on Advanced Configuration Editor (font in the blue colour)

4. Insert an object within the existing script by clicking on the “+ Insert” button and then write “script” in the field box.

5. Paste the whole code given below in the value box.

// Display Temperature/Humidity/CO2\nwindow.afterCorrectPositions = function () {\n$.get('https://states.mr365.co/displayStateByKey/displayId', function (data) {\n// console.log(data, data.temperature);\n\nif (!$('.top.right h3.temp').length) $('.top.right h1').after('<h3 class=\"temp\"></h3>');\n\n$('h3.temp').html('Temp: '+ data.temperature + '˚C / Hum: ' + data.humidity +' %' + ' / CO2: ' + data.co2 +' ppm');\n})\n}

Don’t forget to add the display’s ID in this part of the script: https://states.mr365.co/displayStateByKey/displayId

6. Save this settings and return back to the meetingroom365 home page.

Conclusion

That’s it, congratulations!

Now you should be able to have a working display on the device of your choice to book, monitor and have an insight of the meeting room usage. Enjoy the solution and give us the feedback how did you like it and for any possible improvements you’d like to see.

The first use case is about feeding the data from WP+ SA devices towards meetingroom365. We will use the “occupation” sensor data forwarded from the Eye Device set in our meeting room. This will allow us either to book or free up meeting rooms depending on the device’s measurements.

A second use case is to feed environmental data such as temperature, humidity and CO2 levels of the meeting room or any other area of choice, so that attendees and/or facility managers can have a view on the environmental conditions of the meeting rooms.