Understanding the Workflow

When KUDO is integrated with a Microsoft Teams meeting, hosts and participants join the Teams meeting as they normally would, making it easy to chat, collaborate, and access live translation directly within Teams. However, as a Host or Operator, it's important to understand that there are actually two connected sessions running behind the scenes.

The first session is the Microsoft Teams meeting, where participants communicate, share content, and interact with one another. The second session is a KUDO meeting, which receives the Teams audio, video, and screen-sharing feeds so interpretation services can be delivered.

A KUDO Bot joins the Teams meeting as a participant and continuously routes the meeting content into the KUDO platform. Interpreters (or KUDO AI Translation) join the separate KUDO meeting, where they receive the source audio and provide interpretation. The translated audio is then delivered back to participants through the KUDO app in Teams.

The Teams Host manages the meeting from within Teams and controls the KUDO app experience for participants. Meanwhile, the KUDO Operator monitors the KUDO meeting, ensures the Bot and interpreters remain connected, coordinates with Hosts and interpreters, and troubleshoots any issues that may arise during the event. Understanding this dual-meeting architecture is key to successfully operating Microsoft Teams meetings with KUDO.

Key Concepts

• The Teams Host

  The Teams Host is responsible for setting up the meeting environment. This includes scheduling the meeting, adding the KUDO app, configuring languages, and managing Teams lobby permissions. The Host can also launch or restart the Bot, access recordings and transcripts, and adjust meeting and language settings as needed.

• The KUDO Bot

  The KUDO Bot is what connects the Teams meeting to the KUDO platform. It joins Teams as a participant, listens to the meeting audio, captures video and screen sharing, and sends all of that content into KUDO so interpreters, or AI, can work with it. If the Bot isn't connected, KUDO won't be able to hear or see the meeting, and multilingual interpretation won't function. The Bot normally joins automatically before the meeting starts, but the Host or Operator can trigger it manually if needed.

• The KUDO Operator

  The Operator is active in both the Teams meeting and the KUDO interface throughout the session. They monitor interpretation channels, communicate with interpreters, validate audio and captions, restart services if something goes wrong, and help troubleshoot any issues participants run into. The Operator serves as the bridge between Teams, KUDO, interpreters, and meeting organizers, ensuring multilingual services remain active throughout the event.

Conducting a Sound Check

A sound check confirms that everything is connected and working before the meeting begins. Start by joining the Teams meeting and confirming the Bot appears in the participant list. Then join KUDO as an Operator and go through each interpretation channel. Ask each interpreter to confirm they can hear the Teams meeting, see screen sharing, and that their microphone is active. Verify that captions are updating correctly and that Teams participants can hear interpretation. It's best to complete this before any participants join.

Restarting the Bot or Translation Services

If interpretation stops unexpectedly, or the Bot does not join automatically, the Teams Host can manually restart the Bot from the Teams calendar app. KUDO Operators can also restart translation services from the meeting portal. Restarting the Bot or translation services may temporarily interrupt interpretation, captions, and audio routing for all languages. Wait for services to fully reconnect before continuing troubleshooting.

Common Issues

When to Escalate

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