What is the technical limitations/requirements for Microsoft Teams Town Hall (Base/Standard License)?

Hi @A Ogilvie, 

Thank you for posting your question in the Microsoft Q&A forum.    

I'm happy to help clarify how Microsoft Teams Town Hall operates without Teams Premium, and what you can expect in terms of technical requirements and attendee capacity. 

1. Does Town Hall use CDN without Teams Premium? 

Without Teams Premium, Town Hall does not use Microsoft eCDN by default. If your organization has not configured a third‑party eCDN, the event will not use any CDN. In this case, each attendee receives their own unicast video stream (peer‑to‑endpoint). 

2. Is any video preprocessing done on the organizer’s PC? 

Even though you may notice some preprocessing behaviors, Microsoft does not document any heavy video encoding or processing occurring locally on the organizer's device for Town Halls.  Town Hall uses the same cloud-based streaming infrastructure used by other Teams large‑event features, so the organizer’s machine is not responsible for delivering the stream — only for sending its own presenter feed.   

3. Organizer PC Requirements 

Since there are no special hardware requirements specific to Town Hall events, the organizer just needs a device capable of running Teams smoothly. Microsoft recommends: 
4. Maximum Number of Attendees 

As mentioned earlier, for organizations using the standard Teams license, the maximum capacity is:

• Up to 20,000 attendees per Town Hall event   

Since attendees join without camera or microphone, bandwidth and performance on their side are minimally impacted  

You could refer to this article :System requirements for the Teams client - Microsoft Teams | Microsoft Learn 

Plan for Teams town halls - Microsoft Teams | Microsoft Learn 

Get started with town hall in Microsoft Teams - Microsoft Support 

Enterprise content delivery networks for streaming Microsoft Teams events - Microsoft Teams | Micro… 

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Microsoft Teams Town Hall events have specific limitations and requirements, especially when not using the Premium version. Here are the key points:

Limitations:

1. Chat Features: Town hall chat is limited; attendees can only send up to 200 characters of text and emojis. Other features like sending pictures, GIFs, or formatting text are not supported.
2. Message Visibility: Attendees can only see the last 200 messages during the town hall.
3. Attendee Limit: Town hall chat is not supported for events with more than 20,000 attendees.
4. Latency: There may be a latency of 15-30 seconds for attendees sending messages compared to presenters.
5. Meeting Restart: If a town hall restarts, the chat is not available in the new session.
6. Microsoft Teams Rooms: Rooms with a Pro license cannot use chat when joining as a presenter.

Technical Requirements for the Organizer's PC:

While specific hardware requirements for the organizer's PC are not detailed in the provided context, it is essential to ensure that the PC meets the general requirements for running Microsoft Teams effectively. This includes having a reliable internet connection and sufficient processing power to handle video streaming and participant engagement.

Maximum Number of Attendees:

Since attendees join without camera or mic, the maximum number of attendees is primarily determined by the platform's limits. For Town Halls, the maximum is 20,000 attendees, but this can vary based on network conditions and the use of an Enterprise Content Delivery Network (eCDN) if available.

In summary, while you can operate a Town Hall without the Premium features, you will face several limitations regarding chat and attendee engagement. Ensure that the organizer's PC is adequately equipped to handle the event's demands, and be aware of the attendee limits.