Microsoft Lync 2010 No Audio without Microphone Fail

PROBLEM: In Microsoft Lync 2010, you cannot listen in a web meeting if you don't have a microphone plugged in. It would make sense that you could at least listen in a web meeting (e.g. someone is presenting and you just want to listen) and if you need to provide feedback you can just type a question. But alas that isn't supported (fail) - it's a bug, and Microsoft has said they won't be changing their product (fail fail).

One forum comment from here http://social.technet.microsoft.com/Forums/en-US/ocsplanningdeployment/thread/aa681222-25e5-4c7c-8f90-8af360b828cf/ :

Microsoft has already documented this as a bug with no comments on if it will ever be repaired.

This means that audio cannot be received by a participant in a Lync Server Online Meeting unless the participant has a microphone plugged in.

I was asked by the MS support tech (who was as helpful and polite as he could be) to submit a BIS (Business Impact Statement). Hopefully the BIS will be viewed as worthy of getting the developers to repair this problem.

I'm surprised that I had to go this far to find an answer if not a solution. Is it really that odd for a typical training to be held using Lync/OCS or do most companies install a microphone or webcam on every PC?

Unfortunately the response that fellow got was:

Microsoft just sent me an update:

"During our review we noticed that the Microphone parameter is intertwined to the nerve center of the MCUs.

Making a change would involve too many components and the high cost associated for making these changes would not justified to qualify it as a Cumulative Update within this product release lifecycle.

Unfortunately, the bug that has been filed for this case has been rejected."

He goes on to recommend buying a few hundred microphones from Amazon.

Insane.

The only workaround talked about is:

As far as I can tell, the software is satisfied as long as you plug anything into the microphone jack (even a disconnected plug from an old headset worked for me), though you can't unplug it afterwards without the call getting interrupted (so multiple people can't share the same plug).

Someone else tried this:

I found that out and ended up buying 500 audio adapters for less than a quarter each. Explaining over and over to people why they have to be plugged in was pretty humiliating. I tested about 20 machines and found 2 that had sound cards/sound card drivers smart enough to recognize that the adapters weren't microphones. I'll have to get them real mics.

I haven't yet tried to find out what happens with outside callers using web app. I have a good guess as to what the results will be...

MS recognizes this is a bug, and decided to fix it it CU4, but then decided not to. The only thing I can come up with for that is the recent purchase of Skype. Maybe the more difficult repairs will be delayed/cancelled while Skype is being integrated into the next version of Lync? I really don't have any idea if that's the plan or not - I'm just speculating.

SOLUTION: So the alternatives are:

1. Get headphones with a microphone built in; or

2. Plug anything into the microphone plug; or

3. Watch a recorded webinar afterwards (rather than participate live); or

4. Use a different product (e.g. Skype).

If you can figure out where to log this as a problem with MS and can be bothered that would be great. I think we'll just go with option 1 for those who require it. Overall, sorry MSFT but this is a fail.