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Monday, April 6, 2015

Skype for Business Readiness Series (11/15)

Today I joined the eleventh session of the Skype for Business Readiness WebCast Series and the topic for today were Video Interop Server Deep-dive. The Webcast was recorded and is available online from the link above.


Lynn Roe presented and showed a nice demo with a VTC unit joining a S4B meeting and also calling in to a S4B client using the Video Interop Server (VIS) server role. We also got to see the new CLSlogger and some logging details of the VIS calls. The new CLSlogger will be released with the debugging / Resource Kit tools shortly after RTM. The video interoperability server role allows S4B customers to continue using already deployed (and expensive) Cisco VTC solutions. A Cisco CUCM is required for VIS interoperability and DTMF from a VTC to S4B is supported. Only inbound calls from a Cisco VTC to S4B are supported.

I am also pleasantly surprised to see that Guillermo Sanchez (aka ITSanchez) from Argentina have translated my first QnA posting in this series into Spanish. So for all Spanish speaking amigos y amigas out there, do not miss the post:
Skype for Business, Preguntas y Respuestas (Parte 1)

Here comes todays QnA session, 13 questions and answers, enjoy!


New features

What is the scalability number of users/conferences per VIS server?
Capacity planning information will be released post RTM, including bandwidth consumption, etc.

Can two or more VTCs join the same S4B meeting?
Yes

Does VIS support Tandberg devices as well?
Yes, Tandberg devices are supported.

How would we load balance a multiple server VIS pool?
With DNS load balancing.

Which CUCM version is required for VIS?
Currently VIS have been tested and validated with CUCM version 10.5.

What are the firewall opening requirements between VIS and the edge server?
Port information and requirements will be released on TechNet soon.

How do we configure CUCM to interwork with VIS?
The necessary CUCM settings that are required for interoperation with VIS will be released on TechNet soon.


Unchanged features

Does the S4B server still use RDP for content sharing?
Yes.

Does the Edge server used with VIS have to be a S4B edge?
No, the Edge server does not have to be S4B, VIS can leverage an existing Lync 2013 Edge server.


Features "missing"

Is VIS compatible with Cisco / Tandberg only (how about Huawei VC / TP solutions)?
Right now VIS is only targeting Cisco VTCs.

Is Content sharing with H.239 supported?
No, no support for H.239 at this time.

Will VIS allow content (desktop or app share / IMs, etc) to be shared across Cisco and Lync, or just video?
There is no content sharing on VIS supported at the moment.

Will a VIS client be able to join a meeting hosted in the cloud?
No, the meeting must be on-premise only.

6 comments:

  1. "Does VIS support Tandberg devices as well?
    Yes, Tandberg devices are supported."

    What a stupidly worded question oh my god!
    The answerer person had an easy situation to say yes, without the need to tell the 2nd part of the sentence. Namely, the "yes...but....

    When you ask such question, ask properly, and dont have a chance to the vendor to bypass the true answer with some canned "feelgood" statements, when in reality everybody knows there are serious limitations.

    Bottom line. Do you really think any prehistoric device, that has a damn "Tandberg" logo printed on it, will be able to participate. No, right? So then why didnt you ask the proper question if you wanted to get a proper answer. Damn, people are so naive, gullible and stupid.

    ReplyDelete
  2. Hello Angry, Anonymous person. I am happy to see you are reading my blog. What are the serious limitations that everybody knows of?

    I think there are plenty of people out there that has not used Cisco or Tandberg equipment at all, so please help us out with the details.

    ReplyDelete
  3. Is there any way to download the episodes for offline viewing? Internet speed in my office is terrible, cannot watch even 3 consecutive seconds without annoying pause due to constant buffering. If I could download all the episodes at home, I could watch them in the office perfectly.

    ReplyDelete
  4. Hello Richard, Not sure if you can download, but just register again to view a recorded version of the session.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Yes, I understand that I can view them online, I managed to figure this out by myself.

      But -I agree that it is difficult to understand for the most people in 2015- in the office I work and supposed to deal with my UC related job, there is a 4mbit line shared among 40 people. So I literally cannot watch a single video under an 8-hour period. Yes it sucks, I tried it couple of times, and it consistently behaves like this. I cannot do anything against this situation. So I have no other choice than try to grab it somehow for offline consumption, otherwise I would need to watch those outside of working hours when I have dozens of other (personal) things than deal with Lync stuff.

      Also, FYI MS routinely destroys content hosted on their webservers if they think (let me repeat, they selfishly decide without asking anybody) it is no longer useful. So in 1 year time, this content will be gone forever, thanks to un-downloadable video streaming formats!

      Delete
    2. By the way, nearly 6 months have passed, and the "sooooooooon after RTM" thing does not seem to work for MSFT, the SfB resource kit still NOT available.

      Delete