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Cisco Unified MeetingPlace Express

Cisco Unified MeetingPlace Express VT 2.0

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Cisco® Unified Communications is a comprehensive IP communications system of voice, video, data, and mobility products and applications. It enables more effective, more secure, more personal communications that directly affect both sales and profitability. It brings people together by enabling a new way of communicating-where your business moves with you, security is everywhere, and information is always available...whenever and wherever it is needed. Cisco Unified Communications is part of an integrated solution that includes network infrastructure, security, mobility, network management products, lifecycle services, flexible deployment and outsourced management options, end-user and partner financing packages, and third-party communications applications.
Cisco Unified MeetingPlace® Express VT is an integrated voice, video, and Web conferencing solution for Cisco Unified Communications Manager environments in midsize organizations. The solution enhances the effectiveness of Cisco Unified Communications solutions by integrating rich-media conferencing functions that enable users to simply extend point-to-point voice and video communications to multiparty voice, video, and Web conferences (Figure 1). With Cisco Unified Communications and Cisco Unified MeetingPlace Express VT, users can more effectively interact with virtual teams as interactions warrant by simply transitioning across and between applications, such as presence, instant messaging (IM), IP telephony, unified messaging, and rich-media conferencing.

Figure 1. Cisco Unified MeetingPlace Express VT Brings Remote Users Together for More Effective Impromptu Meetings

Product Overview

Improved Productivity, Accelerated Business

Cisco Unified MeetingPlace Express VT helps organizations improve operational effectiveness and speed decision making by providing easy access to virtual meeting capabilities. The solution extends Cisco Unified Communications Manager video telephony capabilities, which make using video as easy as placing a telephone call, by enabling users to move from point-to-point to multiparty voice and video calls and to easily add Web conferencing to their voice and video communications. Integrating document sharing and multiparty access with face-to-face communications allows dispersed workforces and teams to enhance the quality and effectiveness of their interactions.

Easy Deployment and Management

Cisco Unified MeetingPlace Express VT makes it easy and affordable to integrate advanced conferencing capabilities with Cisco Unified Communications Manager. It is a software solution, installed on a single server, that supports common industry protocols-Skinny Client Control Protocol (SCCP), H.323, and Session Initiation Protocol (SIP)-to ensure connectivity with a range of video endpoints. Cisco Unified MeetingPlace Express VT maximizes an organization's video investments by supporting traditional room-based video conferencing and desktop video telephony environments. And because the solution is tightly integrated with Cisco Unified Communications Manager, connecting multiple users is as easy as dialing a phone number. After it is configured through a simple Web-based administration interface and registered with Cisco Unified Communications Manager, Cisco Unified MeetingPlace Express VT requires little additional administrative support.

Key Features and Benefits

Simple Voice, Video, and Web Conferencing

Initiating a mutiparty voice or video session using Cisco Unified MeetingPlace Express VT is as simple as dialing the user you want to add and pressing the Conference or Merge button on the Cisco Unified IP phone, Cisco IP Communicator, or Cisco Unified Personal Communicator. Meeting attendees experience high-quality voice conferencing, and video participants see the person who is speaking or the person who last spoke.
Cisco Unified MeetingPlace Express VT also helps users with Cisco Unified Personal Communicator improve the productivity of their voice and video calls by adding Web conferencing. At a moment's notice, Cisco Unified Personal Communicator users can share content through a simple screen-sharing interface served by Cisco Unified MeetingPlace Express VT.
By integrating voice, Web, and video conferencing capabilities, Cisco Unified MeetingPlace Express VT is well-suited for interactive meetings and presentations. Web conferencing is built using Adobe Flash technology, which helps ensure rapid and reliable meeting entry, and the interface is streamlined for meeting management and simple screen sharing of applications or the entire desktop. Shared content scales to any screen resolution, so the content being shared always fits into your Web meeting-room window. The full-screen mode lets you maximize your view of the content. Whether on the Windows, Mac, Linux, or Solaris platform, users can easily participate in Web conferences and experience a consistent interface (Figure 2).

Figure 2. Impromptu Voice, Web, and Video Conferencing with Cisco Unified Personal Communicator

Product Architecture

Cisco Unified MeetingPlace Express VT is a software solution for impromptu voice, Web, and video conferencing that runs on a single Cisco Media Convergence Server using a Linux-based operating system. Its design includes the following capabilities:

• Telephony and video integration: SCCP is supported for telephony integration with Cisco Unified Communications Manager, and phones and video endpoints supporting SCCP, H.323, SIP, and G.711 can participate in meetings. H.263 or H.264 is supported for video communication.

• Web conferencing access: Web conferencing access is available from Windows, Mac OS, Linux, and Solaris using standard browsers (such as Internet Explorer, Safari, and Firefox) and the Adobe Flash Player. Encrypted access is supported through HTTPS and Secure Sockets Layer (SSL).

• Network management: Monitoring and alarming are supported through the Simple Network Management Protocol (SNMP).

Cisco Unified MeetingPlace Express VT is deployed on the internal network. It provides access from internal and external endpoints (using voice and video gateways), with Web conferencing access limited to those with access to the internal network.

Product Specifications

Table 1 provides specifications of Cisco Unified MeetingPlace Express VT.

Table 1. Product Specifications

Hardware compatibility

Cisco Media Convergence Servers

• Part numbers: MCS-7825-H3-RC1, MCS-7825-I3-RC1, MCS-7825-H2-RC1, MCS-7825-I2-RC1, MCS-7825-H1-RC1, MCS-7825-I1-RC1, MCS-7835-H2-RC1, MCS-7835-I2-RC1, MCS-7835-H1-RC1, and MCS-7835-I1-RC1
• Plus exact equivalent third-party servers (for information visit http://www.cisco.com/go/swonly; DVD drive required)

Software compatibility-server

Cisco Linux-based operating system (included with system software orders)

Software compatibility-client

Microsoft Windows

• Operating system: Windows 2000 Pro (SP2 or later), Windows 2000 Server Edition (SP2 or later), Windows 2000 Advanced Server (SP2 or later), Windows XP (SP1 or later), or Windows Vista (Business or Enterprise)
• Browser: Internet Explorer 5.5 or later; Netscape 7.1 or later; Mozilla 1.6 or later; or Firefox 1.0.3 or later
• Adobe Flash Player: 6.0.79 or later

Apple Macintosh

• Operating system: Mac OS 9.2* or Mac OS 10.2 or later
• Browser: Safari 1.1 or later; Netscape 7.1 or later; Mozilla 1.2.1* or 1.6 or later; or Firefox 1.0.3 or later
• Adobe Flash Player: 6.0.79 or later

Linux**

• Operating system: Red Hat 9 or Red Hat Enterprise Linux 3 or later
• Browser: Netscape 7.1 or later; Mozilla 1.4 or 1.6 or later; or Firefox 1.0.3 or later
• Adobe Flash Player: 7.0 or later

Sun Solaris**

• Operating system: Solaris 9 or Solaris 10
• Browser: Netscape 7.1; Mozilla 1.4 or 1.7 or later; or Firefox 1.0.3 or later
• Adobe Flash Player: 7.0 or later

Protocols
• SCCP
• H.323 v4
• SIP (RFC 3261)
• G.711
• Real-Time Transport Protocol (RTP; RFC 3550)
• RTP Payload for Dual Tone Multifrequency (DTMF) Digits (RFC 2833)
• Session Description Protocol (SDP; RFC 2327)
• IPv4
• Lightweight Directory Access Protocol Version 3 (LDAPv3)
• SNMP Versions 1, 2c, and 3
• HTTPv1.1
• SSL Versions 2 and 3 (optional; customer provides certificates obtained from a broadly trusted certificate authority)
• Network Time Protocol (NTP) Versions 3 and 4

MIBS

MIB-2, SYSAPPL-MIB, CISCO-CDP-MIB, CISCO-SMI, CISCO-TC, CISCO-VTP-MIB, and CISCO-LATITUDE-MIB

Network connectivity and bandwidth

Server: Two 100-Mbps or faster Ethernet connections

Client

• Voice conference: G.711 requires at least 84 kbps of available bandwidth in each direction; less bandwidth is required to the phone if transcoding a compressed codec (such as G.729) to G.711
• Video conference: 56 to 704 kbps (quality increases with bit rate)
• Web conference: At least a 56-kbps modem connection or faster***

*On Mac OS 9.2, Mozilla 1.2.1 is the only supported browser. Sharing a screen from Mac OS 9.2 is not available.

**Sharing a screen from this platform is not available. Viewing and annotating on screens shared from other platforms is possible.

***Modem users should not be simultaneously using other applications that compete for available bandwidth.

System Capacity

Cisco Unified MeetingPlace Express VT can support a variety of combinations of voice, video, and Web conferencing capacity (Table 2). The maximum meeting size is 40 concurrent users of voice conferencing, 40 concurrent users of video conferencing, and 40 concurrent users of Web conferencing. The system supports N/2 meetings, where N is the system capacity.

Table 2. System Capacity

Platform Part Number

Voice Conferencing Capacity

Web Conferencing Capacity

Video Conferencing Capacity *

MCS-7835-H2-RC1,
MCS-7835-I2-RC1,
MCS-7835-H1-RC1, and
MCS-7835-I1-RC1

20 to 40 concurrent users

6 to 40 concurrent users

6 to 40 concurrent users

MCS-7825-H3-RC1,
MCS-7825-I3-RC1,
MCS-7825-H2-RC1,
MCS-7825-I2-RC1,
MCS-7825-H1-RC1, and
MCS-7825-I1-RC1

20 to 30 concurrent users

6 to 30 concurrent users

6 to 30 concurrent users

*Video capacity assumes maximum bit rate of 384 kbps; using a higher bit rate may result in reduced capacity.

Features

Voice and Video Conferencing

Voice and video conferencing features of Cisco Unified MeetingPlace Express VT include:

• Real-time mixing of up to three simultaneous speakers

• Voice-activated switching, which shows each video participant the person who is speaking

• Support for the H.263 or H.264 video codec (per system)

• Video bit rates from 56 to 704 kbps (one per meeting) in Common Intermediate Format (CIF) video resolution

Web Conferencing

Cisco Unified MeetingPlace Express VT has many valuable features for Web conferencing:

• Easy access: Users easily access meetings from a variety of platforms using Web browsers and the broadly installed Adobe Flash Player.

• Firewall friendly: HTTP and HTTPS tunneling technologies allow users behind firewalls to participate in Web conferences.

• Connection-speed optimization: Cisco Unified MeetingPlace Express VT optimizes the Web conference performance to available bandwidth based on the user's selected connection speed.

• Screen sharing: Real-time screen sharing allows users to show others' applications, windows, or their entire desktop. A variety of sharing controls is available from the meeting room, the operating system, and the shared applications or windows.

• Flexible viewing options: Shared content can be viewed in a variety of ways to best suit the user.

– Scaled view: Users see a view of the shared content that scales to fit the space available.

– Scrolled view: Users see a full-size view of the shared content that may require scrolling to see the entire shared screen.

– Full-screen view: Users see only the shared content on their screens. Controls are available to select whether the full-screen view is effective for everyone or individuals, as well as if users can toggle to full screen themselves.

• Annotations: Users can collaborate over shared screens using markup tools such as a pencil, marker, line, rectangle, ellipse, text, and stamper. A variety of options is available to print and edit annotations, including undo, redo, change color, change size, move, and delete.

Meeting Setup and Attendance

Tasks related to meeting setup and attendance are well served by Cisco Unified MeetingPlace Express VT:

• Integrated voice, Web, and video conference setup: Users can quickly and easily start voice and video meetings using the conference or MeetMe button on SCCP-based endpoints. From Cisco Unified Personal Communicator, users can also launch voice and video meetings, plus add a simple screen-sharing interface on demand.

• Meeting types: Cisco Unified MeetingPlace Express VT supports the following meeting types:

– Impromptu conferences: These meetings are initiated using the Conference button on SCCP-based endpoints and Cisco Unified Personal Communicator.

– Meet-me conferences: These meetings are preconfigured with a Cisco Unified Communications Manager extension so they can be accessed through the MeetMe button on SCCP-based endpoints.

Administration

Meeting administrators have a rich tool set in Cisco Unified MeetingPlace Express VT:

• Web administration center: A Web interface provides system administration capabilities for system configuration, maintenance, and monitoring.

• System configuration and maintenance: Numerous parameters and options are available to configure and maintain the system:

– Usage configuration: Twelve- or 24-hour time, language configuration, minimum password lengths, password expiration, and alarm dial-out

– Call configuration: SCCP configuration and registration, video codec and bit-rate configuration, and IP voice parameters

– SNMP settings: Community strings and notification destinations

– Licensing: Installing and viewing licenses

– Backup: Backing up and archiving; local and remote configuration

– SSL certificate management: Installing, enabling, and managing SSL certificates

• Reporting and monitoring: Numerous reports and monitoring and alarm tools are provided:

– Disk-usage report: Details about hard-disk usage and available space

– Media-statistics reports: Statistics and information regarding conference media

– System logs: A variety of system logs for monitoring and troubleshooting

– Alarms: Viewing and exporting system alarms

– System status: Viewing a snapshot of system status for monitoring and troubleshooting

• Language support for Web conferencing interface: English (United States), French (France), German, Japanese, Korean, Chinese (China), Chinese (Taiwan), Spanish, Italian, Dutch, Swedish, Russian, Danish, and Portuguese (Brazil)

Note: The maintenance release following release of Cisco Unified MeetingPlace Express VT 2.0 will be required to enable languages beyond English (United States).

Security

Cisco Unified MeetingPlace Express VT offers the following security features:

• Dedicated on-net system: The dedicated Cisco Unified MeetingPlace Express VT system is integrated with the organization's private network.

• Built-in defense against attacks: Cisco Security Agent is built into the system at the kernel level to allow only application-specific activities and to defend against attacks.

• Encryption: Cisco Unified MeetingPlace Express VT supports encrypted Webpages and Web conferencing traffic using SSL.

System Requirements

Table 3 gives system requirements of Cisco Unified MeetingPlace Express VT.

Table 3. System Requirements

Call-control system
• Cisco Unified Communications Manager (CallManager) 4.1 or later

Quality of service (QoS)
• Network enabled with Differentiated Services (DiffServ; RFCs 2474 and 2475) QoS for voice traffic

Endpoints supporting initiation of impromptu voice and video conferences
• Cisco Unified Personal Communicator 1.2 or later
• Cisco Unified IP phone models and Cisco IP Communicator supported by Cisco Unified Video Advantage 2.0(2) or later
• Cisco Unified IP Phone 7985G models
• Third-party video endpoints using SCCP *

Endpoints that can participate in impromptu voice and video conferences

The endpoints listed previously that can initiate voice and video conferences, plus:

• H.323-based video endpoints registered with Cisco Unified Communications Manager
• SIP-based video endpoints registered with Cisco Unified Communications Manager

Endpoints supporting initiation of impromptu voice and Web conferences
• Cisco Unified Personal Communicator 1.2 or later

Endpoints that can participate in impromptu Web conferences

The endpoints listed previously that can initiate Web conferences, plus:

• Desktops listed in Software compatibility-client (Table 1)**

*Please reference the Cisco Technology Developer Program site for certified third-party SCCP video endpoints: http://www.cisco.com/pcgi-bin/ecoa/Search.

**Cisco Unified Personal Communicator users can send the Web conference URL to these users.

Ordering Information

To place an order, contact your local Cisco representative; for information, visit the ordering homepage on the Cisco Website or refer to Table 4.

Table 4. Ordering Information

Product Name

Part Number

Cisco Unified MeetingPlace Express VT 1.2 Bundle-20V, 6VI, 6W Concurrent ULs

MPE-VT-2=

Cisco Unified MeetingPlace Express VT Video License Pack, 4 Concurrent ULs

MPE-VT-PLUS4-VI=

Cisco Unified MeetingPlace Express VT Voice Lic Upg, 10 Concurrent ULs

MPE-VT-PLUS10-V=

Cisco Unified MeetingPlace Express Web License Pack, 10 Concurrent ULs

MPE-PLUS10-W=

For upgrades to Cisco Unified MeetingPlace Express

Cisco Unified MeetingPlace Express 2 Upg From VT-20V,6VI,6W Concurrent ULs

MPE-2-UPFRMVT=

Cisco Unified MeetingPlace Express Video Upg From VT-4 Concurrent ULs

MPE-UPFRMVT-4VI=

Cisco Unified MeetingPlace Express Voice Upg From VT-10 Concurrent ULs

MPE-UPFRMVT-10V=

Cisco Unified Communications Services and Support

Using the Cisco Lifecycle Services approach, Cisco and its partners offer a broad portfolio of end-to-end services to support the Cisco Unified Communications system. These services are based on proven methodologies for deploying, operating, and optimizing IP communications solutions. Initial planning and design services, for example, can help you meet aggressive deployment schedules and minimize network disruption during implementation. Operate services reduce the risk of communications downtime with expert technical support, and optimize services enhance solution performance for operational excellence. Cisco and its partners offer a system-level service and support approach that can help you create and maintain a resilient, converged network that meets your business needs.