One of the more interesting features in the
Microsoft Communicator Client is the capability to participate in audio
or video conferences with other users of the Lync Server 2010
environment. Prior to the first participation in either an audio or
video conference, users should configure their audio and video devices . After these devices are configured, a user is ready to start the first conference.
For
purposes of this section, view a call and a conference as essentially
the same event with the only difference being the number of parties
involved. If there are two parties involved, it’s a call. If there are
more than two parties involved, it’s a conference. Generally the steps
are identical for initiating and managing both. In cases where the
steps vary, they will be called out as such.
Making an Audio Call
Initiating an audio call is as simple as clicking
Call and then choosing a contact. After this is done, the contact
receives a pop-up and an audio notification and has the option to
answer, decline, or redirect. Answer and decline are obvious in what
they do. Redirect gives the option to reply through IM or to set one’s
status to Do Not Disturb. Accepting the call updates both users’ status
to In a call.
When the call connects, a new window appears that
looks similar to the IM window. In fact, it is the same window, but
with some additional buttons and status items, as shown in Figure 1.
The call window offers several buttons, including the following:
Muting the microphone alters the icon on the client
that muted the microphone. No indication of this action is given to
other participants of the call or conference. Sliding the blue ball on
the speaker range raises or lowers the speaker volume. The hold button
places the call on hold, which notifies other participants on the call.
Clicking resume returns the call to an active status. Both “on hold”
and the call itself display the amount of time the call has been at a
particular status.
One of the other icons visible in the window is a
Network Connectivity status. This indicates the quality of the network
connection and is useful in troubleshooting issues with voice quality
on a call. At the upper-left corner of the window is an icon of a red
phone that is used to end the call.
Although calls are archived into the Conversation
History folder on the local system, they contain only IM conversations
from the Macintosh client. Call information is not recorded nor stored
here.
Note
As one might guess based on the fact that the IM
interface and call interface are merely different views within the same
window, an IM conversation can be escalated to an audio call by simply
clicking Call from the existing IM window.
Making a Video Call
Initiating a video call is as simple as clicking
Video and then picking a contact. Much as with the audio call, the
recipient has the option to accept, decline, or redirect. Redirect
gives the option to reply with an IM or to mark the recipient as Do Not
Disturb.
When the call is accepted, the usual client window
opens in the Video view. The recipient initially sees the caller but
the caller won’t see the recipient until she clicks Start My Video in
the window. By default, each participant in a two-way call sees herself
in a picture-in-picture window inside the main video window. The
picture-in-picture can be moved anywhere within the video window and
will not block access to the following buttons. The picture-in-picture,
also called the preview, can be modified by right-clicking it. This gives the options to hide or resize the preview.
Inside the video window are several buttons, including the following:
Enter full screen expands the video windows to
encompass the entire screen. The option at the upper-right corner
becomes Exit full screen.
Clicking End video call ends the call and downgrades to a simple IM conversation.
At the default window sizes, video conferences
across a LAN connection are quite good. Factors such as latency and
bandwidth might affect video conferencing across a WAN connection.
Tip
If you expect widespread adoption of video
conferencing and calls in your environment, don’t skimp on the video
cameras. Modern webcams can have nice lenses and modern processors can
easily keep up with the loads of high definition video conferencing.
