PC Client / Ability to push content

[jbburks]

Is a PC client for Proximity on the roadmap?

Also, is there a plan to push content from the tablet (or preferably PC)?

We are  developing a new building and want to enable all the rooms for a) video conferencing and b) ability to display content (either in or not in a video call) via wireless.

Our current plan is to put in Crestron AirMedia to allow wireless. With a simple expansion of Proximity and a PC client, we could leave out purchasing the Crestron, which would almost pay for the Cisco SX10.

[Henrik Bakken · Accepted solution]

Hi Frank, and all others asking for an update ;)

We're getting closer to a laptop client. We are currently doing limited EFT testing (early field trials) and are aiming to ship this around summer this year.

The first version for Win7+ and OS X 10.9+ (likely) will only do presentation sharing (from laptop to endpoint). This will run with limited frame-rate (working great for presentations, but not great for youtube).

Call control and content receive (from endpoint to laptop) will not be supported at this point.

(and yes; it's a bit awkward that you can do call control and content receive on mobile, but not share to endpoint; but we're working on fixing that as well. We did get a lot of market feedback that sharing *from* laptop was the most important usecase, though.)

[Frank Cosgrove]

Henrik thanks for the feedback.

My users are all requesting the to be able too see the slides on their laptop and take snapshots, In big rooms its easier to read the slides on their own laptops, which they always have with them.

I've never had the request for wireless presenting yet and they are not bothered by call control as we have a touch screen remote in all rooms.

[jbburks]

Is there an Early Adopter Program for Proximity? I have been participating in the community for Jabber 10.6 providing feedback, but I haven't seen anything on Proximity posted. I'm anxious to see if it works with our Dell Latitude laptops. We very much want to 'cut the cord' for presenting, and it would almost be worth the price of an SX10 just for that, regardless of the ability to do a TP call.

As you indicate, our most desirable use case is to be able to push content from the PC (or iOS if possible) and do call/camera control.

I understand the need from others to block call control and that would be a useful option.

[Nick Ciesinski_]

Henrik

I work in education and right now we don't use the feature on mobile because of the ability to do call control from the device. We need a way to disable the ability for call control and only have content sharing or have a password to enable call control. We don't need students ending calls etc. while a class is in session.  Is there any roadmap for this on mobile devices and eventually when you get laptop devices doing call control?

Nick

[Dan Peder Eriksen]

Hi Nick,

With the next TC release you will get the option to turn on/off 3 services independant from each other:

Receive content from Telepresence System

Send Content to Telepresence System

Call control (search, call, volume ++++)

Dan

[Marcelo Morais]

Hi Henrik Bakken,

 excellent news ... but I totally agree with Nick Ciesinski and Frank Cosgrove.

 I understand that you are prioritizing 'Presentation Sharing' because you "get a lot of market feedback that sharing *from* laptop was the most important usecase", but in my opinion, these feedbacks probably came from the presenters not from the audience.

 If you think in a very small meeting of 1 presenter and 4 people in the audience then 80% of our 'customers' will not have the choice to use a PC.

 It will be very appreciated if Cisco rethinks the importance of 'Content Receive to laptop' and work in a complete solution of 'Presentation Sharing' & 'Content Receive'.

  Every time I present Proximity to my customers, they get very excited about this technology, but at the same time, they get very frustrated because of the absence of PC's interactions (as a presenter and as audience).

 I hope this (field info) helps.

[Josh Miller]

@Henrik - 

First, thanks for the communication in this forum.  There is a dearth of information on Proximity in general, and this forum seems to have more content than anything other than the FAQ.

I'm curious how software packages like AirServer, Barco's Clickshare, Christie's Brio, Creston, and others are able to emulate an Apple TV without API's.  Are you able to learn anything from how they are doing it, and do the same?  Being able to mirror a screen from an IOS or OS X device would be fantastic as a native capacity as I've seen some problems when using an AppleTV to share content to remote video participants.

Thanks, and keep the communication coming!

[Henrik Bakken]

Not good (lack of info) - will work with the team to improve information flow!

I have tried Clickshare (nice), and Airmedia, and another company called Airtame. None of them has been able to receive Airplay-media from an iOS device. I'm super-keen on getting more info on this, though; have you been able to use the iOS built-in AirPlay (with video) to non-Apple gear?

I know most of these 3rd party solutions have applications you can install (or web servers you can connect to). They offer open-in-like functionality for sharing, but not built-in like AirPlay. As far as I've seen, at least.

Let me know if you have seen this, how it works etc. 

[Josh Miller]

Re: Airtame - bummer!  I signed up as an early adopter and should be getting my dongles any day now, and I had thought they supported AirPlay natively.

Check out AirServer.  They offer a mac client that emulates an AppleTV device, and allow full mirroring, as well as anything else you'd be able to do with an AppleTV.  In addition it looks like they just added Miracast support, so they support receiving from an Android device as well.  That is the full functionality I'd really like to see native on the codecs.

Thanks again Henrik!

[jbburks]

In regards to streaming the content vs. JPG or images:

The use case in our company is very much Powerpoint slides. No moving images, other than build slides. Would very much prefer static images (bandwidth and load on the codec) over streaming. Slow refresh interval (3-5 seconds is fine) preferably configurable.

We want very much to push PC content to the screen (iPad too, but less so). We would like to use this unit instead of a dedicated A/V box.

Other similar apps (BlueJeans) get around the iOS/Apple licensing limitations by opening the PPT file or browser in their app rather than trying to mirror the screen. As you point out, this is difficult to do with Apple (they make Microsoft look positively open).