External Video Calls Routed through CCX?

[Justin Grote]

Hello,

We have a customer with a Microsoft Lync 2010 system that they want to integrate with our helpdesk. They would like Lync users to be able to call the helpdesk and get video of the representative.

For Audio this is fairly easy: Lync -> Mediation Server -> SIP Trunk to CCM -> CCX CTI Route Point -> Agent

However for Video, we cannot use the mediation server approach because at this time it only supports audio.

While we could do this:

Lync -> Cisco Tandberg VCS -> H.323 Endpoint Pool

We don't get any of the call tracking that we need with CCX.

Another idea is:

Lync -> Cisco Tandberg VCS -> H.323 or SIP Gateway -> CCX CTI Route Point -> Agent.

Has anyone done this or gotten it to work? Do we maybe have the wrong approach? Our end goal is to have video calls with helpdesk agents that route through CCX. If anyone knows of something like a flash/java-based product we can embed in a webpage for video calls or otherwise don't require a client, that would work too, but Lync would be the most elegant.

[Jonathan Schulenberg]

What about the Tandberg Advanced Media Gateway 3600? It was specifically built to bridge OCS/Lync RT-Video to H.264. I have not tried this myself so I can't speak to real-life results, only what I've read on the data sheets.

[Justin Grote]

This is actually what the VCS gateway does. The AMG provides transcoding on top so that you can do HD video in addition to just standard H.263. However, it still is only limited by the VCS registering H.263 endpoints.

If I can figure out how to register the CCX CTI dial point as a H.263 endpoint or SIP number, I should have it made, but as far as I can tell noone has tried this yet.

[Aaron Harrison]

Hi Justin

First off I'll say I've not tried this, but here's what I would expect to happen... all theoretical though to me.

If you are using UCCX, UCCX itself supports no video. You can't make it run SIP with CUCM and you can't have H.263 endpoints on CCX.

Your agents also have to be SCCP for CCX to work (due to the way they are monitored via CTI).

But - once the call transfers from CCX to an agent, media is renegotiated. For example, if you were using the Cisco Video Advantage type stuff (e.g. CUVA or CUPC) and had video capability on the part of the caller and agent then you should get video.

So if you find you can call from Lync using whatever product is appropriate in the middle (VCS, the product Jonathan mentioned, etc) to an SCCP/video capable endpoint on CUCM then barring interoperation issues related to transferring and media renegotiation etc, it might work..

I saw this as well - it's a doc that suggests a similar setup. In the Implementing/Configuring section is has info on connecting in some third party devs over H.323 which implies this could work : http://www.cisco.com/en/US/docs/solutions/Verticals/Collaborative_Care/collab_care.html

Regards

Aaron