Display information during VTC's

[russell.5813]

Good morning. I've been tasked with finding a way to display information on-screen during VTC's. Similar to how the name of an endpoint will display at the bottom-center of the screen, I want to be able to display the ISDN and passcode of a VTC on screen so that users can distribute this information to participants using the audio-only option.

I've been looking through TMS features and so far have not found a solution. Does anyone have experience with this that could point me in the right direction (assuming it's even possible)?

[Patrick Sparkman]

There is no way to display the current conference dial-in information on the screen to everyone using TMS, MCU, or TelePresence Server on a per conference basis.  If you're using an MCU, you could display a permanent conference welcome message, however this would apply system wide and not per conference.

The only other real option you might have is to use an endpoint with a PC source to display the conference information, this endpoint could be one that you use solely for this purpose.  With the endpoint you can show the information through the content channel, which would require someone to start the content stream, or you could connect to the PC to the camera input and show the information over the main video stream.  I've seen an organization do this in the past, where they provided Jabber Video (Movi) dial-in information for anyone who would need it, as well as other important information related to the conference.

If having the ability to display the dial-in information for participants is something you'd like, suggest you contact your Cisco Account Manager and have them create a feature request for you.

[russell.5813]

Thanks for the reply, Patrick. I don't think PC source will be a practical solution due to the number of endpoints and conferences, as well as the dynamic nature of the passcodes. I'll coordinate with my account manager and look at some alternative solutions in the mean time.

[Patrick Sparkman]

Something else I thought of is you can send a message to the entire conference from the MCU web interface, however you'll be limited to 256 characters and some of the message might be cut off depending on one's screen size.  Also, I'm not sure if the message will appear for new participants that connect after the message was first displayed.  Take a look at the "Sending Messages to all Participants" in the MCU Online Help Guide on pg 64.

[russell.5813]

This is a fantastic resource! It's already solved half my problem (displaying information). Currently reading up to see if I can get it to automatically display the numeric ID on screen.

Thanks!

[Lawrence James]

Not elegant but has zero cost and is functional for your needs - it is a manual process that would need to be done over if conference runs longer than duration time.  

Once conference is started you can select each participant and use the "send message to this system" button and set Duration to conference time.

I have used that to get information to the room during active conferences so the user can distribute dial-in info, audio bridge numbers, etc... or other changes.

If you have 3rd party control this can be done through the API as well and then you have some automation and control.

Another solution is to use a small video processor that can overlay text on the camera output to CODEC. I have used a Extron MGP 462 Pro for this in the past. This device is probably overkill for your specific application but I'm sure there are cheaper solutions that only do text overlay. The Extron is also only limited to 16 chars so I wouldn't suggest this for your application only suggested as a reference.  

[russell.5813]

Thanks for responding, Lawrence. I've explored this option, but I'd really like to automate as much of the process as possible due to the number of VTC's we have to manage on a given day. Currently exploring options in the MCU and am one step closer to the right direction. The Extron sounds pretty great but is definitely overkill for our intended purpose!

[russell.5813]

So I've read through the MCU guide and unfortunately there does not appear to be an option that will display the numeric ID on-screen without manually entering the information.

Just to recap: I want to be able to have the ID# for each VTC be displayed on-screen so that users can provide the information to people who need to use the audio-only feature.

I can use the MCU to manually enter the conference ID and push it to endpoints in VTC's, but I'd like this to be done automatically if possible. Not seeing an option to do this in the MCU, but I'm hoping I've simply overlooked something.

[Patrick Sparkman · Accepted solution]

Only method is a manual method already noted in the earlier replies, no way to automate such a task with the current software features.