How to easily join an audio call into a Telepresence session ?

[Dassaut Systemes NetSec]

Hello,

I'm trying to achieve something very simple: Join an audio call into an existing Telepresence session.

Our Telepresence CUCM are in 8.0

CTS is 1.7

Our VoIP CUCM are in 8.6.2a

I have setup a SIP trunk between the TP and VoIP CUCMs and setup all the routing.

What I succeed to do is:

• Once I have a Telepresence session running I can click on the endpoint's phone softkey [Confrn]
• Manually dial an internal or E.164 number
• Join the audio call to the conference

But this is not what I want to do as it is not user friendly. With this setup users have to remember the number they want to dial and manually type the number to join it to the conference. I would like to join a pre-stored number from either the Favorites/Speeddials or phone book.

The issues I face are the following:

1. If I setup on the CTS endpoint speedial numbers, I can automatically start a call (by pressing the manual softkey and then Favorites icon) to this number when there is no TP session running but if there is a TP session running I can't access the Favorites menu.
2. I tried to setup the number as a speedial number on the Cisco 7970 phone itself. But when I press the button it tells me that this button is not available when CTS is running on the phone
3. I can't join a call from the addressbook. What I find completely weird is that when I have a TP session running, if I press the directories button and then go into the [Placed calls] menu, the [Dial] softkey is greyed out preventing from dialing back !?!?

In the end whatever I do I can't figure out a way to place an audio call while there is a TP session running without having to manually input the phone number.

I can't believe we are the only one to have this problem but couldn't find any related manual/discussion anywhere.

Is there a way to use any of the speed-dial/address book/favorites when a TP session is running ?

As this been solved in CTS 1.9 ?

[Rafal Szeremeta]

Hello

I will check this one for you. Must say I never tried to dial audio addin like that, so this is very good question.

Can you please tell me:

- Exact full version of CTS and CUCM (from about tab in CUCM)

- Exact version of Midlets and Phone Load

- Phone you using is 7970, correct?

- Do you using standart softkey template?

Thanks

Rafal

[Dassaut Systemes NetSec]

Rafal,

Thanks a lot for answering

To answer your questions:

• CUCM is 8.0.3.20000-2
• Endpoint CTS : CTS 1.7.0.2(4719) P1
• Cisco Telepresence Multipoint Switch (CTMS) : 1.7.0.1(5)
• Cisco Telepresence Manager (CTS Manager) : 1.7.2.0(256)
• Phones are 7970 phone and CTS 3000
• 7970 phone load is SIP70.9-1-1SR1S
• The softkey template on both CTS 3000 and 7970 are default softkey template.

As you mention the softkey template, is there a way to change the default softkey template for the CTS phone ?

If I could modify it and add the [Manual] softkey button when the phone is "Connected", I might be able to use the speed dial

Regards,

[Rafal Szeremeta]

Hello

Yes you should be able to assign soft key. I will test it myself.

What version of midlets you have on 7970?

Thank you

Rafal

[Rafal Szeremeta]

Hello there

I did some more research and unfortunately with midlets it's not possible to customize soft key buttons.

Thank you

Rafal

[Dassaut Systemes NetSec]

Rafal,

Thanks for investigating.

So there is no way to assign a softkey ?

I've been looking for that but although in the 7970 device settings there is a softkey template field, there's none in the CTS 3000 device.

The reason I'm asking is the following. Although I'm also interested in being able to add a call from the corporate directory into a running TP session my main goal for now is to integrate the Telepresence with our Audio Conferencing Service.

For that I could live with each Telepresence room being able to only call the local bridge number of the audio conferencing service provider. 1 number per Telepresence. So I could re-purpose the[Live Desk] feature for that and setup the audio conferencing service local bridge number on each CTS throught the CTS Manager. But asking the users to click on [Live Desk] to call the audio conferencing service doesn't look good. It is obvious your using a hack...

So if I could edit the softkey template and change the button name that would be great.

Of course if there's a way to add a call from the Favorites will a TP session is running it is even better.

[Rafal Szeremeta]

Hello

Unfortunately it's not possible to change order of softkey templates, neither add-remove softkey.

Best Regards

Rafal

[Matthieu LIENART]

It's me again - I just created a personnal account.

Will upgrading to CTS 1.9 provide any solution to this problem or will it not change anything ?

Although they are not compatible with our CTS 3000, would using Telepresence Touch device instead of a java app loaded on an ip phone solve this ?

[Rafal Szeremeta]

Hello Matthieu

Looks like with touch is the same issue.

I will investigate that further and open enhancement request for you.

Thank you

Rafal

[Matthieu LIENART]

Thanks a lot Rafal,

I'm surprise this is not built-in. On one side Cisco's advertise Telepresence as a "one-touch" experience and on the other side when you want to add a voice call into the conference you have to manually dial-in the numbers...

Anyway this doesn't sounds like this will get resolved quickly.

Thanks for opening an enhancement request.