External Audio Calls to Cisco MCU

[Peter Anders]

I have a requirement for an external audio channel to access shared meeting room that is hosted on the Cisco MCU 5320.

Can this be achieved directly through the MCU or is there a requirment for another audio bridge

[Paulo Souza]

Hi Peter,

Yes, you can use your MCU 5320 as audio bridge. Cisco MCU 5320 allow to create an auto attendant where the external audio-only users can connect, so that users will have to insert the conference ID and the PIN and then they will be connected to the desirable conference.

You can create multiple auto attendant with Cisco MCU, you can even restrict which conferences each auto attendant will be able to access. You can also set a numeric ID to the auto attendants, that can be used to help you to route the calls to the auto attendant easier.

You can also create custom audio prompts for your auto attendant. You can record the voices in your own language and then upload them to MCU.

With regards the number of audio ports available, it depends upon what quality you are using:

• FullHD mode: 10 additional audio ports
• HD Mode: 20 additional audio ports
• SD mode: None (audio participant will take a full video port)
• nHD: None (audio participant will take a full video port)

If you have two 5320 with stack, the numbers above will be double.

Just one tip: If you have external audio participants connected to the MCU via any ISDN gateway registered to VCS (or even to another Call Control with trunk to VCS), you should consider implementing a toll fraud prevention schema.

I hope this help.

Paulo Souza

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[Peter Anders]

Thank You Paulo

This will work if I use SIP trunks also .

Can you provide some details on how to configure this ?

[Paulo Souza · Accepted solution]

Well, you can integrate MCU to VCS by using SIP Trunk, even though the common deployment is to have MCU registered to VCS, either using SIP, H323 or both. You can also integrate MCU with CUCM, but in this case, MCU will be a media resource of CUCM, therefore it is only recomended for AdHoc conferences. You can also integrate MCU with Telepresence Conductor by using API, but it is common only when you have many MCU pools to manage.

To integrate Cisco MCU with VCS, you can check out this document:

http://www.cisco.com/en/US/docs/telepresence/infrastructure/mcu/install_guide/Cisco_TelePresence_MCU_Deployment_guide_1-31.pdf

To learn more on how to work with auto attendant on Cisco MCU, take a look at this guide:

Page 88 - http://www.cisco.com/en/US/docs/telepresence/infrastructure/mcu/admin_guide/Cisco_Telepresence_MCU_5300_Series_4-4_Product_administration_guide.pdf

If you want to integrate MCU with third party call control systems, I cannot say it will work, because I always base my suggestions upon Cisco official documentation, and there is few things in the documentation about integrating MCU with third party call control systems.

If you think your doubt has been resolved, please, mark the right answer.  =)

Regards

Paulo Souza

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