Video Conferencing in IPT

[allwyn.reuben]

Hi,

We have IPT setup in our customer location. With CUCM cluster and PSTN PRI for in/out calls and using microsoft exchange for VM.

1. How about deploying Video Conferencing setup in the above IPT environment or do we need to take seperate BRI's for that ?

2. If yes so, do we need any additional hardware like Router, cards or modules etc...

can someone advise..

[Tommer Catlin]

I think you will need to define a few items, this will drive what technology transport you will use for video.

You will not be able to your PSTN PRIs for video.  So leave those out the picture.

If you are doing video within the cluster, its either SIP or H323 between end points.  For example... If you have a polycom registered, the end point can register in CUCM and use its CAC for video. 

If you have Video phones such as the 9971, then can simply dial each other in the cluster, no special configs needed.

If you have Polycoms or Tandberg devices that need external communication from your network, you either need some sort of SIP Proxy to the internet or BRIs to the other end for video communications.

Define your business requirements, the type of video endpoints you are using and WHO you are going to be video communicating with, this will then drive your protocol and hardware selection for it.

[Jonathan Schulenberg]

Tommer is absolutely right about defining your business requirements and clearly define *who* you want to do video with first. If the answer is "anyone" then someone is wasting money because they actually have no one specific in mind. There needs to be specific use cases that can make an impact to the business.

A few technical things to add though:

• Video support over ISDN is covered by the ITU H.320 standards. Cisco IOS does actually support H.320 video gateway functionality now. This was added very late 12.4T or early in the 15.0T trains (use feature navigator to be sure). The configuration is somewhat complex though and requires some time to figure out.  H.320 Video - ISO/IEC-13871 Bonding
• Cisco IOS can also perform the MCU functionality now starting in 15.1(4)M if using PVDM3 DSPs. This is very resource intensive though so be sure that the DSP calculator is run; it now has an extra page for video conferencing. The Tandberg Codian MCUs will still provide a much larger feature set. The good news is they can also register to CUCM now or in the near future as a video conference bridge.
• When doing inter-company video CUBE is a valid option but it predated the Tandberg aquisition. You may want to consider the VCS Expressway now as it seems to be the product direction. Personally I suspect it will eventually be the downfall of IME but that's just unfounded speculation.

[Tommer Catlin]

+100 points for Jonathan.   I feel like some of these questions in the forums, someone needs open a consulting shop in that region of the world and clean house....