Implementing Live Meeting with Microsoft Office

April 2008

Implementing Live Meeting with Microsoft Office Communications

Server 2007 Product Group - Enterprise

Dell White Paper

By

Ananda Sankaran

Farrukh Noman

April 2008 Page 2 Dell Product Group – Enterprise

Contents

Introduction.................................................................................................................. 3 Microsoft Office Live Meeting service for Web Conferencing .......... 4

Audio & Video Support for Conferencing ..................................................................... 5

Instant Messaging Access............................................................................................... 5

Microsoft Office Communications Server 2007 ........................................ 6 Implementing On-Premise Web Conferencing............................................................... 6

Internal Access............................................................................................................ 8 External Access........................................................................................................... 8

Implementing On-Premise Audio and Video Conferencing........................................... 9

Internal Access.......................................................................................................... 10 External Access......................................................................................................... 10

Choosing a Web Conferencing Solution ...................................................... 12 Conclusion .................................................................................................................. 13


Introduction Web conferencing solutions have become an important communication tool for businesses today. Communication tools such as telephony, e‐mail and instant messaging have provided a suitable platform for transmitting information. Web conferencing enhances the communication process by providing a rich platform that fosters real‐time discussion using various digital data aids and collaboration capabilities. Although telephony, e‐mail and instant messaging offered multi‐party communication methods, they were limited to audio or message based communications. Rich data based live collaboration capabilities such as presentations, discussion boards, multimedia are offered by web conferencing. It offers a live virtual meeting space for remote employees, partners and customers to collaborate. Businesses can save costs associated with conducting real physical meetings. This paper highlights the capabilities of web conferencing solutions based on Microsoft® Office Communications Server 2007. Capabilities of the Microsoft Office Live Meeting service are also discussed to highlight the differences. Web conferencing features are provided by the Microsoft Live Meeting service accessible via the Internet and by the on‐premise solution hosted on Microsoft Office Communications Server 2007. Businesses can choose either the hosted web based solution or the on‐premise solution based on requirement.


Microsoft Office Live Meeting service for Web Conferencing Microsoft Office Live Meeting service is a hosted web conferencing service offered by Microsoft Corporation. Businesses can subscribe to this service and use the web conferencing capabilities offered through the service via the Internet. Employees can set up live meeting sessions over the Internet with this service and invite attendees via e‐mail. The meeting invitation is presented as a web URL and participants can log in to the URL at the scheduled meeting time by providing the meeting security credentials. Office Live Meeting Client software must be installed on Microsoft Windows‐based client machines to access this service. Optionally, the service can be accessed via a web browser on non‐Windows‐based client machines using the Office Live Meeting Web Access (MWA). Web access feature does not require the installation of the Windows based meeting client. Figure 1 illustrates a sample environment that utilizes Office Live Meeting Service.

Figure 1: Office Live Meeting Usage in Enterprise Live Meeting offers collaboration capabilities such as integrated Microsoft Office PowerPoint® viewer, rich document view support including Microsoft Office documents, web page sharing, desktop and application sharing, audio broadcast and audio call controls, meeting recordings and reports, event and training services. It also offers interactive tools such as white board, shared notes, polling, annotations to discussed content, snapshots, questions manager and seating charts with mood indicators. Live Meeting also offers add‐in integration to Microsoft Outlook® for scheduling meetings using the Outlook calendaring functionality. Live Meeting is integrated with Microsoft Office applications and also provides an API for integrating with custom business applications. The 2007 version of Microsoft Office Live Meeting service offers

E-mail solution - Exchange

Desktop Computers

Active Directory and Global Catalog Server(s)

External User

PSTN

Telephones/Fax External Telephony

Perimeter Network

PBX

DATA

VOICE IM Solution – Communications Server

Mobile Computers

Internal Meeting User

LIVE MEETING SERVICE

TELEPHONY CONFERENCING

SERVICE


significant enhancements over the previous versions, including comprehensive VoIP (Voice over IP), video and media capabilities. Live Meeting 2007 includes support for rich multimedia content, multi‐party two‐way VoIP audio, live webcam video and panoramic video using Microsoft RoundTable™ device, PSTN and VoIP audio integration, high fidelity and personal recordings, virtual break out rooms, and handouts. Office Live Meeting 2007 subscription licensing includes Standard and Professional editions. Standard license enables users to schedule meetings with up to 15 participants. Professional license enables users to schedule meetings with up to 1250 participants. Licenses are required for internal users to use the service for scheduling and managing meetings and not required for external participants.

Audio & Video Support for Conferencing Office Live Meeting 2007 provides audio support for meeting sessions using telephone conferencing service or computer audio conferencing. Telephone conferencing service enables using an external telephony‐based audio conferencing provider. Users can dial into this provider from their telephone for the audio portion of the meeting. Live Meeting can also be optionally configured to call or dial‐in the meeting attendees instead of having them dial in to the conference. Live Meeting requires integration with supported telephone conferencing providers for this feature and other features such as meeting recording and Internet audio broadcasting. Computer audio conferencing enables meeting users to communicate using their computer audio equipment such as microphones and speakers. Live Meeting uses VoIP‐based technologies to implement this feature. One‐way Internet audio broadcasting can also be enabled, with computer audio conferencing wherein only the presenter speaks during the conference. Live meeting sessions can be set up with both options for audio or with no audio at all. Live Meeting 2007 also supports video conferencing during meeting sessions with live web cam support for users and also panoramic view support with Microsoft RoundTable device.

Instant Messaging Access Live Meeting participants can chat with each other when the meeting presenter allows such activity – for example, during break out sessions. Participants can choose attendees to chat with and send them messages. Meeting sessions also include support for providing feedback to the presenter such as questions or request for help. Alternatively, businesses can deploy other instant messaging solutions if independent and full instant messaging capability is required during a meeting.


Microsoft Office Communications Server 2007 Office Communications Server (OCS) 2007 provides an on‐premises web conferencing solution. Enterprises can host web conferencing on internal IT infrastructure instead of subscribing to Office Live Meeting service. OCS 2007 also offers a variety of other communication features and technologies besides web conferencing. These features include enhanced presence; group IM, audio & video communications, enterprise voice based on software powered VoIP, telephony integration, federation with other enterprises or public IM, and archival system.

Implementing On-Premise Web Conferencing Web conferencing can be implemented using OCS 2007 Standard Edition or OCS 2007 Enterprise Edition depending on the scalability requirements. Standard Edition supports up to 5000 users and Enterprise Edition should be deployed for scenarios that involve above 5000 users. End user client machines require the Office Communicator 2007 and Office Live Meeting 2007 client software to access and participate in meeting sessions. OCS 2007 does not include support for Live Meeting Web Access (MWA), and external users must install the client software on their machines to participate in meeting sessions. OCS 2007 offers most of the features offered by Office Live Meeting 2007 service except some advanced capabilities such as event services, meeting reports, meeting content storage, virtual breakout sessions and integrated PSTN/VoIP audio. Figures 2 and 3 below illustrate sample web conferencing deployments with Standard and Enterprise Editions.


Figure 2: OCS 2007 Standard Edition Web Conferencing Deployment

Figure 3: OCS 2007 Enterprise Edition Web Conferencing Deployment Internal users of the organization can schedule and participate in meeting sessions using the Office Communicator 2007 and Live Meeting 2007 client software. Users can meet ad‐hoc with the “meet now” feature or can schedule meetings in the future. Integration with Microsoft Outlook client software is provided to schedule conferences using the Outlook calendar and e‐mail invitations. Users can use an external telephony conferencing service for the audio portion

E-mail solution – Exchange 2007

Desktop Computers


External User

PSTN


Perimeter Network

PBX

DATA

VOICE

Mobile Computers



SERVICE

OCS Access, web conferencing Edge Servers

OCS 2007 Back-End Server/storage

Web Components Servers


Desktop Computers


External User

PSTN


Perimeter Network

PBX

DATA

VOICE

Mobile Computers



SERVICE

OCS Access & web conferencing Edge Servers

OCS 2007 Standard Edition

OCS 2007 Front-End Servers

OCS 2007 Web Conferencing Servers


of the meeting. User can dial into the audio conferencing number from their telephone or can configure OCS 2007 to automatically call or dial them into the meeting. OCS 2007 supports up to 250 users in a meeting session.

Internal Access Standard Edition deployment requires appropriate server hardware with OCS 2007 Standard Edition software installed (Figure 2). Enterprise Edition Deployment requires the OCS 2007 front‐end, back‐end database, web conferencing and web components roles installed on multiple servers. The front‐end (telephony and IM conferencing roles), web conferencing and web components roles can be co‐located on same server hardware with multiple instances of the co‐location. Alternatively, these roles can be deployed on their own server hardware. The back‐end database cannot be co‐located with any of these roles and needs to be installed on separate server hardware. Additionally the back‐end database may require external storage hardware. The deployments illustrated in Figures 2 and 3 not only support web conferencing but also other OCS 2007 features. Instant Messaging, Group IM (IM conferencing), point‐to‐point VoIP audio, point‐to‐point video and enhanced presence are also available with the same deployment. The Standard Edition deployment illustrated in Figure 2 can support audio and video conferencing as well and can also be included in the web conferencing session. Additionally, Enterprise Voice can be implemented by integrating with the PBX telephony infrastructure. IM archiving and Call Detail Records (CDRs) can also be implemented with additional servers and storage for archiving servers and database. Federation with other enterprises or public IM can also be implemented.

External Access External users outside the active directory domain can participate in the on‐premise hosted meeting session as well. OCS 2007 access edge and Web conferencing edge roles need to be installed in the perimeter network for this function. These roles can be co‐located on the same server hardware or deployed on separate server hardware based on performance and scalability needs (Figures 2 and 3). Internal users can invite federated and external users to participate in internal conferences. Internal and federated users are authenticated using their active directory credentials. Administrators can enable anonymous external users to access meetings hosted internally. External anonymous users, such as partners or customers, are authenticated using per meeting conference key provided. External users require the Live Meeting 2007 client installed to participate in the internal sessions. The access edge server role enables other functions besides external web conferencing. It enables external, federated or remote users to collaborate with OCS internal users. It enables functions such as federation, public IM connectivity and remote user access (remote or roaming internal users residing outside the firewall).


Implementing On-Premise Audio and Video Conferencing OCS 2007 includes support for audio and video conferencing besides web conferencing. Users can use their computer audio and video equipment to communicate via the Office Communicator 2007 client. Audio devices, such as speakers, microphones, and headsets, and video devices such as web cams can be used to participate in point‐to‐point audio/video sessions or multi‐party audio/video conferences. OCS 2007 also supports video conferencing using the Microsoft RoundTable communications device. Instead of using a telephony conferencing service for meeting sessions, users can use the computer based audio (VoIP) conferencing OCS 2007 service for audio portions of their meetings. OCS 2007 does not support integrating PSTN and 2‐way VoIP computer audio in the same conference. Additionally, video can be included in the same conference using OCS 2007 video conferencing. Figures 4 and 5 below illustrate audio and video conferencing additions to the previous web conferencing deployments. In Figure 4, the OCS 2007 audio/video conferencing role is part of the Standard Edition software and does not require separate software and hardware.

Figure 4: OCS 2007 Standard Edition Web, Audio and Video Conferencing Deployment


Desktop Computers


External User

PSTN


Perimeter Network

PBX

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VOICE

Mobile Computers



SERVICE

OCS Access, web conferencing and A/V Edge Servers

OCS 2007 Standard Edition


Figure 5: OCS 2007 Enterprise Edition Web, Audio and Video Conferencing Deployment

Internal Access The audio and video conferencing feature is included within the Standard Edition server software and does not require separate hardware. In the Enterprise Edition deployment the audio /video conferencing role needs to be installed in addition to the roles required for web conferencing. The audio/video conferencing role can be co‐located with other roles or can be installed separately on its own server hardware. It is recommended to deploy the audio/video server role on its own hardware for heavy audio/video workload requirements. Appropriate numbers of audio/video and other server roles should be provisioned based on scalability requirements. Users need Office Communicator 2007 client in addition to Live Meeting 2007 client installed to participate in the internal web, audio and video conferencing sessions. As described in the earlier section, the deployments illustrated in figure 4 and 5 also include other OCS 2007 features besides web, audio and video conferencing.

External Access External users outside the active directory domain can participate in the on‐premise hosted audio and video conferencing session as well. OCS 2007 audio/video edge role needs to be installed in the perimeter network for this function in addition to other edge roles required. These roles can be co‐located on the same server hardware or deployed on separate server hardware based on performance and scalability needs (Figures 4 and 5). Deploying the audio/video edge server role on its own hardware is recommended for heavy audio/video workload requirements. External users need the Office Communicator 2007 Client in addition to Live Meeting 2007 client installed to participate in the internal web, audio and video conferencing sessions. The audio/video edge


Desktop Computers


External User

PSTN


Perimeter Network

PBX

DATA

VOICE

Mobile Computers



SERVICE

OCS Access, web conferencing and A/V Edge Servers

Web Components Servers

A/V Conferencing Servers

OCS 2007 Front-End Servers

OCS 2007 Back-End Server/storage

OCS 2007 Web Conferencing Servers


role enables external, federated and remote users to participate in both point‐to‐point audio/video calls to internal users and audio/video multi‐party conferences that include internal users.


Choosing a Web Conferencing Solution Office Live Meeting 2007 service and Office Communications Server 2007 offer suitable web conferencing solution options. The choice of a solution depends on the requirements of IT departments and on the capabilities offered by each solution. The following table summarizes the differences between each solution.

Office Communications Server 2007 (conferencing

solution)

Office Live Meeting 2007 service

IT Personnel Resources and competencies required for deploying and maintaining the solution on‐premise

Limited resources required for managing the solution

End‐user support Need to be provisioned for both internal and external users

Telephone and e‐mail support provided for both internal and external users

Costs On‐premise hardware, software and maintenance costs incurred. Licensing costs are usually lower.

No on‐premise hardware and maintenance costs. Licensing costs are higher for the service.

Compliance requirements Satisfies the requirement of internal meeting content staying inside the corporation. Secure extranet required for facilitating external meetings.

Communications need to pass outside the corporate firewall to access the service for internal meetings.

Advanced IM, enhanced presence and enterprise voice features

Supported Not Supported

Meeting scalability Support for up to 250 users per meeting session

Support for up to 1250 users per meeting session

External Access Supports only the Live Meeting 2007 client

Supports both Live Meeting 2007 client and Live Meeting Web Access (MWA)

Integrated PSTN and 2‐way VoIP computer audio in same conference

Not Supported Supported

Advanced training and event features

Not Supported Supported

Organizations can choose either of the solutions based on needs. Optionally a combination of both of these solutions can be deployed where necessitated by the features required.


Conclusion Office Communications Server 2007 and Office Live Meeting 2007 service provide suitable solutions for web conferencing. Businesses need to assess their requirements carefully in choosing a deployment. Office Communications Server (OCS) 2007 offers other advanced features besides web conferencing such as enhanced presence, IM, enterprise voice based on software powered VoIP and communications archiving. Businesses requiring these features can assess deploying a solution based on OCS 2007. Dell™ PowerEdge™ servers and Dell PowerVault™ and Dell | EMC storage offer a suitable platform for hosting the OCS 2007 infrastructure. Dell offers Microsoft SQL Server® solutions for hosting the OCS 2007 backend databases and also offers complementary Microsoft Exchange Server solutions for hosting e‐mail. These solutions provide a comprehensive platform for implementing an OCS 2007 infrastructure. THIS WHITE PAPER IS FOR INFORMATIONAL PURPOSES ONLY, AND MAY CONTAIN TYPOGRAPHICAL ERRORS AND TECHNICAL INACCURACIES. THE CONTENT IS PROVIDED AS IS, WITHOUT EXPRESS OR IMPLIED WARRANTIES OF ANY KIND.

Documents

Implementing Live Meeting with Microsoft Office