Cisco® MeetingPlace®-part of the Cisco IP Communications system-is a complete rich-media conferencing solution that seamlessly integrates voice, video, and Web conferencing capabilities to make remote meetings as natural and effective as face-to-face meetings for unmatched productivity gains. Cisco MeetingPlace is deployed "on network," behind the firewall and integrated directly into an organization's private voice and data networks and enterprise applications, to provide significant cost savings, the utmost in security, and a superior user experience.
Figure 1. Rich-media Conferencing Session
PRODUCT OVERVIEW
Improve Productivity-Accelerate Business Speed and Reach
Cisco MeetingPlace supports today's global, real-time organizations by promoting effective communication and collaboration through enabling people to meet at any time from anywhere. Organizations are able to expand their market reach, improve operational effectiveness, and speed decision making by easily integrating voice, video, and Web conferencing into everyday communications. Whether it is for sales demonstrations, training applications, project team meetings, or customer support, the ability for all meeting participants to hear and contribute to the discussion, to view other participants and read their body language, and to share documents are elements that contribute to effective remote meetings.
Superior Cost Effectiveness and Enterprise Security
Cisco MeetingPlace is deployed "on network" and integrated with an organization's private voice and data networks to help companies realize the cost savings potential of converged IP networks. On-network deployment enables cost savings because organizations can use their IP network infrastructures to reduce transport costs. Keeping traffic on internal networks results in significant cost savings as conferencing can account for up to 50 percent or more of a company's overall voice traffic. On-network deployment also results in a secure meeting environment. Cisco MeetingPlace allows enterprises to isolate their confidential meetings and content behind the firewall for secure data network transport while providing the flexibility to meet with external parties. To prevent unauthorized access and toll fraud, Cisco MeetingPlace integrates with the corporate directory to provide synchronized updates as an employee's status changes.
Simple Rich-media Conference Setup, Attendance, and Management
Cisco MeetingPlace improves the overall conferencing experience through tightly integrating voice, video, and Web conferencing with convenient desktop applications. Intuitive interfaces make setting up, attending, and managing meetings easy. Immediate or future voice, video, and Web conferences can be set up and attended in a single step-from Cisco IP phones, instant messaging clients, Web browsers, and Microsoft Outlook and Lotus Notes calendars. Meeting participants have total control over their voice, video, and Web conference from a single browser interface. This simple-to-use model eliminates the traditional barriers of rich-media conferencing, which leads to quick adoption and realization of productivity benefits.
Flexible Deployment Options
Cisco® MeetingPlace can be deployed in a variety of ways-on premises or hosted in off-site facilities, customer managed or outsourced. Outsourcing can provide system administration and end-user help desk functions for on-premises or hosted systems-combining all the benefits of dedicated on-network conferencing with the convenience of outsourced services.
KEY FEATURES AND BENEFITS
Tightly Integrated Rich-media Conference Setup
In a single step, meeting organizers can schedule voice, video, and Web resources through the Web interface, touch-tone and Cisco IP Phones, and Microsoft Outlook or Lotus Notes calendars. Meeting invitees automatically receive notification by e-mail or calendar invitation and can attend rich-media conferences with a single click. Rescheduling meetings through the calendar automatically reschedules all the resources at the same time. This simple approach saves time and improves productivity. See Figure 2 for tightly integrated Outlook scheduling interface.
With instant messaging applications widely adopted in the workplace, Cisco MeetingPlace allows users to initiate rich-media conferences easily, including video, from common instant messaging clients like America Online (AOL) Messenger, Lotus Sametime, MSN Messenger, and Yahoo Messenger. The ease of meeting creation promotes communication and fast adoption of rich-media conferencing in the workplace.
Figure 2. Scheduling a Rich-media Meeting in Microsoft Outlook
Easy Attendance for Rich-media Conferences
Attending a rich-media conference is as simple as a single mouse-click. Unlike other systems in the market where only dial-in information is offered, Cisco MeetingPlace provides the next level of integration and ease of use by simultaneously launching the Web conference and having the system dial out to the voice or video endpoint (either room-based video system or desktop endpoint). Participants can also connect to the voice and video portion of the conference by directly dialing in from any video end-point or telephone. After a Web conference is in session, participants can share presentations or desktop applications and conduct effective collaborative meetings. The ease of attending a rich-media meeting allows meetings to start on time-no more spending important meeting time experimenting with the remote control to start the video meeting.
Advanced Rich-media Conference Capabilities and Control
Cisco MeetingPlace is an enterprise class conferencing solution with proven global deployments in large Fortune 500 companies. The feature-rich voice and Web conferencing capabilities enable a range of meeting applications, from highly collaborative meetings to training sessions. Together with Cisco IPVC video conferencing and Cisco video telephony solutions, Cisco MeetingPlace brings the rich-media experience together to the desktop.
Figure 3. Advanced Rich-media Conference Control
Cisco MeetingPlace provides industry leading in-meeting controls within the Web conference. Without wasting time disrupting a meeting, users know who has attended, how they have attended (voice, video, or Web), who is speaking, and who is sharing. Users with the appropriate permissions can control a broad range of meeting characteristics, including Web conferencing permissions, speaking permissions (mute, listen only), recording, and meeting security. Users can control their meeting environment, including video layout, play/pause of video, and private discussions. When a user elects to leave or is ejected from the meeting, all media types-voice, video, and Web-are disconnected simultaneously. This unprecedented level of integrated meeting controls allows meeting moderators to minimize disruptions, monitor meeting progress, and make rich-media meetings as natural and effective as face to face meetings.
Rich-media Conference Recordings
From either the Web or the phone interface, users can record their meetings to capture the discussion and content so people who have missed the meeting can play back the synchronized Web and audio session through their Web browsers. Audio recordings are available in multiple formats including Waveform Audio (WAV), MPEG Layer 3 (MP3), or Windows media. Unlike current Web conference service providers, separate hardware or software is not required to record or playback.
Enterprise Class Conferencing Platforms
Cisco MeetingPlace offers companies a robust voice, video, and Web conferencing solution that integrates with their private networks. With carrier-grade hardware and advanced system software, Cisco MeetingPlace delivers the scalability, reliability, simplified administration, security, and cost effectiveness that IT organizations require. Video conferencing is provided by the Cisco IPVC video conferencing platform, which is widely deployed in large enterprises.
PRODUCT ARCHITECTURE
Customers can scale their deployments depending on their use patterns. The core platforms required include:
• Cisco MeetingPlace 8100 Series platforms for audio conferencing applications. The MeetingPlace 8100 Series solution bundles include Cisco MeetingPlace IP Gateway for IP deployments and Cisco MeetingPlace Conference User Interface for integrated voice, video, and Web scheduling. Both the IP Gateway and Conference User Interface software must be installed on a Cisco Media Convergence Server (MCS). Figure 3 shows the MeetingPlace 8100 Series audio platforms.
• Cisco MeetingPlace Web Conferencing software for Web conferencing. MeetingPlace Web Conferencing is an application that is installed on Cisco Media Convergence Servers (MCS). See the Cisco MeetingPlace Web Conferencing datasheet for more details.
• Cisco IPVC 3500 Series video conferencing Multipoint Control Unit (MCU) for video conferencing applications. See The Cisco IPVC 3500 Series MCU datasheet for more details.
• Cisco MeetingPlace Video Integration is integration software that runs on a Cisco MCS and is required to deliver the rich-media experience across various media platforms. The MeetingPlace Video Integration application integrates Cisco IPVC video conferencing into Cisco MeetingPlace 5.3
• Cisco MeetingPlace Integrations are software applications that run on Cisco MCS platforms. MeetingPlace integration applications include Cisco MeetingPlace for Microsoft Outlook, Cisco MeetingPlace for Lotus Notes, Cisco MeetingPlace Directory Integration, and Cisco MeetingPlace Instant Messaging. These integration options are available for enterprise desktop and infrastructure integration. See corresponding datasheets for detailed information.
Figure 4. Cisco MeetingPlace 8112 and 8106 Platforms
PRODUCT SPECIFICATIONS
Table 1 lists product specifications for Cisco MeetingPlace 8112 audio server platform.
Table 2 lists product specifications for Cisco MeetingPlace 8106 audio server platform.
Table 1. Cisco MeetingPlace 8112 Audio Server Specifications
Feature
Description
Components
• Compact PCI chassis, PICMG 2.1 and H.110 compliant
• Twelve (12) DSP Slots for SmartBlades or Multi Access Blades
• H.323, Session Initiation Protocol (SIP) with MeetingPlace H.323/SIP gateway
• G.711 and G.729a audio compression
Physical Dimensions
• Height: 7 inches (18 cm)
• Width: 18.9 inches (48 cm)
• Depth: 14.5 inches (37 cm)
• Weight: approximately 40 pounds (18.2 kg) fully loaded
Power
• System power: 100-240 VAC, 50-60 Hz
• 510W maximum consumption
Mounting
Electronics Industry Alliance (EIA) Standard RS-310-C in 19" rack
Redundancy
• Two hot swappable, redundant power supplies
• Dual 36 G disk drives
• Network backup to remote servers
• Shadow Server option for complete database synchronization at remote site
SYSTEM CAPACITY
Cisco MeetingPlace 8100 Series platforms consist of the 8106 and 8112 platforms. The Cisco MeetingPlace 8112 platform can scale to 960 IP, 1152 T1-channel associated signaling (CAS), 960 E1-PRI, or 768 T1-PRI concurrent users, whereas the 8106 platform can scale to half the size of the 8112 platform. A single meeting can support up to 550 participants.
Cisco MeetingPlace Web Conferencing 5.3 can support up to 1152 concurrent Web conferencing users with a cluster of Cisco Media Convergence Servers. Each server in a cluster can support up to 200 concurrent Web conferencing users, and the maximum meeting size is 150 for presentation sharing meetings and 100 for application sharing meetings (see MeetingPlace Web Conferencing datasheet for more detail).
The MeetingPlace Video Integration supports up to 100 video conferencing participants at 128 kbps or 70 participants at 384 kbps on the Cisco IPVC 3500 Series MCUs. The Cisco IPVC Enhanced Media Processing card is available as an option for video layout composition as well as transcoding and transrating requirements.
FEATURES
Voice Conferencing
• In-session meeting features:
– Announced entry and departure
– Roll call
– Breakout sessions
– Mute
– Out-dial capability to an individual or a team
– Lock meeting
– Screened entry
• Reservationless option-Users can hold voice and Web meetings with a personal meeting ID without the need for scheduling.
• Recording-Allows automatic recording and playback of meeting sessions.
• Lecture-Style Meetings with Q&A-Provides listen-only meetings with facilitated question and answer sessions.
• Continuous Meetings-Meetings that do not end are especially useful for crisis management applications.
• Conference User Interface:
– Speaker ID: Identifies who is speaking at any given moment
– Participant lists: Lists all participants attending the meeting
– Meeting controls: Allows meeting organizer to mute and unmute, change speaking ability, record, lock, eject, and end meeting
• Find Participant-Search for users by calling a sequence of main phone, alternate phone, and pager numbers.
• Meeting Message-Users can prerecord messages for other participants to hear before entering the meeting.
• Multilanguage Support-Voice prompts options for American English, British English, Japanese, French, French-Canadian, German, Portuguese (Brazil), and Spanish (Americas).
• Scheduling via Phone Interface-Users can schedule future meetings or initiate reservationless meetings using the phone user interface.
Web Conferencing
See the Cisco MeetingPlace Web Conferencing data sheet for more details.
• Presentations-Users can share or view PowerPoint presentations using only a Web browser on Windows, Mac, and UNIX.
• Annotations and Whiteboard-Users can annotate on shared applications, presentations, and whiteboards.
• Record and Play Back-Automatically record and playback synchronized Web and voice meeting content without the need for additional hardware or software at the desktop-Voice recordings can be exposed in WAV, MP3, or Windows Media.
• Remote Control Sharing-Organizers can allow a user to take control of any desktop, application, document, or Website.
• Chat-Meeting participants can use text messaging within meetings.
• Polling-Participants can vote on questions and give feedback during the meeting.
• Multilanguage Support-Web interfaces in English, Japanese, French, German, Portuguese (Brazil) and Spanish (Americas)
Video Conferencing
See the Cisco IPVC 3500 Series MCU datasheet for more details.
• Cisco IP Video Telephony-Ad-hoc video conferencing for Cisco CallManager video telephony endpoints.
• Video Encoding-H.261, H.263, H.263++ and H.264. Cisco CallManager SCCP ports currently support H.261 and H.263.
• Enhanced Display Options-Voice activated, Continuous Presence with four participants and Enhanced Continuous Presence with a choice of 26 different layouts are offered.
• Rate Matching-Each endpoint in a videoconference can participate according to individual video bandwidth capabilities without affecting the connection of other participants.
• Audio Transcoding-The MCU matches the audio capabilities of each calling endpoint before mixing the audio from all participants. H.323 conference participants may use G.711, G.722, G.722.1, G.723.1, G.728, or G.729 audio encoding. SCCP conference participants may use G.711, G.722, G.728 or G.729 audio encoding.
Security
• Dedicated On-Net System-Each customer is provided a dedicated Cisco MeetingPlace system integrated with the private network.
• Internet Lock-Out Controls-Meetings can be set up as internal-only meetings held entirely behind the corporate firewall, or as external meetings accessible to Internet participants. Administrators and meeting organizers have complete control.
• Access Authentication-Meeting organizers can require that participants authenticate themselves using individual logins to attend a meeting or to access the documents and recordings for a meeting. Further, Cisco MeetingPlace automatically can block out users after multiple failed login attempts.
• Automated Account Management-Cisco MeetingPlace integrates with corporate directories, automatically removing accounts of employees who leave the company. For more details, see the Cisco MeetingPlace Directory Integration datasheet.
• Encryption-Cisco MeetingPlace supports encrypted Web pages and Web conferencing traffic using Secure Sockets Layer (SSL).
• In-Session Meeting Controls-Meeting organizers can change voice and Web conferencing permissions, specify announced entry and departure, require passwords, lock the meeting, and eject unwanted attendees.
System Administration
• Configuration-System has options for setting usage, scheduling, access, and meeting preference parameters.
• Customizable voice prompts and database fields.
• Reports-Standard configuration; usage (voice, video, and Web), and billing reports. Detailed raw data reports to track meeting and participant details.
• Capacity Management-System parameters optimize port utilization and meeting traffic charts.
• System Status-Remote management and monitoring using Simple Network Management Protocol (SNMP) traps. Alarm out-dials to phone or pager.
• Disaster Recovery-Automated database backs up to network drives. Shadow server configuration synchronizes profile and meeting databases for site disaster.
Table 4. Cisco MeetingPlace Hardware and Software Options
Part Number
Product Name
MP-SMARTBLADE
Cisco MeetingPlace Audio Conference Module, 96 ports with 4xT1-CAS
MP-MA-4
Cisco MeetingPlace Gateway Module, 120 IP ports
MP-MA-4-PRI
Cisco MeetingPlace Gateway Mod., 4xPRI (T1/E1)
MP-MA-16
Cisco MeetingPlace Gateway Mod., 480 IP ports
MP-MA-16-PRI
Cisco MeetingPlace Gateway Module 16xPRI (T1/E1)
MP-AUDIO-UL-24
Cisco MeetingPlace Audio Conference user license bundle, 24 user licenses
MP-AUDIO-UL-30
Cisco MeetingPlace Audio Conference. user license bundle, 30 user licenses
MP-MTGTM-SITE-5.3
Cisco MeetingPlace MeetingTime Site License
MP-FLEX-MENU
Cisco MeetingPlace Flex Menu Option
MP-LANG-5.3
Cisco MeetingPlace Multilingual System License
Table 5. Web Conferencing Options
Part Number
Product Name
MP-WEBCONFSW-5.3
Cisco MeetingPlace Web Conferencing 5.3 (includes 20 concurrent Web conferencing user licenses)
MP-RM-RECORDING
Cisco MeetingPlace Web-Voice Recording System License
MP-CONF-UI-5.3
Cisco MeetingPlace Conferencing User Interface (included in Cisco MeetingPlace Solution Bundles; includes five concurrent Web conferencing user licenses)
MP-WEB-UL-20
Cisco MeetingPlace Web Conferencing User License Bundle, 20 user licenses
Table 6. Integration Applications
Part Number
Product Name
MP-VIDEO
Cisco MeetingPlace Video Integration
MP-IP-GW
Cisco MeetingPlace H.323/SIP Gateway (included in Cisco MeetingPlace Solution Bundles)
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