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Cisco Smart+Connected Meeting Spaces (Smart+Connected MS) is a solution that leverages the Cisco Service Delivery Platform (SDP). This solution enables viewing of the conference room details on IP phones, signage, room panels, and Smart+Connected MS web portal and also allows booking of meetings rooms using these devices.
The Smart+Connected MS is a solution that leverages the Service Delivery Platform (SDP). It provides features for conference room management using signage, room panels, and Smart+Connected MS web portal, and signage-based messaging using IP phones. The Smart+Connected MS leads to enhanced user experience, enhanced enterprise communication, and enhanced meeting room resource utilization as the updated meeting room information is widely available and easily accessible to the employees and the administrator. It leads to better resource management and energy savings that translate to reduced energy bills and more environment-friendly corporate practices.
The Smart+Connected MS solution allows you to do the following:
– Book conference/TelePresence (TP) rooms.
– View detailed floor plans with the locations of the conference rooms.
– View the conference room schedule in different views—Building level, Floor level, and Conference Room level.
– View the news content associated with the location.
– Quickly book the conference/TP room wherever the IP phone is located based on the room availability.
– Control the meeting room devices and equipment.
– Save energy by manually releasing a room for the duration it is unoccupied, in addition to the energy savings made when the solution automatically switches off devices.
– Configure multiple devices to suit your meeting and presentation needs using a single menu selection.
– Create a case to resolve a fault in a conference room, and convey the same to the others in the organization by sending messages to the IP phone in the room. Creating a case also notifies the administrator of the building who tries to resolve the fault.
– Search for the available conference/TP rooms based on your requirements such as room setup, room size, location, and so on and book them. Rooms that closely meet your search criteria are displayed if no exact match is found.
– View the current and upcoming meetings that you are part of or have organized.
– Accept, decline, or tentatively accept meeting invites.
– View all the scheduled meetings as a day, week, or month based calendar view.
– Book conference rooms easily by holding down the mouse key and dragging across the required time slot in the calendar view.
– Book conference rooms instantly using the Quick Booking option. Reservation is made simpler as you can key in the number of participants. Booking duration options range from 30 (the default duration) to 60 minutes. Location is by default the one specified in your Preferences.
– Use the detailed booking option where you can request for change in the room setup, book equipment, add meeting agenda and notes, and so on.
– Edit the details of the meetings you have organized.
– Save drafts of the bookings and edit them later.
– Save your preferred settings such as favorite rooms, location, and time zone.
– View the conference/TP room schedule and availability/occupancy status.
– Confirm conference/TP room occupancy (by using the Start Meeting option).
– Release conference/TP rooms manually.
In addition, the solution can help in energy savings by automatically switching devices to a standby mode when the meeting room is unoccupied and based on the configuration, turn them back on before the actual occupancy.
The overall configuration, maintenance, and content creation for the Smart+Connected MS solution is managed by the administrator through a web application. As an end user, the Smart+Connected MS helps you to effectively utilize and manage office resources using the digital signage/IEC, IP phones, room panels, and the web application. You can view the availability of the conference rooms/TP rooms and book them using digital signage/IEC/room panels, search for and book available meeting spaces using the Smart+Connected MS web application, control the conference room resources and customize the settings using IP phones, save energy by releasing the conference room ahead of the booking schedule, send messages to the digital signage/IEC from the conference room/TP room, and so on.
For more information, see: Chapter 5, “Managing the Conference Room Resources”
You can view/access the various features of the Smart+Connected MS application using touchscreen and non-touchscreen IP phones, signage/IEC, room panels, and the web portal. Some additional features are available when using touchscreen signage and touchscreen IP phones. For more information, see the “Features Available in Signage” section and the “Features Available in IP Phones” section in Chapter 5, “Managing the Conference Room Resources”.
To book a conference/TP room, you first need to check the availability of the rooms. You can do this by viewing the display on the Smart+Connected solution enabled signage. The three types of views on the signage are as follows:
– Signage—Displays the schedule of the primary conference/TP room and the other rooms associated to the signage. For touchscreen signage, you can use the signage to check the available meeting slots and book the room for those slots.
– Room Panel—Displays the schedule of the conference/TP room outside which it is placed. The room type, capacity, and features available are also shown. You can use the room panel to book and release the room.
The view on the signage is displayed for a specific preset duration of time, after which the other content added to the signage, if any, appears in a sequence.
The building view displays the following information:
Figure 1-1 shows the building view displayed on the signage.
Figure 1-1 Building Level View
Table 1-1 lists the main areas of the building view.
The floor level view displays the following information:
Note You can book any room plotted in the floor plan, if it is available, by tapping it. The Booking Details pop-up dialog opens.
Figure 1-2 shows the floor view displayed on the signage.
Table 1-2 lists the main areas of the floor view.
The conference room view displayed on the signage provides the following information:
Note If a conference room has been booked using the mail client, the subject of the meeting and the attendee list is displayed on the signage. These details are not displayed if the administrator enables the ‘Hide Subject’ and ‘Hide Attendees’ options for the conference room. When the ‘Hide Subject’ option is enabled, the subject of the meeting is displayed in the format “Booked by <name of the meeting organizer>”.
Figure 1-3 shows the conference room view displayed on the signage.
Figure 1-3 Conference Room View on the Signage
Table 1-3 lists the main areas of the conference room view.
The conference room view displayed on the room panel provides the following information:
– Available—No meeting is scheduled/going on for the current time slot. The screen has a green background.
Note Just because a conference/TP room is available currently, it does not mean you can book it. The Book Now button will be shown only if the room is available for the next half-hour slot. For example, you see that the room is free at 9.45 am but the booking button is not displayed. This is because the room is booked from 10 to 10.30 am. As there is no booking after 10.30, the Book Now button will be shown only after 10.30 am.
– Meeting in progress—Room is unavailable as a meeting is going on. The screen has a brown background and the Release Room button is displayed.
– Booked—Room is unavailable as a meeting is scheduled for the time slot. The screen has a brown background and the Start Meeting button is displayed.
– Room released—Room is not occupied and has been released before the booking time ends. The screen has a brown background and no task button is displayed. The status changes to Available and the screen background turns green after the screen is refreshed. This means that the room is free and is available for use. The Book Now button is also displayed, if the room is available for the next half-hour slot.
– Book Now—Displayed only if the room is available for the next half-hour slot.
– Start Meeting—Displayed for the first x minutes for each room booking. Where, x is the time interval configured by the administrator for the automatic release of the room due to non-occupancy. If the button is not tapped during this time period, the room is automatically released and energy saving settings are applied to the devices in the room. When you tap the Start Meeting button, a message appears on the top of the screen informing you that the meeting is started successfully.
Note The Start Meeting button is displayed on a brown screen background indicating the unavailability of the conference/TP room.
– Release Room—Displayed after the Start Meeting button is tapped and appears till the booking end time. Tap this to manually release the room before the booking end time. When you tap the Release Room button, a message appears on the top of the screen informing you that the meeting room is released successfully.
Note If the room is released automatically or manually, the screen turns green after it is refreshed indicating availability of the conference room. The status is displayed as Available. The Book Now button is also displayed, if the room is available for the next half-hour slot. For more information, see the “Releasing Conference/TP Rooms using Room Panels” section.
Figure 1-4 shows the conference room view displayed on the room panel.
Figure 1-4 Conference Room View on Room Panel
Table 1-4 lists the main areas of the conference room view.
Table 1-5 lists the features that are available/can be accessed using the following devices:
Apart from booking the conference rooms using the traditional methods, you can use the touchscreen signage located in a building to book the available conference rooms in the building through the conference room and floor plan layout views. You can view the conference room schedule details using any of the three signage views. You can also book the conference rooms using the Smart+Connected MS user portal, room panels, and the IP phones located in the conference rooms.
Note Some of the signage within a premise can be without the touchscreen. Although you cannot use them to book the conference rooms, you can view the room availability as the display is similar to that in the touchscreen signage.
You are allowed to book a conference/TP room up to three hours in advance.
To book a conference/TP room using the touchscreen signage, perform the following steps:
Step 1 Tap the time slot for which you want to book the conference/TP room from the schedule that is displayed on the signage.
The Schedule a Meeting dialog box appears. The start time of the booking is automatically displayed in the From drop-down list depending on the slot that you have selected. You can change the time by choosing another option from the drop-down list.
Figure 1-5 shows how to book a room using the signage.
Figure 1-5 Booking Room Using Signage
Step 2 Choose the duration for which you want to book the room from the first For drop-down list. Choose the Minutes option from the second For drop-down list. The time of the next meeting is displayed below the drop-down list, so that you can avoid selecting a time slot that clashes with it.
Step 3 Enter your User ID with the help of the virtual keyboard that is displayed on the screen, and tap Accept. User ID is the ID that uniquely identifies a user in the corporate directory (LDAP).
Step 4 Tap Book to book the conference room or tap Cancel to close the dialog box.
If you tap Book, a dialog box appears informing you that the meeting schedule request has been received, and that you need to check your email to know the booking status.
A meeting is scheduled in Microsoft Exchange for the conference room, and an automatic acceptance mail is sent to you from the conference room stating that your meeting request has been accepted. The status of the conference room and the meeting details for the room are updated when the signage page is refreshed. The subject of the meeting will be displayed as: “Booked by <your name>”.
You can book a conference/TP room using a touchscreen IP phone in the room only if the status of the room is “Available” at that time. If the room is occupied or a meeting is in progress, the option for booking the room is unavailable. After the booking is done, the schedule of the conference room is updated in the signage displays.
To book a conference/TP room using touchscreen IP phone, perform the following steps:
Step 1 On the IP phone, press the Services button.
The list of available services appears.
Step 2 Tap the service that has been created for the Smart+Connected MS in Cisco Unified Communications Manager (CUCM).
The Smart+Connected MS service screen appears.
Note For this guide, it is assumed that the name of the Smart+Connected MS service configured in CUCM is ‘S+CC Service’.
Step 3 Tap the book room icon. Choose the duration for which you want to book the room from the drop-down list that appears.
Note This room booking feature will be available only if the "Room Booking" feature is added to the configuration that is associated to the location.
Step 4 Enter your user ID to book the room. The room is reserved for the selected time slot. The following room reservation details are displayed on the IP phone:
Note The booking of conference/TP rooms feature is not available in non-touchscreen IP phones.
To book a conference/TP room using touchscreen IP phone, perform the following steps:
A dialog box appears displaying all the half-hour time slots available before the next booking for the room.
Step 2 (Optional) Only a certain number of half-hour time slots are displayed per view. Tap the left and right arrow buttons to scroll through the time slots.
Step 3 Tap the required time slot. By default, the next half-hour slot is highlighted.
For example, you try to book the room at 9.20 am. The next slot is 9.30 am and the room is available from this slot. When you tap Book Now, the 10 am slot will be highlighted by default.
A dialog box appears displaying the Username field.
Step 5 Enter your user ID in the Username field by using the onscreen keyboard.
A message appears at the top of the screen informing that your request has been received, and you are asked to check your mail to know the booking status. A booking confirmation mail, which displays details such as the date, time, and location of the meeting, is send to your e-mail ID.
The room panel interface is refreshed to display the updated schedule. Your name is displayed for the booked time slot in the room schedule that appears on the room panel.
Step 7 (Alternatively) Tap the button on any of the two dialog boxes to return to the main room panel screen without booking the room.
You can book conference rooms by using the Smart+Connected MS web portal. For more information, see Chapter 3, “Booking Rooms Using the Portal”.
To release a conference/TP room using a room panel, tap the Release Room button. This button is available after a meeting is started using the room panel, that is, after you tap the Start Meeting button. The button is available till the meeting time lapses. When you tap the Release Room button, the room status changes from ‘Meeting in progress’ to ‘Room Released’. The room can be used by other employees in the enterprise. Releasing a room results in energy savings as the devices in the room are reverted to non-occupancy settings.
When no occupancy is detected in a conference/TP room or when the attendees fail to tap the Start Meeting button x minutes after the meeting start time, the conference/TP room is released automatically. Where, x is the automatic room release interval configured by the administrator. The words “Room Released” are displayed on the room panel screen and the room can be used by other employees in the enterprise.