Overview of Cisco Unified MeetingPlace Express

Table Of Contents

About Cisco Unified MeetingPlace Express

Features of Cisco Unified MeetingPlace Express

Components of Cisco Unified MeetingPlace Express

Voice Conferencing

Web Conferencing

End-User Interface

Administration Center

Cisco Unified MeetingPlace Express Service for the Cisco Unified IP Phone

E-Mail Notifications

Cisco TAC Interface

How Cisco Unified MeetingPlace Express Fits Into Your Network

Core Components of a Cisco Unified MeetingPlace Express System

Additional Components Needed for a Cisco Unified MeetingPlace Express System

About Cisco Unified MeetingPlace Express

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Cisco Unified MeetingPlace Express is a voice and web conferencing system that can support up to 200 simultaneous user sessions and up to 120 active meetings in an IP-only environment. Although Cisco Unified MeetingPlace Express uses Voice over IP (VoIP) technology and you must have a VoIP telephony system to install and use Cisco Unified MeetingPlace Express, callers on any type of telephone can join meetings hosted by the system.

Features of the Cisco Unified MeetingPlace Express system include reservationless meetings, web conferencing, and localization. End users find and schedule meetings and system administrators maintain the system by using a simple web interface. In addition, Cisco Unified MeetingPlace Express provides for Cisco Unified CallManager directory integration and support.

Topics in this section include:

•Features of Cisco Unified MeetingPlace Express

•Components of Cisco Unified MeetingPlace Express

•How Cisco Unified MeetingPlace Express Fits Into Your Network

Features of Cisco Unified MeetingPlace Express

Cisco Unified MeetingPlace Express has the following features:

•Voice and web conferencing, including reservationless meetings

•Web-based meeting scheduling

•Web-based administration and configuration

•Phone and in-meeting session features

•Cisco Unified IP Phone features

•Ability to record phone meetings and retrieve them from the web

•E-mail notifications

•Billing and reports

•Easy installation and configuration

Components of Cisco Unified MeetingPlace Express

Cisco Unified MeetingPlace Express is made up of the following components:

•Voice Conferencing

•Web Conferencing

•End-User Interface

•Administration Center

•Cisco Unified MeetingPlace Express Service for the Cisco Unified IP Phone

•E-Mail Notifications

•Cisco TAC Interface

Voice Conferencing

Voice conferencing allows users to attend meetings on the phone. The Voice User Interface (VUI) component works with scheduled and reservationless meetings and includes in-session meeting controls. End users join voice meetings by calling the telephone access number and specifying the meeting ID, or from the web components by specifying the phone number to call.

Features of voice conferencing in Cisco Unified MeetingPlace Express include the following:

•All participants speak to and listen to the meeting. They can also move to breakout sessions.

•All participants can review the names of the other people who have joined the meeting.

•All participants can control the meeting recording and lock the meeting.

•If enabled, all participants can place calls to other people and help them join the meeting.

Web Conferencing

Web conferencing allows users to attend meetings on the web. The web conferencing component works with scheduled and reservationless meetings and includes the standard in-session meeting controls. Users join web meetings by using the click-to-attend links in the e-mail notification for the meeting or by entering the URL of the click-to-attend link in the address field of a web browser.

Features of web conferencing in Cisco Unified MeetingPlace Express include the following:

•All participants can view a list of participants in the meeting room, as well as see each user's role (moderator, presenter, or audience), and status (for example, whether they are successfully connected).

•All moderators and presenters can share a view of the applications running on their screen with the meeting participants. For example, a presenter might show slides using Microsoft PowerPoint.

•All moderators and presenters can use the web conferencing tools to annotate shared screen content and blank white boards.

•Moderators can control attendee permissions from within the meeting room.

End-User Interface

There are a number of functions, such as scheduling and finding meetings, editing user preferences, and listening to meeting recordings that can only be accomplished using the Cisco Unified MeetingPlace Express End-User Interface. All End-User Interface functions require that users be authenticated except for the ability to find and attend meetings, which, depending on configuration, may be available to unauthenticated users.

The End-User Interface has a customizable page header that displays whether the end user is logged in and provides links to the following pages: Attend meetings, Schedule meetings, Find meetings, Start Reservationless meetings, Profile, Log Off, and Help pages.

The End-User Interface allows end users to do the following:

•Attend meetings.

End users can attend voice and web meetings by entering the meeting ID or by selecting the meeting from the list of scheduled meetings.

•Schedule meetings.

End users can schedule meetings on the Meeting Details page. They enter a meeting subject and either set the meeting ID or have the system set one for them. End users select the meeting date and time, the meeting length, the number of callers, decide if the meeting should be recorded, and set the meeting type, either recurring, continuous, or one-time. End users can invite participants to the meeting via e-mail. The Meeting Details page also has a link where end users can configure the Cisco Unified MeetingPlace Express system to call them at the specified meeting time.

•Find meetings.

End users can search for meetings based on meeting ID, beginning date, or ending date. End users can also limit their searches to only their meetings, public meetings, or meetings with recordings.

•Edit meetings.

End users can edit meetings on the Meeting Details page. This includes rescheduling meetings, inviting more participants, and adding or editing meeting passwords.

•Delete meetings.

End users can delete meetings on the Meeting Details page.

•View and edit end-user profiles.

An end user's profile contains various information about the end user, such as the end user's name, time zone, and e-mail address. End users can edit their web and phone passwords, assign delegates, and set many other preferences on the Edit Profile page.

•Listen to or view meeting recordings.

End users can access meeting recordings on the Meeting Details page.

Administration Center

The Administration Center is the system administrator's interface for Cisco Unified MeetingPlace Express. System administrators are those users who maintain the Cisco Unified MeetingPlace Express system. Examples of administrator tasks include the following:

•Create, delete, and manage user profiles and user groups.

•View and reset locked profiles.

•Configure the default values for basic Cisco Unified MeetingPlace Express operations, such as password properties and system telephone numbers.

•Configure the default values for scheduled and reservationless meetings, such as the number of allocated ports and meeting guard times.

•Configure the H.323, SIP, dialing, and voice parameters.

•Administer the e-mail service, including specifying which external SMTP servers the system can use.

•Specify the template and content for e-mail notifications.

•Perform routine maintenance, such as configuring the system for backups, cleaning up system files, customizing voice prompts, and importing or exporting files to or from other applications.

•View and configure system logs and alarms.

•View the current status of the Cisco Unified MeetingPlace Express system.

•Customize the End-User Interface, such as adding a company logo or customizing the fields that end users see when scheduling a meeting.

•Run reports.

•Configure SSL.

Cisco Unified MeetingPlace Express Service for the Cisco Unified IP Phone

The Cisco Unified MeetingPlace Express service for the Cisco Unified IP Phone can be used with the 7940, 7960, and 7970 series, as well as with the Cisco IP Communicator. Each of these Cisco Unified IP Phone screens can display the meeting ID, roster, active speaker, mute state, and a list of invitees who are not attending.

Assuming that end users have the proper authorization, the primary Cisco Unified MeetingPlace Express features available as a Cisco Unified IP Phone include the following, using voice, function keys, and the display screen:

•Find and join a meeting by entering the meeting ID.

•Start a reservationless meeting.

•Join a running meeting via a dialout (with password challenge where appropriate).

•Display the meeting ID.

•Display the meeting details.

•Display the roster of meeting participants.

•Display a list of invited participants who are not attending the meeting.

•Display the name of the active speaker.

•Display all meetings for today to which users are invited or allowed to join.

•Display continuous meetings.

•Lock or unlock a meeting.

•Turn on or off the meeting entry and exit prompts.

•Start and stop meeting recordings.

•Mute, unmute, and drop users.

•Display help screens for each of these functions.

E-Mail Notifications

E-mail notifications are the messages that Cisco Unified MeetingPlace Express sends to end users with details about upcoming meetings. Cisco Unified MeetingPlace Express generates an e-mail notification after an end user schedules a meeting and sends it to everyone invited to the meeting.

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Note Cisco Unified MeetingPlace Express does not generate e-mail notifications for reservationless meetings.

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Information in the e-mail notification may include the following:

•Meeting ID

•Meeting time

•Meeting name

•Password

•Meeting owner (including e-mail address and phone number)

•Meeting frequency (if this is a one-time only meeting or a recurring meeting). If it is a recurring meeting, how often the meeting occurs.

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Note These e-mail notifications do NOT contain information about recurrence exceptions. For example, it is possible to create a meeting series every Tuesday, with some exceptions. These exceptions are not reported in the e-mail notification.

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•All the phone numbers in your system that can be used to call in to the meeting

•List of invitees

•Click-to-attend link

E-mail notifications can be in either HTML or plain text, depending on the end user's preference. The default is HTML. For profiled users, all dates and times are modified to reflect the recipient's time zone.

Cisco TAC Interface

Cisco Unified MeetingPlace Express has a Cisco TAC interface that consists of the command-line interface and its commands. System administrators use the Cisco TAC interface, also known as the command-line interface or CLI, for system troubleshooting and diagnostics.

How Cisco Unified MeetingPlace Express Fits Into Your Network

You must have a functioning VoIP telephony network before you can install and configure Cisco Unified MeetingPlace Express. For example, you can use Cisco Unified CallManager or a SIP proxy environment, but the server and phones must be up and running before you install Cisco Unified MeetingPlace Express.

Core Components of a Cisco Unified MeetingPlace Express System

A Cisco Unified MeetingPlace Express system is comprised of the following three components:

•Operating system. The Cisco Unified MeetingPlace Express operating system is a Linux-based Cisco operating system.

•Cisco Unified MeetingPlace Express application. This includes the Administration Center, the End-User Interface, the VUI, voice conferencing, web conferencing, e-mail notifications, and the Cisco TAC interface.

•Cisco Unified MeetingPlace Express database. This is an Informix database that holds user, group, and meeting information.

Additional Components Needed for a Cisco Unified MeetingPlace Express System

While technically not required, we very highly recommend that you include the following in your Cisco Unified MeetingPlace Express system:

•Either Cisco Unified CallManager or Cisco Unified CallManager Express:

–Cisco CallManager, version 3.3 or Cisco Unified CallManager version 4.0 or higher. The software that runs the telephony network.

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Note Cisco CallManager version 3.3 does not support SIP. It only supports H.323.

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or

–Cisco Unified CallManager Express version 3.3

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Note The Cisco Unified MeetingPlace Express service for the Cisco Unified IP Phone is not currently supported if you use Cisco Unified CallManager Express.

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•Cisco H.323 Gatekeeper in the C2600 or C3700 series. This gatekeeper should be logically connected between Cisco Unified MeetingPlace Express and Cisco Unified CallManager.

•Cisco IP telephony directory. The LDAP directory installed for use by Cisco Unified CallManager. Cisco Unified MeetingPlace Express uses the Cisco IP telephony directory to authenticate Cisco Unified MeetingPlace Express users against the Cisco Unified CallManager user directory.

•Voice gateway. The hardware that connects your IP telephony system to the public switched telephone network (PSTN).

•Cisco Unified IP Phones. Callers on any type of phone (IP or not) can start a reservationless meeting and attend scheduled meetings. However, users with Cisco Unified IP Phones can take full advantage of the Cisco Unified MeetingPlace Express service on the Cisco Unified IP Phone which has many features such as the ability to list meetings, attend meetings, and monitor and control meetings.