Cisco Telepresence server , Conductor server , TMS , MCU , VCS-c 2 , VCS-E 2

[Yazen Alaa]

Dear All

Currently i have new project with Cisco Telepresence server , Conductor server , TMS , VCS-c 2 , VCS-E 2 , my Questions are the following below :

- why i need Cisco Telepresence server ?

- why i need Cisco Conductor server ?

MCU can handle video conference participants and join to conference without need to Conductor and telepresense server , is it right ?

in acy=tually i have confused what is different between Cisco Telepresense Server and Conductor server and MCU?

please anybody explain what is the main differents between them

thanks and regards

[George Thomas]

Telepresence server is actually another bridge but provides some additional capabilities. When used with a conductor you can optimized conferencing which means that if you had the ports set to HD, and if a non-HD endpoint joins the bridge, an HD port is not used (which is the old behavior) whereas a SD port is utilized. This helps in having more conference resources available. I dont think it applies in your case but if you had CUCM, you could have connections from both CUCM and VCS to the TS via Conductor.

[Yazen Alaa]

Hi george

thanks for your reply . in actually i didnt understand whay you wrote , and i dont have CUCM .

in the other words if i want to cancel the telepresence server , what it will happend with MCU and Conductor server ? what exactly it will effect on my video conference ?

thanks and regards

[Abderazak Ouaret]

Hi anas,

TS and MCU have almost the same role regarding Multipoint Control. The difference between them is :

The TS offer globally Multiscreen Endpoint support and  Active presence while MCU offer auto attendant, web conferencing, custom conference layout etc.

So, unless you have multiscreen endpoints, the TS is not mandatory 

[Martin Koch]

If it is a new project, its worth to look into CUCM (Communications Manager) as the call control.

But sure, a VCS setup will also work.

You listed what your project contains, but you did not list the MCU in that list nor the type of MCU as thats just a generic keyword.

Third party vendors might also offer MCUs.

A Cisco/Tandberg/Codian Style MCU (most likely a type number with 4xxx,5xxx,8xxx) is the older version of how Cisco is doing multi party

conferences. Its a quite old code of software and only runs on a appliance. I do not expect that this hard or software will be developed any further.

The TelePresence Server is the new code, and for a new deployment I would definitely go with that and not the MCU!

The TelePresence Server is the current way to do multiparty conferences the Cisco way. The Conductor will be the

device to handle conference aliases and the allocation of Codian-Style MCU or TelePresence Server resources.

Just check out the Cisco site for more info on these products, or as you have a project running, why not ask your Cisco Partner or Cisco contact directly.