Having a video call in Lync will never be the same again: Cisco/Tandberg eat this! – #Lync

Posted on 2011/04/28 by Tommy Clarke

One of the good things with Lync being “just” software is the endless possibilities that opens up to fine tune and create a system that is good for your organizations needs and well, price to for that matter.

First, you can hook up some conference rooms with some RED epic cameras and plug it in to the USB port on a quadcore computer of choice.

EPIC-M package includes:

EPIC-M Brain with titanium PL mount (machined)
Bomb EVF
5″ Touchscreen LCD (machined)
DSMC Side Handle (machined)
DSMC Side SSD Module (machined)
REDmote (machined)
4x 128GB SSD cards
4x REDVolt batteries and travel charger
Custom laser-cut foam EPIC Pelican 1510 case
2 years of warranty coverage
http://www.red.com/store/epic/product/epic-m

Then there is the brand new LG flicker-free Cinema 3D computer monitors.

Price is not available yet.
http://www.engadget.com/2011/04/27/lg-brings-flicker-free-cinema-3d-to-computer-monitors-excel-wil/

After this setup I’m sure your golf buddies that’s been in the coolclub cause they have a cisco / Tandberg / whatever system, will now let you in and even might come to a meeting in your conference room again.

If you don’t like the RED epics and would go for some other cameras, make sure to look for this sticker.

And to make it easy I would recommend you to look in http://www.ultimate-communications.com/store/ to find all of the devices that are optimized for Microsoft Lync

Lync 2010 updated 2nd time in april CU2.1? – #Lync

Posted on 2011/04/27 by Tommy Clarke

The current version is now: 7577.275

Download & Readme

Fixed this time is a problem I,we been having with Lync online.

SQL Server 2008 R2 is now supported for all Lync Server databases. – #Lync

Posted on 2011/04/20 by Tommy Clarke

Just a quick post on SQL Server 2008 R2 support.

Please check http://blogs.technet.com/b/nexthop/archive/2011/04/20/lync-server-2010-support-for-sql-2008-r2.aspx for the full details.

Germany and Spain have some restrictions on VoIP in Lync Online 365 beta?– #Lync #Office365

Posted on 2011/04/20 by Tommy Clarke

According to http://www.microsoft.com/en-us/office365/enterprise/licensing-restrictions.aspx Multi-party VoIP is currently unavailable in Lync online in Germany and Spain.

I guess its related to some laws in those countries? Anyone that knows for sure why these restrictions are there??

Enable federation with Office365 in Lync On-prem – #Lync #Office365

Posted on 2011/04/19 by Tommy Clarke

Now that more and more people starting to get in to the O365 beta I get more and more questions on how to enable federation with on prem Lync installations. People that have tried does only get one way communication.

What people don’t realize is that the on premises Lync servers need to have the hosting provider set to be able to federate with Lync Online. Kind of the same way as federation with Live Messenger works.

This can be configured in two ways.

New-CSHostingProvider –identity LyncOnline –ProxyFqdn sipfed.online.lync.com –Enabled $True

The above will enable federation for all Office365 domains and is suited if you already allow “open federation”

Use Direct Federation by adding the Lync Online Allow domain entry with ProxyFqdn. ( Run the following two commands and replace youronlinedomain.com with your domain )

New-CSAllowedDomain –identity youronlinedomain.com

Set-csAllowedDomain youronlinedomain.com –ProxyFqdn sipfed.online.lync.com

In OCS then?

To enable this in OCS just add optional partner Access Edge server that is associated with this domain to be sipfed.online.lync.com on the OCS Edge server and in the allow list as you would normally do when adding a federated partner.

Or add it as an IM provider to enable federation with all Office 365 domains.

PIC in Lync Online / Office 365 for your domain will make that domain unavailable for Live Messenger – #Office365 #Lync

Posted on 2011/04/19 by Tommy Clarke

I have seen some people in the forums at http://community.office365.com/ that didn’t realized that enabling Public IM Connectivity (PIC) in Office 365 will actually move the pic federation domain from pointing at the Live Server and being used in Live Messenger to pointing to Office 365 and being used in Lync Online.

So lets say you have your own domain in Live Messenger i.e. tommy@mydomain.com

I now enable my Office 365 beta and add mydomain.com to in the Office 365 management portal. I then click around and enable pic for that domain. BOOM!!

From that moment the move process will start and your live messenger users will not be able to log in with their user@mydomain.com to Live Messenger anymore.

This is actually kind of the same thing that happens when you enable PIC for your on premises Lync server, except that this is a bit easier.

And remember, its still in beta, even though its now a public beta. So don’t play around with your real domain names to much. And read the warnings.

Microsoft Lync Server 2010 Web Scheduler – #Lync

Posted on 2011/04/18 by Tommy Clarke

Microsoft Lync Server 2010 Web Scheduler provides a Web-based online Lync meeting scheduling and management experience for Lync Server 2010.

Lync Web Scheduler is a resource kit tool for Microsoft® Lync Server 2010. It provides a Web-based alternative to the add-in for the Microsoft Office Outlook® messaging and collaboration client for the purpose of scheduling a meeting using Lync Server 2010. It also provides a browser-based conference management experience that includes operations such as the following:

Scheduling a new online Lync meeting.
Listing all existing Lync Server 2010 meetings that the user has organized.
Viewing and modifying details of an existing meeting.
Deleting an existing meeting.
Sending an email invitation to meeting participants by using a configured SMTP mail server.
Joining an existing conference.

http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/en/details.aspx?FamilyID=b7d8f948-fa64-4c51-8b54-2223954d1fa4

Document: Client Virtualization in Microsoft Lync 2010 – #Lync

Posted on 2011/04/14 by Tommy Clarke

This document outlines a series of best practice recommendations for running Lync 2010 in a virtualized environment.

http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/en/details.aspx?FamilyID=f865e66d-1163-46ef-ba9c-d585376dfbae&utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=twitter&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+MicrosoftDownloadCenter+%28Microsoft+Download+Center%29#tm

For the ones that don’t have time to read it all and just want the good stuff, here it is.

Full Desktop Remoting: In this mode, the entire desktop is remotely accessed by using either session virtualization or VDI.

Application Remoting: In this mode, a given application or a set of applications run on a remote server and accessed without remoting the entire desktop.

Application Streaming: In this mode, an application is virtualized by sequencing it, and deploying the sequenced version in the data center, in such a way that users can access and run the application on their local device without installing the application.

Microsoft Lync 2010

Feature	Full Desktop Remoting	Application Remoting	Application Streaming [1]
Presence	Supported	Supported	Supported
Instant Messaging	Supported	Supported	Supported
Desktop Sharing	Supported	Not Supported	Supported
Application Sharing	Supported	Not Supported	Supported
Sharing PowerPoint Presentations	Supported	Not Supported	Supported
Sharing Whiteboards	Supported	Supported	Supported
File Transfer	Supported	Supported	Supported
Audio	Desk phone paired using USBR[2]	Not Supported	Supported
Recording	Not Supported	Not Supported	Supported
Video	Not Supported	Not Supported	Supported
Online Meetings	Supported [3]	Supported ³	Supported [4]

[1] Application Streaming was verified on Microsoft products. For details, see the “Vendor Support” section earlier in this document.

[2] Audio is supported only in a VDI environment. Audio is not supported in a session-based desktop delivery environment such as Microsoft RDS.

[3] Communication modes for Online Meetings are limited by peer-to-peer communication modes supported for the specified architecture. For example, if audio is not supported on the specified architecture, audio will not work in Online Meetings.

[4] Joining online meetings from Microsoft Outlook meeting reminder and/or meeting invitation is not supported.

Troubleshooting Microsoft Lync Server 2010 Clients: Help Desk Resource

Posted on 2011/04/14 by Tommy Clarke

This is a great tool for helpdesk agents to resolve common problems in lync.

This resource is for first-level help desk agents who support Microsoft Lync Server 2010 clients. Note: The .zip file contains both the print documentation and the Help file.

http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/en/details.aspx?FamilyID=4222e61c-c199-47e0-b649-495b12d0b5e7

Ultimate Communications

Microsoft Unified Communications by Lync MVP Tommy Clarke

Monthly Archives: April 2011