Microsoft Office Live Meeting from Global Crossing Frequently Asked Questions (FAQs)

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1 Microsoft Office Live Meeting from Global Crossing Frequently Asked Questions (FAQs) Q. What is Microsoft Office Live Meeting from Global Crossing? A. Microsoft Office Live Meeting from Global Crossing is a high-quality audio and web-based conferencing service available on-demand. It provides a dynamic online meeting tool for advanced team collaboration and online training aide. Q. How can Microsoft Office Live Meeting from Global Crossing help my organization? A. Microsoft Office Live Meeting from Global Crossing can help your company: Facilitate communication for your dispersed employees. Accelerate market entry, products and services introductions. Drive organizational effectiveness and speed response time. Enhance productivity, performance and time management. Reduce your carbon footprint and travel expenditures. Provide pathway to IP network convergence. Q. What are the benefits of using Live Meeting? A. The key benefits you will realize from Live Meeting are: It makes online meetings more engaging and productive. It lowers the barriers to virtual communication and collaboration. It continues to sustain the industry standard for scalability and reliability. Q. What are the key features? A. The key features include the ability to: Collaborate on documents in real time Use electronic whiteboard to illustrate an idea Receive instant feedback on a presentation Visit and share Web sites with attendees Share control of an application running on one user s desktop Chat with participants Demonstrate an application and allow co-presenters / participants to take control Distribute virus-checked handouts in native file formats to download before/during meeting Use Webcams to show video of one or multiple presenters Show flash video in Web conference Create, share and save notes that all attendees can see Enable recordings, which attendees can save Poll, aggregate and show results; see individual responses too. Facilitate event, class registration and online exams

2 Q. What s new and improved? A. Several enhancements have been made to enhance the effectiveness of your collaborative work, training sessions and meetings through audio, video and rich media sharing and much more. What s new includes: What s improved includes: Show video (webcam and Roundtable camera - a device offered by Microsoft) Various media file types supported Additional recording options Online exams Anti-virus scanning engine Raised hand option Shared Notes pane Virtual Breakout Rooms. Audio sub-conferencing not currently supported with this feature. Handouts in native file formats Optional VoIP feature Event & class registration Web Access Client Re-designed client Event & class registration Annotation tools Q. Is Outlook integration supported with Live Meeting? A. Yes, after logging in you will be taken to an interim page where you find the link for Outlook Add-in with instructions on setting that up with your credentials. Q. Is Lotus Notes integration supporting with Live Meeting? A. Yes, please contact your account manager for details. Q. Is the Add-in Pack for Microsoft Word, Excel and PowerPoint still supported? A. This release will not include an Add-in Pack for Microsoft Word, Excel and PowerPoint like the Add-in Pack for Q. Does Live Meeting support the Java console? A. Yes, the Java console is supported for those using non-windows operating systems (Mac, Unix) and those in locked-down desktop environments who cannot install applications. Q. Is there a way to see which participants are using the Windows client and which participants are using the Java console? A. Yes, the Support Console available to organizers displays this information. Q. Does the Windows client require the download and installation of an application? A. Yes, the Windows client is an application that must be installed. The software is installed the first time you enter a meeting. Once it is installed, you can attend subsequent meetings without additional installations. Q. Does the application sharing feature require a separate plug-in? A. No, the Windows client has application sharing bundled in, so a separate download or installation is not needed. Presenters using the Java console will not have the ability to initiate application sharing; however, they will be able to view sharing sessions initiated by a presenter using the Windows client. 2

3 Q. Is a manual installer available for organizations with locked-down desktops? A. Yes, the Windows client has a manual installer so that it can be packaged for distribution by IT organizations in lockeddown desktop environments. Q. Can I view a slide in full-screen mode? A. Yes, by maximizing the window to full-screen mode and hiding the control panels (CTRL-H), any participant can view slides in full-screen mode. Q. Can the presenter force the audience members into full-screen mode? A. No, the Windows client was designed so that participants can resize the window and the content area to their own personal preferences. Q. Will the Windows client remember the size and location of the panels if I resize them to my preference? A. Yes, the Windows client will display each participant's configuration preference in subsequent meetings. Q. Can presenters ask questions? A. Yes, presenters using the Windows client can submit questions the same way audience members do. Q. Do the recording reports show how long a user viewed the recording? A. No, the recording reports show the duration of the entire recording and the time that a user viewed the archive, but do not show how long each individual actually watched. Q. With recurring meetings, can I change the attributes of one of the instances? A. No, the attributes for recurring meetings are set and shared for all occurrences. Q. Are ongoing meetings supported? A. Yes, Live Meeting supports this useful function. Q. What if I want the VoIP feature enabled? A. Customers who wish to have the VoIP feature enabled, must contact their sales account manager for more details. Q. In which countries can I use VoIP? A. Please consult your account manager for details. Q. Will PC-based / client-side recording be available when VoIP is disabled? A. PC-based / Client Side recording is not available when VoIP is disabled. Users will only be allowed to use server-side recording when VoIP is disabled. Q. Which features are on/off by default? A. The Internet Audio Broadcasting (one-way VoIP audio) feature will remain on. The Video feature is on by default. Currently, the video feature cannot be disabled, but Microsoft is working on a patch that will allow us to turn off this feature on a per conference center basis. When the VoIP feature is disabled, the automated video switching will not be active, so customers will need to manually switch video to display the person speaking. All other features are on be on by default. Q. Is audio supported with the breakout rooms? A. The breakout rooms will be available, however, the audio will not sub-conference into the breakout rooms at this time 3

4 Q. What s changed with this new version? A. With the Microsoft Office Live Meeting from Global Crossing, core changes have been made to allow broad web conferencing service availability to all users in an organization. Similar to Microsoft Exchange and Office SharePoint, Live Meeting 2007 is licensed per internal conference attendee -- any internal user who attends or organizes a meeting. External users do not require a license and user prices are significantly lower than the prior Shared Seat or Named User / Organizer licensing models. Two licensing options are available -- Standard and Professional. The Professional license offers richer features, including a maximum technical system capacity of 1,250 attendees for meetings. The Live Meeting Standard license provides a maximum conference attendance capacity of 15 attendees. Most meetings involve fewer than 5 participants, so the majority of Live Meeting Users in an organization may be licensed with Live Meeting Standard. An organization may purchase a mix of Standard and Professional licenses. Live Meeting 2007 is licensed per internal conference attendee. External conference attendees do not require a license. Your hosted meetings do not require licenses for your customers, clients, suppliers, or partners to attend the meeting. There are no additional charges for concurrent seat overage, recording storage, or separate rooms. Q. What s the difference between Professional versus Standard versions? A. Please see matrix below that compares/contrasts the Professional versus Standard version Edition Standard Professional OLM User Subscription Licenses Live Meeting 2007 Meeting Attendee Capacity Record Storage Days Ready-Access audio call controls Video (Cam & Roundtable) Application Sharing In-meeting File Transfer Rich Media Presentations Scheduling Add-In for Outlook Web-based access to account, reports, scheduling Reporting Shared Recordings Registration Virtual Breakout Rooms Advanced Testing/Grading Pre-meeting Handouts Windows Client Web-Based Client Q. Do I need to license all desktops? How do I estimate the number of users for my customer? A. This license-based billing model requires you to buy a license for all internal users who access the service both attendees and organizers. There is no requirement to license the Global Crossing Live Meeting service for internal users who do not attend or organize meetings. Global Crossing Live Meeting subscriptions are valuable for Information Workers throughout your organization. The new, lower pricing enables an information worker to easily benefit from web conferencing flexibility and collaboration 24x7. Q. Do I need to license external users? A. No, only internal users who attend or organize meetings require a license. External users / attendees do not require a license. Q. How do I determine the mix of Professional versus Standard licenses? 4

5 A. Most customers estimate a mix of some heavy users, who need Live Meeting Professional and a majority of light / medium users who use Live Meeting Standard. Pro users receive some additional features and a higher meeting capacity than Standard, but all users can seamlessly attend all meetings. Q. How does administration differ if I have a mix of Professional and Standard users? A. In a mixed user-type scenario both Pro and Standard users will access the service by through the same login screen on the Global Crossing conferencing page, using their Ready-Access numbers. Q. Can a licensed Standard user attend a Professional user s meeting? A. Yes, any Live Meeting licensee can attend a Live Meeting session, regardless if the attendee is licensed with Pro or Standard. Q. What if my organization is already licensed for web conferencing through Office Communications Server Enterprise CALs. Are there still charges for the Live Meeting hosted service? A. Live Meeting is an online hosted service and is a different offering than the OCS on-premise software license. OCS licenses do not include any license rights to use the hosted Live Meeting service. We encourage customers to explore the optimal combination of an OCS on-premise solution and hosted Live Meeting service. Q. Can I still purchase Shared Seats or Organizer licenses? A. The Shared Seats and Organizer (Named User) licenses have been replaced by the Pro and Standard licenses as stated above. Existing customers that are licensed under these legacy models will need to migrate to the internal attendee license model at the end of their current contract. Q. What network requirements do I need to run video? A. You need the firewall ports open for video. Audio/Video has two different protocols for transmission: User Datagram Protocol (UDP) port 3478: UDP is preferred for performance, but can cause network congestion. If the UDP ports are blocked then audio/video can travel over TCP. Transmission Control Protocol (TCP) port 443: Using TCP creates lowered network congestion but lowers the quality of audio/video. When using a proxy for TCP communications, proxy authentication must be disabled to the Live Meeting IP address ranges. Audio is affected the most by using TCP because the ear is more sensitive to timing disturbances. The audio/video is encrypted using Secure-RTP. To decrypt the media, SIP signaling is done through port 443 SSL. For the video capability to work, you need to have a webcam or Roundtable device be able to upload an existing video in a popular format. When more than one user is in a conference room presenting, you should use the Roundtable device provided by Microsoft. This device allows multiple people in the same room to be viewed via Live Meeting. The Roundtable also has a focused-view feature that automatically focuses on the speaker at that moment in time. Q. One of the biggest complaints regarding web cam is the latency. How can we resolve that? A. You need to first calculate the amount of bandwidth that a typical meeting takes and then compare this to the internet pipe that you have. Within Live Meeting 2007, computer audio gets the highest priority. When there is latency or less bandwidth, you might have choppy video or slow video performance due to Live Meeting allocating more bandwidth to the computer audio portion of the meeting. In terms of webcam usage, you need a high-speed connection to the internet. The connection speeds required are listed below. Peak Bandwidth Measured in Microsoft Office Live Meeting Application Sharing Scenario Web browsing an online application with Internet Explorer LAN Bandwidth (100 Mbps) LAN Bandwidth (10 Mbps) Modem Bandwidth (56 Kbps) 138 Kbps 102 Kbps 56 Kbps 5

6 Peak Bandwidth Measured in Microsoft Office Live Meeting Application Sharing Sharing a CAD application rendering in 2D and 3D views 106 Kbps 102 Kbps 56 Kbps Sharing a Microsoft Office Excel spreadsheet containing 3D charts 38 Kbps 39 Kbps 13 Kbps Bandwidth Requirements for Voice and Video Minimum High-Quality Voice 50 kbps 80 kbps Webcam 50 kbps 350 kbps RoundTable 100 kbps 700 kbps Please review each column in these charts since you need to add the typical Live Meeting 2007 traffic with the video stream. Remember that each of the video numbers listed represent one-way broadcasts. If two people are sharing a webcam, you need to double that number. When the VoIP feature is disabled, the automated video switching will not be active, so you will need to manually switch video to display the person speaking. Q. What about uploaded videos? A. For optimal performance, do not play a video through desktop application sharing. This leads to lowered video quality and less colors. The optimal way is to upload the video before the meeting starts through the Live Meeting Manager before a meeting starts so once the attendees join the meeting, the content can begin to download to the attendee s PC. When the chairperson uploads video, they would click on the Content pane, Share and then Upload File (view only), which will allow them to browse and select their video clip. Thereafter, the Live Meeting service will download it for the chairperson, and once they receive it, then the service will make it available to attendees. Once the content is uploaded, users can download the data as needed for playback. The attendees will download the slide deck first and then Live Meeting will make other uploaded files available. All the files will be stored as encrypted files and will decrypt only when viewed. The playback can be controlled by the presenter. This ensures that the uploaded video file is secure and can be played back at the appropriate time. Q. Is there a maximum file size for video? A. When a video file that is uploaded is greater than 30mbs, the user gets a message that warns them that performance might be degraded for users downloading the video. The maximum file size is 150mbs. Having a high resolution or large-sized video might take users significant time to download. This might cause the attendees to wait as the video buffers. The content is uploaded in 10mb chunks and gets reassembled when all the data is there. The video can play once the first segment is in place. When the video is uploaded, it needs to be in a popular Windows supporter format which includes wmv, wma, avi, asf, swf, mpg and mpeg. Q. What if I have questions with Live Meeting or need help troubleshooting an issue? A. You can consult our reference tools, such as user guides on our web site: Click on Global Crossing Live Meeting. Technical support for Live Meeting is also available to all Live Meeting customers 24 hours a day, 7 days a week via telephone and U.S. (toll free) Canada (toll free) Europe (toll free) U.K Other international locations (toll free U.S.) 6

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