Chapter 4 - About Conferences
Video Conference Attributes
There are four general types of video conferences:
•Video Switching - A conference in which all participants use the same video and audio formats. Whenever a participant starts to speak, the participant appears on all endpoints in full screen display as the conference is a voice activated video switching conference.
•Transcoding (requires Video card) - A conference in which participants use different video, audio and data formats, while maintaining the highest video and audio capability each participant can achieve with his or her codec. Like video switching, the current speaker is displayed on all endpoints in full screen.
•Continuous Presence (requires Video card) - A conference in which several participants can be viewed simultaneously. In this type of conference, the highest video, audio and data quality for each participant depends on the participants endpoint capabilities.
In a traditional Continuous Presence conference, each participant uses a different video port on the Video card. This method enables such features as full Transcoding per participant, Personal Layouts (individualized Continuous Presence layouts per participant) and maintenance of overall video and audio quality for the
•Conference On Port (requires Video card) - A conferencing method suitable for large Continuous Presence conferences or when several Continuous Presence conferences are running on the MCU.
In Conference On Port, all conference participants use a single video port. This method allows for more than six participants to join a Continuous Presence conference and allows for up to six Continuous Presence conferences to be run on the MCU.
In a Conference on Port conference, a video layout can be selected for the conference, but all the participants, including the speaker, view the same layout and the same participants. The Personal layout selection is not available in Conference on Port and the video quality is determined by the highest common video parameters and by the video line rate.
