Configuring content settings

Controls whether the MCU as a whole is permitted to use content.

If this setting is Enabled, you can still enable or disable the use of content on a per-conference basis. For more information about configuring individual conferences, refer to Adding and updating conferences.

If this setting is Disabled, no conference will be able to use content.

If this setting is H.239 only, no conference will be able to use BFCP content.

Certain video conferencing endpoints and infrastructure such as gatekeepers may not operate correctly when communicating with equipment (such as the TANDBERG Codian MCU) which declares H.239 capability. It may therefore be necessary to set this to Disabled in order to work with legacy devices (this will, of course, also prevent content video streams being used with any H.239- or BFCP-aware equipment).

This field sets which video codec is used for conferences' content video streams.

A single content video stream is used for each conference, and this stream will be sent to all viewing endpoints. If an endpoint is unable to receive content video using the codec configured here, no content channel will be opened to that endpoint.

This field sets a lower limit on the bandwidth of the shared content video encoding sent to content receivers in a conference.

Changing this setting when there are connected participants causes the MCU to re-assess whether there should be content video channels to those endpoints; the MCU will close existing channels and open new ones as appropriate.

A single content video stream is used for each conference, and this stream will be sent to all endpoints receiving the content channel as a separate video channel. If some endpoints are only able to receive low bit rate streams (for instance if they have called into the MCU at a low call rate), it is sometimes preferable to exclude those endpoints completely from the content stream rather than force all viewers to see a reduced bit rate channel.

If you do not wish to exclude endpoints from viewing the shared content video channel in a conference, make sure this is set to <no minimum>, which is the default setting.

Where an endpoint cannot, for whatever reason, receive the content channel as an additional video channel, the MCU can show the content channel as part of the main video channel. That is, the participant will see the content as a pane in the conference layout. This functionality is controlled by the Display content in normal video channel setting (see below).

Note that during a call, an endpoint can send a 'flow control message' to the MCU that could cause the MCU to reduce the bit rate to that endpoint to below the configured Minimum content channel bit rate; in this case, the MCU will close the content channel to that participant. To re-enable content (which has been disabled in this way) to this participant, go to the conference's Participant list and use the content enable control. For more information about altering a participant's settings during a conference, refer to Viewing the conference participant list.

Sets whether the MCU will render content channel data in endpoints' main video channels.

If there is an active content channel for a conference, it may be that the MCU is unable to open a content channel to a particular endpoint. For instance, that endpoint may have no content capability, or might not support the video format specified by the Outgoing content video codec setting (see above).

In these cases, if this option is set to Enabled, the MCU will display the content channel video within a pane of the currently selected conference layout. In these cases, you might also want to enable the Automatically make content channel important option in the Settings > Conferences page which will make the content channel important at the same time.

Note that SIP endpoints receive content from the MCU in the normal video channel (rather than in a separate channel). For this reason, this option must be enabled to allow SIP participants to see content.

If this option is Enabled, the MCU will ignore fast update requests for a conference's content video channel received from endpoints whose connections are experiencing problems.

When this mode is active, it can prevent a large number of keyframes being sent in the shared content video encoding in response to fast update requests from a single endpoint. A high number of keyframes may reduce the video quality of the content channel for all conference participants, including those with good connections to the MCU.

Sets the bandwidth of the content channel video stream sent to streaming viewers.

This option is only available if the MCU web conferencing (WCO) feature key is present.

Just as there is a single content video stream sent to all content-capable video conferencing endpoints in a conference, there is a single content channel video stream sent to all streaming viewers.

This option allows the bandwidth of the streamed content channel video to be set. While in general a higher value means a greater frame rate (and thus better video quality), it is important to not set this value too high (i.e. higher than the available TCP network bandwidth between the MCU and viewers' machines) to avoid degradation resulting from lost data.

If Enabled, people viewing the content channel stream via a web browser will be able to add markup to that video stream such as graphics and text. This markup will then be visible to all content channel viewers, both those viewing via streaming and those connected via videoconferencing endpoints.

This option is only available if the MCU web conferencing (WCO) feature key is present.

Changing this setting has an immediate effect:

• if changed to Disabled, it will not be possible for existing viewers to complete markup currently in progress
• if changed to Enabled, existing streaming viewers will gain the ability to add markup

Allows for rapid swapping between content from different participants in a video conference. In a conference where a participant is sending content, this feature allows another endpoint to start sending content without having to wait for the current content provider to stop sending content from his computer.

The MCU applies this feature unit-wide. Therefore when it is enabled, all conferences on the MCU will allow automatic content handover.

This option is disabled by default.