SIP trunks, Video MCU, Dial in/out with IBM Sametime 9

SIP trunk are very important in Telephony and Video world. With IBM Sametime 8, in order to enable SIP trunk capabilities, it was required to buy IBM® Sametime® Unified Telephony Lite. This
licence enables you to place calls to and receive calls from internal or external phone numbers, video conferencing systems or video conferencing endpoints on your desktop.

With the new licensing model of IBM Sametime 9, this license is now free of charge... It is included in almost all bundles (Communicate and Complete) - link

I forecast that almost all IBM Sametime deployments will involve SIP trunks, because it opens IBM Sametime to a entirely new world:

• Device-based dialing for Sametime softphone functionality
• Call non-Sametime users — reach people on any device including Polycom RealPresence audio/video endpoints 
• Provides rich remote collaboration experience with video—reducing productivity loss, expense of travel, and telephony costs

 

SUT Lite call to a video endpoints from IBM Sametime 9 Client

In addition to enable licence in the IBM Sametime System Console, you need to define rules in Sametime SIP Proxy.
You can find two excellent guide to do it:

• From Zero to Hero - Sametime Unified Telephony Lite: link 
• IBM Sametime 8.5.2 Unified Telephony Lite Client troubleshooting guide: link 

These documents have been written for IBM Sametime 8.5.2 IFR1, but they are still very valuable for S9.

But, the Audio/Video media framework has slightly changed, so I would like to share with you additional elements. IBM Sametime 9 now includes a "true" MCU, providing continuous presence and the support of SIP SVC (and AVC).

In a Sametime Meeting, you can do a dial out to an endpoints via moderator Control (picture 1), but now you can also dial in. You can retrieve dial in information from conference details (picture 2).

Dial-out

Dial-in

IBM Sametime 9 & SIP trunk architecture

The four main component of the A/V media framework are :

• SIP Proxy/registrar (P/R)
• Conference Focus
• VMgr
• VMcu 

These components are linked together via REST API or SIP trunk. I have tried to summarize it in the below schema.

In order to link Sametime 9 with the outside world, I have added two SIP trunks (black lines):

• Between external SIP server and SIP P/R
• Between SIP P/R and VMgr

My "simple" dial plan:

• S9 VMgr meeting: 10xx
• SIP Endpoints: 12xx

That is my rules (order is important)

• Rule N°1 (dial-in) redirects incoming calls for the Sametime Video meeting to the VMgr (then Vmcu)

That means, calls coming from 10.47.49.164 that have 10xx as pattern should be routed to the VMGR (FQDN: stvideomgr.ucalab.polycom.com). A dial-in flow like this doesn't involve the conference focus.

• Rule N°2 redirects incoming calls to Sametime Client.

That means, calls coming from 10.47.49.164  should be routed to the Conference Focus (FQDN: sametime9.ucalab.polycom.com). A dial-in flow like this involves the conference focus.

• Rule N°3 (dial-out) redirects calls to external SIP server

That means, calls coming with 12xx as pattern should be routed to the external SIP proxy (@: 10.47.49.164).

Hope it will help to deploy SIP trunks with IBM Sametime 9.

Now, IBM Sametime 9 Meeting with content sharing and Audio/Video

Today, I have finalized IBM Sametime 9 Meeting deployment. The deployment of Meeting & Audio/Video services is really simple and straightforward.

 

Now, I'm waiting for the Sametime Meeting mobile app.

TED Talks: IBM Sametime Meetings as a translation platform for teaching surgery.

That's awesome what open technologies can do...

You can see more information about that prototype during a TED Talks here.
Marlon Machado (Sametime PM) also provides more details on that here.

Secure IBM Sametime Meetings URL

When you are using IBM Sametime Meetings rooms via Web interface, all URLs include the e-mail address of the owner of Meeting room. This fact is not important or problematic for internal deployment.
IBM Sametime Meetings is very useful for external virtual meeting with Business Partners and/or customers. The full-Web approach simplifies external people to join and attend Sametime Meetings.

The pattern of the URL of an IBM Sametime Meeting url is:
https://[hostname]/room/[email]/[conf_name]

But, maybe, you don't want to share employee's email with your external contacts for multiple reasons.
IBM has introduced a paramater in Sametime Meeting infrastructure to hide the employee's email: meetingroomcenter.useUUIDBasedURLs

•     A value if true causes room URLs to be UUID based.
•     A value of false (the default) using room URLs.

Via that parameter, the pattern of the URL of an IBM Sametime Meeting url becomes:
https://[hostname]/room/join/[conf_id]

The server-side fix is included in that Hotfix: JJON-8WGPF9.

In order to activate it, you have to go Sametime System Console.

Link to the technote: http://www-01.ibm.com/support/docview.wss?uid=swg21584440

IBM Sametime Meetings Viewer for iPad on iTunes

Great news !!
A new IBM application is available on iTunes: IBM Sametime Meetings Viewer for iPad
With IBM Sametime 8.5.2IFR1, IBM has introduced a web meeting access for iPad and Android. But, now, it's a true iOS app.You can download it at http://tinyurl.com/stipad

Some screenshots:

iTunes Page with the new Sametime app

 

View the list of your meeting room

View the participant list

 

Chat with meeting participants and view the presentation

Meeting details

The IBM Sametime Meetings Viewer Client for iPad requires the Sametime 8.5.2 IFR 1 Meeting Server to be deployed in your infrastructure environment.

Mobile Video & IBM Sametime

Enterprise mobility presents opportunities to the business world. Mobile devices are becoming more sophisticated, providing users (both corporate and consumer) with voice, Internet, e-mail, chat, gaming & video. I already covered the theme of mobility in several entry of my blog...

But, I would like to share with you a new opportunity... "Mobile Video". Imagine that you travel a lot via your preferred tablet (Apple iPad or Android...), I'm sure you want to be able to attend e-meeting or video meeting with your colleagues.

IBM Sametime 8.5.2 IFR1 provides you the ability to access IBM Sametime Meeting via the web browser.
An Apple iPad user or a Google Android tablet user can do the following :

• Join a Sametime meeting from the browser on your iPad or Android tablet
• Join Sametime meeting rooms directly from web addresses in the calendar or messaging applications
• Create new meeting rooms or search for meeting rooms by room or owner name
• View shared data and annotations by the presenter; share previously uploaded documents or URLs in the meeting room
• Access room tools, generate and view meeting reports, and change room preferences
• Use the polling tool to add, edit, and send polls
• Execute the end meeting feature or eject users from the room
• Participate by raising or lower your hand in the meeting and participating in group discussion

Now, imagine you to be able to call someone using a tablet from IBM Sametime... "Collaboration anywhere anytime any device..."
Polycom has developped a mobile app for iPad (Polycom RealPresence Mobile for Apple iPad 2) or an Android tablet (Polycom RealPresence Mobile for Android)...

Two images are worth a thousand words :

Meeting Interface including Polycom Video

Polycom Interface

That's really cool and easy to setup...

In that case, I'm using a H323 call. But, H.323 and SIP are supported to maximize connectivity across platforms.. Via IBM SUT Lite and Polycom DMA Integration, you will be able to do a SIP call from or to the tablet.