The document discusses technical requirements and best practices for supporting video in Lync 2013 desktop and mobile clients as well as Lync room systems. It provides details on video codecs, resolutions, bandwidth requirements, and conferencing views in Lync 2013. It also covers capacity planning considerations and tools for controlling and limiting video bandwidth usage through conferencing policies.
1. Lighting Up Lync Video
Network Preparation
Jeff Schertz – Lead Microsoft Solutions Architect, Polycom
2. 2
Agenda
Desktop Video Experience in Lync 2013
Technical Requirements to Support Video
Extending Lync Video into the Conference Room
Lync Room System Deployment Scenarios
4. 4
Video Codecs in Lync 2013
H.264 Scalable Video Coding (SVC)
• Multiple video streams provides enhanced user experience
• Temporal Scaling provides bandwidth savings for different frame rates
• Embedded hardware and USB device encoding and decoding support
• More 4:3 and 16:9 resolutions across entire range including 1080p
• Multiple Panorama resolutions for new CX5100/CX5500 devices
Real-Time Video (RTV)
• A few additional widescreen resolutions were added
• Otherwise is basically unchanged from Lync 2010/OCS
To Learn More:
5. 5
Client Video Experience
Lync 2013 and Lync Web App 2013
• Up to 5 inbound video streams
• Any can be in either square or widescreen
• Support for RoundTable/CX5000 Panorama
Lync 2013 Windows App
• Up to 4 inbound video streams
• Gallery view is always cropped; ignores overrides
• Native resolution available in speaker view
Lync 2013 Mobile App
• No gallery - limited to single stream active-speaker view
7. 7
Cropping
Video is encoded and sent in full
capture resolution (e.g. 16:9)
There is no square resolution (1:1)
Behavior can be validated by
comparing bandwidth of
cropped versus uncropped
8. 8
Smart Framing
Facial detection and coordinates sent in RTP stream
Native aspect ratio displayed in peer-to-peer calls
Video cropped by default on multi-party conference calls
− Full aspect ratio displayed only in Video Spotlight mode
− Some scenarios automatically override cropping (e.g. LRS, CX5100)
Cropped Smart Framing Manual Override
9. 9
Screen Real Estate
Actual resolution sent may be lower or higher than the ideal match
Video competes with content, attendee list, conversation window, etc.
Large Meetings of 75+ attendees force Speaker View
360p 360p 360p
360p 360p
10. 10
Monitor Size
Video resolutions are the same
pixel depth regardless of the
display’s physical size
Thus bandwidth is the same
84” Perceptive Pixel Monitor
• 1920 x 1080 = 2,073,600 pixels
5” Nokia Lumia 929 Phone
• 1920 x 1080 = 2,073,600 pixels
11. 11
Panoramic Video
RoundTable/CX5000
• Limited to low resolution and
frame rate
New CX5100/CX5500
• Support for multiple, higher
resolutions and frame rates
Different Behavior
• Local preview is not mirrored like the main video source
• Panorama is active-speaker experience
12. 12
Multiple Monitors
Standard Lync 2013 Client
• Maximized video Gallery on single screen
• Can manually be dragged across both
monitors but this is clunky and rarely used
Lync Room System
• Default Gallery view is also single screen
• Includes “Video Only view” option to span
video Gallery view across both monitors
Bandwidth Impact
• Dedicating displays to video can trigger
requests for higher resolutions
19. 19
Default Configuration Used
• No bandwidth or CAC policy constraints in place on video
• Conferencing video bandwidth is similar to Lync 2010
Real World Statistics
20. 20
0
5000
10000
15000
20000
Peer to Peer Calls
Daily Averages
• 6,000 minutes of peer to peer
• 226,000 minutes of conferencing
11 million minutes of video in 1 month
Lync Video Usage at Microsoft
0
100000
200000
300000
400000
500000
600000
700000
800000
Conference Calls
21. 21
Common Resolutions
Users tend to keep default resolutions
0 20000 40000 60000 80000
424x240
960x144
320x180
320x240
640x360
212x160
1280x720
352x288
640x480
960x540
Stream Resolution Distribution – Top 10
Low
Resolution
Medium
Resolution
High
Resolution
Peer 71.4 % 15.0 % 13.6%
Conference 89.6 % 8.4 % 2.1 %
*Pano144p is 18.4%
22. 22
Lync Client Conferencing Policies
Get-CsConferencingPolicy | fl *video*
• Controls both peer and conference video sessions
• Default policy compared to a customized policy
23. 23
Controlling Video Behavior
AllowIPVideo
• Controls allowance of video in assigned user’s own conferences
EnableP2PVideo
• Controls availability of video for assigned user on any peer-to-peer session
AllowMultiView
• Controls Gallery view capability on the assigned user’s own conferences
EnableMultiViewJoin
• Used to disable Gallery view for assigned users when joining other’s conferences
24. 24
Controlling Video Bandwidth
VideoBitRateKb
• Limit of video sent by a single client
• Default value of 50Mbps
TotalReceiveVideoBitRateKb
• Limit of the combined total of all received video streams
• Also default value of 50Mbps
• Must be at least 420Kbps to support full Gallery view experience
Both parameter values are measured individually per video source
LRS sending stream lower resolution if other Lync clients are all desktop and in default gallery view
LRS receiving stream(s) may be higher resolution options depending on the viewing options and various client’s capability and bandwidth