The Myth of Lync multiparty conference Unleashed with gallery view

One of the most questioned features of Microsoft Lync 2010 was lack of gallery view during multiparty conferencing. The users have full right to question this drawback because without gallery view it never completes the feel as an AV conferencing solution. In Lync 2010 to achieve the gallery view we need depend upon a bridging solutions from POLYCOM or Life size which is costing to an average of 25000$.

If you introduce multiparty gallery view into the conferencing solution of Lync 2010 the bandwidth consumption will improve considerably. But still it is an awaiting question to be answered by Microsoft when multiparty galley view will be introduced into Lync platform. 

Today morning I am glad to hear from Microsoft about the launch of Microsoft Lync 2013 release candidate, the happiest things for me in this launch announcement is the introduction of multiparty gallery view into Lync platform. I am sure that you are not a fool to believe that Microsoft launch a solution with only an addition single feature, there many exciting feature some are mentioned below  

New Management and Administration Tools

Topology Changes: Front End Server role, enabling you to save on hardware costs

New IM and Presence Features: XMPP integration 

New Conferencing Features:

1.       Join Launcher : to validate each meeting before launching a client, and to provide support for opening a meeting in the following clients:

·         Windows Phone 7

·         Android devices

·         Apple iOS devices

·         Windows 8 Release Preview

·         Internet Explorer 10

2.       Updated PowerPoint Sharing : Lync Server 2013 Preview now uses Office Web Apps and the Office Web Apps Server (formerly known as WAC Server) to handle PowerPoint presentations.

3.       Gallery View: In video conferences that have more than two people, users can see videos of participants in the conference. If the conference has more than five participants, video of only the most active participants appear in the top row, and a photo appears for the other participants.

4.       Archiving: Any document that is shared during a conference is archived into Exchange 2013 Preview data storage if Exchange Server integration is enabled with Archiving. This includes PowerPoint presentations, attachments, whiteboards and polls.

New Features for External User Access:

• 1Support for IPv6 addressing
• 2Extensible Messaging and Presence Protocol (XMPP)
• Mobility services for Mobile clients
• Directors are an optional role

New Monitoring Features: Lync Server 2013 Preview does not have a separate Monitoring Server role. Monitoring is an optional feature available on all Front End Servers in an Enterprise Edition deployment, and on Standard Edition servers, that can be implemented and configured for a pool or a site.

New Persistent Chat Server Features: Microsoft Lync Server 2013 Preview, Persistent Chat Server enables you to participate in multiparty, topic-based conversations that persist over time

New Exchange Server Integration Features: Lync Server 2013 Preview supports new features when it is deployed alongside Microsoft Exchange Server 2013 Preview, as described in the following list. For each of these features to work, both Lync Server 2013 Preview and Exchange 2013 Preview must be deployed.

• You can use a unified contact store, in which the Lync contact list is stored in Exchange 2013 Preview, and you can manage the contact store in Lync 2013 Preview, Outlook 2013 Preview, and Outlook Web App.
• You can use high-resolution photos for contacts. Photos with up to 648x648 pixels are stored in Exchange 2013 Preview and made available to clients including Lync 2013 Preview, Outlook 2013 Preview, Microsoft Lync Web App, and Outlook Web App.
• You can enable Lync Archiving integration, which integrates Lync Server 2013 Preview Archiving into the Exchange 2013 Preview Litigation Hold feature, for users homed on Exchange 2013 Preview, which enables one common experience for administrators around compliance and eDiscovery.

New Video Features

Lync Server 2013 Preview introduces the following new video features:

• HD video   Users can experience resolutions up to HD 1080P in two-party calls and multiparty conferences.
• Gallery View   In video conferences that have more than two people, users can see videos of participants in the conference. If the conference has more than five participants, video of only the most active participants appear in the top row, and a photo appears for the other participants.
• H.264 video   The H.264 video codec is now the default for encoding video on Lync 2013 Preview clients. H.264 video supports a greater range of resolutions and frame rates, and improves video scalability