Endpoint as Conference Manager

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When registered with Office Communications Server, a user can schedule, reconfigure, or delete conferences. Conference configuration involves setting user access, media access methods, and recorded presentation material. With a conference session, multiple users can interact using telephone, computer audio, and video. Conference content can be presented to participants as uploaded recorded media.

A conference can be open to any anonymous user with the proper access key, users who can be authenticated, or limited to a predefined list of users. This conference access flexibility permits conformance to organizational meeting access policies.

Individual conference participant roles can be defined to allow specified users to lead and present conference recorded media. This allows for the organization of conference participants into leader and audience participant roles.

The Focus Factory component of Office Communications Server is responsible for conference scheduling, multipoint control unit (MCU) allocation, and conference management. The conference is available at the moment Office Communications Server completes the conference scheduling operation. The conference is activated when the first user joins the conference.

An Office Communications Server component called a Focus acts as a central focus point for the active conference. Individual conference participants can connect to this component to access the conference media.

In Unified Communications Client API, conference management is encapsulated by the IUccConferenceManager interface. A client must first obtain this interface to manage conferences for the local user.

A client can query the IUccConferenceManager interface on an enabled endpoint by calling QueryInterface. The IUccEndpoint object is considered the conference manager for the user.

Obtaining a Conference Manager

A conference manager interface is obtained by a call into QueryInterface if you are using C++ and a cast from the IUccEndpoint object if you are using C#. The conference manager is not capable of scheduling, configuring, or deleting conferences. You create a conference manager session with IUccConferenceManager by calling into CreateConferenceManagerSession. The obtained IUccConferenceManagerSession interface member methods provide all the required management functionality. The member methods of this interface are asynchronous in nature. To receive the resulting data from each method call, you must advise the conference manager session object of callback functions implemented to handle _IUccConferenceManagerSessionEvents. The Focus Factory URI as UccUri is obtained from the IUccServerConfigurationCategory member property, FocusFactory. You must query the server configuration category to receive this category.

To see an example in C#, see Conference Manager Sessions.

See Also

Concepts

Subscribe to Category Instances
Conference Creation Objects
Creating Conferences