Product overview

Cisco^® Meeting Server is a scalable, secure, on-premises meetings solution. Its default experience is aligned to Cisco Webex® and it also provides extensive configurability to customize video, audio, and web communication to meet the unique collaboration needs of any customer.

The Cisco Meeting Server web app allows anyone to create, join, and run meetings easily from a supported browser. Using browsers that support webRTC, users can quickly join a meeting without the need to download an application simply by clicking a link. Once in the meeting, the web app provides a complete meeting experience with roster lists and in-meeting controls. The web app is also the user’s portal to create meeting spaces, which they can then modify (for example, change the space’s name, add PINs, etc.) and share meeting join information.

Cisco Meeting Management is a mandatory component for Cisco Meeting Server; it connects to Cisco Smart licensing to simplify purchasing, registering, and monitoring licenses. In addition, it enables administrators to provision conference templates for users as well as for operators to monitor and manage meetings on Cisco Meeting Server. Operators can easily monitor all active meetings with controls, such as add, drop, or mute participants; change layouts; start or stop recording or streaming; and more.

Prominent features

High Scalability and Geographic Distribution

Meetings scale easily:

• Up to 24 Call Bridges can be deployed per cluster to offer scale (up to 21,000 concurrent HD calls), resiliency, and multiple geographical points of presence. A review by Cisco engineering is required in designs that require eight or more servers. Call Bridges can be deployed on a mixture of hardware platforms, enabling customers to scale as required. Models include:

The Cisco Meeting Server 1000 M5 V2, which is a low-cost virtualized Cisco UCS® server for entry-level deployments, supporting up to 120 HD ports

The Cisco Meeting Server 2000, which is the industry’s highest-capacity single server, supporting up to 875 HD ports

Specification-based servers, which support up to 2.5 HD ports per physical core (further details can be found oncisco.com)

• Clusters can be separated into call bridge groups to optimize load balancing and resource allocation based on proximity
• Call Bridge clusters support up to 40 calls per second. (This is inclusive of participants calling in as well as internal calls required to load balance, move participants, etc.)
• A meeting on a single Call Bridge supports up to 450 participants or up to 2,600 participants across multiple Call Bridges in a single cluster.

When meetings span multiple Call Bridge instances, intelligent distribution links are automatically maintained between Call Bridge instances to create a seamless, single meeting experience for all participants.

Conference recording and streaming are supported when you need to archive or to scale beyond the physical servers capabilities.

• Synchronize up to 75,000 Lightweight Directory Access Protocol (LDAP) users across a 24-node cluster, with a total of up to 500,000 spaces
• The Cisco Meeting Server web app scales to the same limits as Session Initiation Protocol (SIP) video calls

Audio over webRTC is limited to 24,000 calls

Cisco Meeting Server edge can support up to SIP capacity for external HD webRTC calls, a Cisco Expressway^™ cluster supports up to 800 external HD webRTC calls.

• Cisco Meeting Management supports up to 10,000 meetings per week

A cluster of 24 call bridges is supported with licensing only mode

Small instances of Cisco Meeting Management support up to 10 call legs per second (peak usage) and 15 concurrent users (operators)

Large instances of Cisco Meeting Management support up to 20 call legs per second (peak usage) and 25 concurrent users (operators)

User Experience

The default meeting experience is aligned to Webex and optimized for Cisco collaboration endpoints, allowing end users to concentrate on collaborating without worrying about how the technology works. Additionally, the meetings are fully customizable to support specific use cases:

• Specific meeting settings / experiences, participants permissions, etc. can all be pre-configured
• Which participants are seen on the screen and where they are displayed can be controlled through importance levels or through pane placement
• The ability to create and use unique custom layouts is also available via a separate license

Cisco Meeting server is optimized to work with Cisco Webex Room, Board, and desk endpoints as well as Cisco Jabber®. These devices all get roster lists and in-meeting controls to enhance the meeting experience. Specific endpoints also support unique Cisco experiences with single,  dual screen and panoramic layouts.

Unlike most soft clients, the Cisco Meeting Server web app is not restricted to a fixed 16:9 aspect ratio. It will optimize the layout to the window size that is available. A simple example is providing a different layout if the devices are in portrait or landscape mode. If the user changes the window size or aspect ratio, the web app will optimize the layout (change the number and location of participants shown) in order to give the best view of participants and minimize wasted space.

The web app also allows for the content to be displayed in a separate window to the video. This gives users more control over how they use their screen, as well as enabling a dual-screen experience with video on one screen and content on the other.

Meeting Management

Cisco Meeting Management displays active meeting information with controls for managing the Cisco Meeting Server deployment, without requiring the operator to understand the complexities of the underlying video bridge configuration and call setup. In addition it reports on license usage and allows admins to provision conference templates to simplify end-users’ creation of spaces. Supported functions include:

• The ability to list active and upcoming meetings for a 24-hour period across Cisco Meeting Server cluster(s), as well as the ability to sort, filter, and search
• The ability to list participants in an active meeting

See who is speaking in the conference

Sort, filter, and search participants

Mute and unmute audio for individuals, all, or groups of selected people or new participants

Mute and unmute video

Make participants important

Change the layout (meeting wide or individually)

Configure where specified participants appear on screen

Add or drop participants

View call statistics (audio, video, or presentation)

Start a recording or streaming session of the meeting

Move participants between meetings

• Display a dashboard of license usage
• LDAP import and daily synch for users with the ability to provision conference templates
• Configuration of blast dial conferences
• A meeting events log, which is retained for seven days

Simple, Predictable, All-in-One Commercial Model

Get users up and running easily, with licensing that:

• Enables customers to purchase subscription licenses that entitle them to the entire Meetings portfolio (cloud, hybrid, or on premises) or just on premises. Alternatively, perpetual licenses for the on-premises solution are also available
• Includes spaces (virtual meeting room environments), Cisco Meeting Server web app, Cisco Meeting Management, scheduling, Microsoft Skype for Business interoperability, and firewall traversal in one license

Platform support

Cisco Meeting Server software is optimized to run on Cisco Meeting Server 1000 and 2000 appliances. In terms of scale, Table 1 shows the capacity a call bridge on Cisco Meeting Server can support on each server. It assumes call rates up to 2.5Mbps, 720p5 content and G.711 for audio, other codecs and higher content resolution/framerate will reduce capacity (See the installation guides for more details). When meetings span multiple call bridges, distribution links are automatically created and also count against a server’s call count and capacity.

One of the key benefits of Cisco Meeting Server is its ability to scale flexibly. Although Table 3 shows what can be achieved in certain scenarios, individual servers can be configured to allow more participants to join meetings by incrementally changing the quality experienced by existing participants. Alternatively, in larger deployments, conferences can be load-balanced to maximize effective capacity.

Table 1.        Call Bridge capacity on supported servers

^* Cisco Meeting Server 1000 is a preconfigured version of the Cisco UCS C220 M5 Rack Server. Full specifications can be found at: https://www.cisco.com/c/en/us/products/collateral/servers-unified-computing/ucs-c-series-rack-servers/datasheet-c78-739281.html. For Cisco Meeting Server 1000, Cisco Meeting Server runs on top of VMware, and a separate VMware license is required.

^** Cisco Meeting Server 2000 is a preconfigured Cisco UCS 5108 Blade Server Chassis with eight Cisco UCS B200 M5 Blade Servers. Full specifications can be found at: https://www.cisco.com/c/en/us/products/collateral/servers-unified-computing/ucs-5100-series-blade-server-chassis/data_sheet_c78-526830.html and https://www.cisco.com/c/en/us/products/collateral/servers-unified-computing/ucs-b-series-blade-servers/datasheet-c78-739296.html. For Cisco Meeting Server 2000, Cisco Meeting Server runs directly on the server and does not require VMware.

Cisco Meeting Server requirements for specifications-based servers can be found at: https://www.cisco.com/c/dam/en/us/td/docs/voice_ip_comm/uc_system/virtualization/virtualization-cisco-meeting-server.html.

Cisco Meeting Management requirements for specification-based servers can be found at:

https://www.cisco.com/c/dam/en/us/td/docs/voice_ip_comm/uc_system/virtualization/virtualization-cisco-meeting-management.html

Product specifications

Table 2 lists the specifications for Cisco Meeting Server.

Table 2.        Specifications

Ordering information

Following are the four main steps for ordering Cisco Meeting Server. Refer to the ordering guide at https://www.cisco.com/c/en/us/products/conferencing/meeting-server/sales-resources-listing.html for more information.

1. Customers should select their chosen platform. Cisco Meeting Server software has been optimized to run on the Cisco Meeting Server 1000 and 2000 appliances. Third-party servers are also supported.
2. Flexible-capacity licensing options enable customers to deploy Cisco Meeting Server capabilities in the way that best suits their needs. Cisco Meeting Server is licensed on a per-meeting basis with Cisco Multiparty licenses. These licenses are available in the form of Personal Multiparty (named host) and Shared Multiparty (shared host) licenses. Visit https://cisco.com/go/meetingserver for more information.

Customers have choice of a Flex subscription (with entitlement to cloud, hybrid, or on premises), with monthly or yearly billing, with Cisco Software Support Services (SWSS) bundled together

Cisco Meeting Server-only subscription with monthly or yearly billing, with Cisco Software Support Services (SWSS) bundled together

Perpetual licensing with mandatory Software Support Services (SWSS) purchased separately

3. Optional recording and streaming can be added. If you need to manage, transform, or distribute recordings or streams across the organization, solutions such as Rev and DME are available from our solutions partner, VBrick. More details are in the Cisco Meeting Server ordering guide.
4. Cisco Multiparty licensing includes entitlement for hosting meetings, connecting with Cisco Jabber for Cisco Meeting Server and the Cisco Meeting Server web app, and Cisco Meeting Management. Software for these products can be downloaded from https://www.cisco.com/go/software with an active Cisco Support Contract.

Table 3 provides ordering information for Cisco Meeting Server.

Table 3.        Ordering information

Third-party platforms are also supported, in which case the Cisco Meeting Server software must be ordered separately (R-CMS-K9).

^* Cisco Jabber for Cisco Meeting Server is included with a Meeting Server License, allowing for calling into meetings. Cisco Unified Communications Manager 12.5 minimum is required, point-to-point, ad-hoc escalation or IM&P services require a Cisco Unified Communications Manager (UCM) Calling subscription or Cisco Unified Workplace or Unified Calling license.

Table 4 shows the number of participants who are entitled to join a meeting by license type.

Table 4.        Meeting capacity by license type

Note that although the licensing does not restrict the number of participants, there may be hardware or software limitations that restrict the number of participants per meeting or per server.

Cisco Capital

Flexible Payment Solutions to Help You Achieve Your Objectives

Cisco Capital® financingmakes it easier to get the right technology to achieve your objectives, enable business transformation and help you stay competitive. We can help you reduce the total cost of ownership, conserve capital, and accelerate growth. In more than 100 countries, our flexible payment solutions can help you acquire hardware, software, services and complementary third-party equipment in easy, predictable payments. Learn more.