A/V MCU encryption fix in Lync CU4

The latest cumulative update for Lync was recently released, and one of the fixes deals with an interesting problem to do with audio conferences. I thought I would take the opportunity to discuss a few things about how media works in a Lync audio conference, and the implications of this change in the update.

The fix that I’m referring to (details here) resolves a problem where one-way audio could occur between a client and an audio/video MCU. For background, the MCU, or multipoint control unit, is the Lync component that mixes media for the conference and distributes it to the participants. What was happening in certain cases was that an audio conference participant would be audible in the conference, but could not hear other participants.

It turns out that the reason for this was an issue with media encryption in the MCU. Continue reading “A/V MCU encryption fix in Lync CU4” »

Blog recommendation

Paul Nearney, who recently started the blog CodeLync, has written up an excellent post on developing screen pop applications. If that’s something you’re looking to do, check out his post!

What is a GRUU?

The term “GRUU” comes up fairly often in Lync development, and I wanted to use this post to give a brief overview of what it means and why you would use one.

GRUUs in their natural habitat?

Contrary to what you may have been led to believe, a GRUU is not a large herd animal or a part of the small intestine. The initials actually stand for “Globally Routable User-Agent URI,” which may or may not clarify things for you at all. The definition of a GRUU is explained in an IETF document which you can find here. In a nutshell, a GRUU is a SIP URI which has a few properties:

Continue reading “What is a GRUU?” »

Adding custom menu items to the Lync client

One of the areas in which Lync can really streamline communication is in handling context. The term “contextual conversations” comes up a lot in reference to Lync, and for good reason. In traditional communication media, a lot of time tends to be wasted while one person or the other looks for necessary information, documents, or tools that are relevant to the topic at hand. As Lync becomes more and more integrated into people’s workflows, it can automate much of this sending and retrieval of appropriate context, saving time and increasing productivity.

In this post, I want to discuss one of the ways in which the Lync UI can be customized to help offer contextual options that are specific to your own business needs: by creating custom menu items. Continue reading “Adding custom menu items to the Lync client” »