NMC is a sophisticated Internet appliance that supports Audio conferencing, Web conferencing and Emergency conferencing (Firebar) applications and other Value Added services. The NMC uses CentOS 7.0 Linux Operating System. Different servers are used based on the required capacity of the system. The server’s CPU provides all the Digital Signal Processing (DSP) functions required to combine the various audio streams into an audio conference. Concurrently the server’s CPU also receives and transmits screen scrapes and other functions required for supporting web conferencing. It interfaces with an IP PBX or VoIP Carrier via a VoIP/SIP trunk.

Audio Conferencing Related Questions

Yes, the NMC makes use if iCalendar function for sending our conference invitations. A moderator can send the invitation after selecting ‘attendees’ from the Outlook address book. The iCAL automatically populates the Moderator’s Conference Name in the ‘Subject’ field and NMC name and Dial-in number (as populated on the System Configuration page) and the Participant Access Code on the ‘Location’ field of the iCAL. Moderator can select the Start and End times in the fields provided. The main Subject area is automatically populated with the Dial-in Number, participant Access Code and a link to the Web Conference Join Page if selected. Moderator can also attach a document if needed. After all items are configured, the Moderator can press ‘Send’ to launch the meeting invite
Yes, a Moderator can pick Access Codes of his/her choice for the moderator and the participants.
The Moderator can set up a call with ‘Wait for Moderator to Join’ option. The conference will only get connected after the moderator joins the call and enters his/her Access Code. Until then, all participants will hear the Music On Hold music.
Real View refers to a link on the NMC home page. This link shows real time activity happening on the conference call. The flashing green color in front of an individual shows that person is the loudest speaker. The Real View interface allows a moderator to exercise in-conference controls such as Mute/Unmute, Mute All/Unmute All, Disconnect a participant, Transfer a participant, Record a call, and Disconnect the entire conference.
Yes, the Real View portal also shows the loudest speaker with a flashing ‘Green’ color in front of a person’s name/caller id that is loudest.
Yes, the SIP INVITE signaling message between the IP PBX and the NMC carries the caller ID of the caller. If the incoming caller ID matches with a user’s phone number in the system’s database, then system will automatically locate the corresponding name and display it on the Real View. If a match is not found, then the system will display the caller ID of the caller.
Yes, the moderator can set up multiple simultaneous audio conferences. The moderator can then transfer in and out of different conferences as needed.
Yes, the moderator can use the Real View portal to transfer people between different running conferences.
Yes, a moderator can schedule his/her own meet-me conferences. The ‘allow scheduling of ports’ field should be checked on the System Configuration page on the admin side.
Yes. NMC allows scheduling of recurring conference calls via the web portal. The ‘allow scheduling of ports’ field should be checked on the System Configuration page on the admin side.
Yes, an administrator can schedule meet-me calls on behalf of Moderators by logging into the Admin account and then navigating to the ‘edit conference’ area.
Yes, a Moderator can dial out from within the conference. The dial-out privilege needs to be enabled for the moderator’s account for dial out calls to work. See moderator user guide for use of DTMF keys for use of this feature.
If you want to adjust the volume of the signal coming from the conference, then press ’7′ to lower the amplitude, ’9′ to raise the amplitude and ’8′ to go to the default state.
A moderator needs ‘recording’ privilege to be enabled on his account before he/she can record conference calls. A moderator has following three options – 1) A moderator can record all conferences that occur in his/her conference room by selecting ‘Record Conference’ check field, 2) Press 41# after the conference is in progress to start recording and 3) use Real View portal to start recording. With latter two, a Moderator can start recording and stop recording multiple times in order to record important excerpts of a conference.
All conference recordings are deposited in the Moderator’s account. These recordings are visible on the ‘Service Reports’ page. A moderator can simply click on the ‘listen’ button and then hear the recording via the PC’s media player. A moderator can also download the recording and email it other people as necessary.
Usually a typical system has unused ports that are then available for recording. If lack of ports becomes an issue, then please contact NEC Help Desk for expanding the port capacity of your system.
The NMC stores conference recording using raw Pulse Code Modulation based digital samples. That means our equipment samples an audio signal 8000 times per second. Each sample is then encoded with 8 bits. This implies that for each second worth of audio we need 8000 x 8 = 64,000 bits. Therefore to store 1 hour worth of audio we will need to store 64,000 x 3600 = 230,400,000 bits or 28,800,000 Bytes or approximately 29 Mega Bytes.
After a conference call is over, the NMC shall send a summary report to the moderator automatically if ‘send summary emails to moderators’ field is selected on the System Configuration page. This is a system level setting. It may take up to 5 minutes for the end of conference summary report to be generated.
HD stands for High Definition. A HD conference makes use of voice signals that are encoded using G.722 codec. The NMC does not support use of G.722 codec.

Firebar Related Questions

Firebar refers to specialized dial out Audio Conferencing. The dial out process can be triggered by an incoming phone call, a web click on the Moderator’s web portal or can be scheduled with recurrence.
It has built in find-me capability. It can hunt for up to 4 different numbers per individual and then allows them to join the conference.
Yes. NMC can be set to send any Caller ID of outgoing calls. But the calls are handled by trunk service provider, if users need to check if user to set the any caller ID for outgoing calls.
Yes, participants can dial and enter by entering their participant Access Code.
The moderator will need to log into the web interface and set up a FB session. As part of setting up he/she can assign a) the groups and users and b) vanity ‘Activation Access Code’ and ‘Dial-in Access Code’ for the Firebar conference.
Next, when need to trigger a Firebar session, the moderator can call the dial in telephone number of the USN and in response to an IVR enter the Activation Access Code and record a greeting message followed by a #. The system will then dial out to all members of the group. As they pick up their phones, they will first hear the message recorded by the moderator and then automatically be connected into a conference.
Additional participants can call the dial in number of the USN and enter the ‘Dial-in Access Code’ to join an on going Firebar conference.
The total number of participants (dial-out and dial-in) is limited to the number of the audio conference ports available on the system.
Yes, NMC supports industry standard LDAP V3 client. The LDAP client can communicate with the associated LDAP server running on customer Active Directory database. The system can obtain necessary contact information at pre-determined intervals from the Active Directory and re-populate the groups automatically.

Click-To-Call Related Questions

Click-To-Call (CTC) made use of WebRTC technology to allow users to communicate with the conference bridge using the browser instead of a phone.
The CTC service results in the Call button being placed on the browser. When this button is clicked, an audio call made it to the bridge end, the user is placed into the conference space on certain predefined parameters.
Just as normal phone call has called a number and destination number, CTC service is characterized by source number and destination number. The source number represents the participant, the destination number represents the conference participant joins. These numbers individually or in combinations are used in the definition in service selection rules. These rules determine the conference in which the user is placed. There are more details about the login security, please see NMC M5 – Click-To-Call.
The CTC service generates invitation ics file that launches Outlook or email clients allow moderator to send invitation to the participants. When participants open the invitation link, the Call button places on the browser. When this button is clicked, an audio call made it to the bridge end, the participants are placed into the predefined conference. NMC M5.1 – CTC to Join Audio Conference

Web Conferencing Related Questions

Web conferencing allows one to share an application running on ones desktop with fellow participants. There are two ways this can be done. First method is called screen sharing where the software scrapes moderator’s desktop and sends the raw bits to fellow participant’s PCs. In this case the entire desktop is shared. Any open document on the desktop will then be shared with the fellow participants. Other approach is to upload the document at hand to the NMC server where the document is converted into a set of JPEGs. These JPEGs are then made visible to the fellow participants via their browsers.
Screen scraping is encoding each pixel on a desktop and transmitting those pixels to the far end computer. The NMC uses screen scraping during ‘desktop sharing’.
Approximately 100 Kilo Bits per second per participant.
Dominant use of web conferencing is screen sharing application. The higher the resolution of your PC, more bandwidth is needed to send the screen scrapes. For typical 1280 x 768 resolution PC, the recommended bandwidth is 1 Megabits/sec. Bandwidth usage can be reduced by using ‘region sharing’ as in that case only screen scraping is performed only for the shared region.
Yes, you can have web conferencing with people outside of your organization. The IT department should make DNS entry and create a URL and point it to the public IP of the NMC. For details, see the Installation Guide.
No. You may experience some delay in uploading of documents into a web conference if there are multiple parallel web conference session in progress and multiple moderators are attempting to upload large documents at the same time.
The Moderator is in charge of a given web conference session. By default the Moderator is also the Presenter. During a web conference session the Moderator can give the control to a fellow participant by making that person a Presenter. Moderator can take back the Presenter role from a participant as and when necessary. As a Presenter a participant can use all web conference tools except sharing of the control.
The major features supported are:
• Desktop sharing (full screen or a region)
• Document sharing
• Whiteboard sharing
• Presentation Control sharing
• Support for Dual Monitors
With Desktop sharing you can share either the entire desktop or a partial region of your desktop. Any document that is open on your desktop or in the shared region will then be seen by fellow participants. You can make any changes to the document and save them as you would do normally. In this mode you cannot annotate the document with the built in palette of tools. This mode is best used for editing a document in consultation with other participants on the audio conference.
The Document sharing allows you to upload a PDF or JPEG document on the NMC web conference. The application will then automatically convert the PDF into a series of JPEGs that can now be reviewed by fellow participants. As a moderator you can use the built in palette of tools to annotate (highlight text, draw free hand etc.) the resulting JPEG image. You can share presentation control with a fellow participant and then that person can continue with the annotations. The annotations are mainly helpful for reviewing a document in a collaborative session. Note that the annotations are not preserved with the document.
Coming soon
The limit is set to 10 Megabytes or 300 pages.
Coming soon
Coming soon
You can save your changes only when using desktop sharing. When using document sharing, you can use the available tool bar to annotate /highlight parts of your document. These changes are remembered only during the course of the web conference session. These changes are not preserved in the associated document.
Yes, you can use two monitors as long as they are positioned ‘horizontally’. In a typical use case, you can keep your Outlook open on your main computer and use the second monitor for the web conference.
When using desktop sharing you are given two options – Full screen sharing and Region sharing. If you select Region sharing, you will see a new rectangle pop up with a ‘start sharing’ button on the top left of the rectangle. The enclosed area is the region that will be shared. You can change the size of the rectangle by clicking on the bottom right corner of the rectangle. You adjust the location of the rectangle by selecting the top edge of the rectangle. Once you have placed the region share rectangle in the right spot, press ‘Start Sharing’ button. The boundary of the rectangle will then become solid dark blue. Only the part of your screen that is enclosed in the dark blue rectangle will be shared.
Yes, you can use both applications simultaneously. A typical use case is where you want to show a PowerPoint chart on one side of the screen and show some real time activity (e.g., RealView of the audio conference) inside the ‘region share’ area on the other side of the screen. To facilitate this example, it is best if you use two separate browsers. For example, you can use IE for running the web conference and use Chrome for showing the real time application.
Currently a Moderator cannot control the PC of a participant.
Yes, a Moderator can give the control of the session to a participant so that the participant can then share his/her desktop.
Coming soon
The web conference application requires following ports: 80 and 1935.
If these ports are not open on the firewall where the NMC is deployed and a Moderator or Participant want to join a web conference session, then software will automatically force there connection to work through port 80. (Port 80 is always open as it is need for basic Internet to work.) This process is called ‘Tunneling through port 80’. In such situations, the application will work but the performance will be degraded due to additional processing required to support tunneling.
An NMC with 30 web ports can have either 30 participants in a single web conference or 6 participants each in 5 different concurrent sessions or any other permutation combination as long as total number of participants adds up to 30. The 31st participant will see a message saying ‘insufficient ports’.
The number of web participants is only limited by the number of web conference ports on the system.
The NMC web conference is purely web based. In other words a web conference application or plug in is not required to be deployed on your PC. Functionally, it provides major functions supported by the hosted solutions such as desktop sharing, document sharing with annotation, white boarding, public and private chat. The hosted solutions typically charge on a per moderator per month basis so only a chosen few people will be given Moderator accounts in an organization. The NMC supports unlimited number of Moderator accounts. Being an on-premise solution, it has to be paid for only once.
Yes, web conferencing and audio conferencing applications are mutually exclusive and can be used standalone. However, when used together they lead to a more productive collaboration session.
A moderator can provision the lobby entry and exit page on the ‘edit conference’ page.
This capability is not supported in the present software release.
Most browsers allow you access to multiple tabs. You can keep the Realview window open on a tab other than where the web conferencing is taking place. You can also use region sharing and keep RealView open in that region as explained earlier.
This capability is not supported in the present software release. There are other third party tools available that can be used to record the web sessions. For example see: http://www.screencast-o-matic.com/ .
Yes,
The audio conferencing and web conferencing are two separate applications. Each can be ordered separately subject only to maximum numbers of ports available on a given server in use.

Mass Notification

Mass Notification Application is designed to send multiple distinct messages to many recipients during an emergency and non-emergency situation. . You can build Mass Notification sessions proactively for variety of situations building evacuation, Departmental meeting reminder etc. and then trigger such messages through incoming phone call, or a click on the web portal or as a scheduled event. . You can also dial in, record a message on the fly and send it to a pre-selected group. . You can send a voice blast or email blast or both simultaneously. You can send your recorded voice message as an attachment with the out going emails as well. Before creating a mass notification session, please do create your users and groups as explained in under Resources. NMC M6 – Mass Notification
Mass Notification can be configured to send voice message, Email Message, and SMS Message.

Remote Control

Only the controlled machine needs an install of a browser addon.