Maintenance Manual

MCU Content Channel Configuration
Unit-wide or Blade-wide Configuration
At the MCU-wide level, the MCU can be configured to disallow the use of conference content channels completely.
If the content channel facility is enabled, the MCU can be separately configured not to allow textual or graphical
markup of the content, and whether to make text chat visible to connected endpoints.
You can choose to enable encryption on the MCU. When encryption is used, the content channel will be encrypted.
For more information on these configuration parameters, see Configuring content settings and Configuring encryption
settings.
Per-Conference Configuration
Assuming that content is enabled on the MCU unit-wide/blade-wide, each scheduled conference can be
independently configured to allow content channel operations or not. If enabled, this has an impact on the
conference's port usage; if disabled, then all attempts by participants in that conference to open a content channel to
the MCU will be unsuccessful.
If the MCU is configured to allow encryption, each individual conference can be configured to either require
encryption or to optionally use encryption. The MCU can send either encrypted or unencrypted content to different
participants in a conference depending on the capabilities of those participants' endpoints.
For more information on the conference configuration parameters relevant to the content channel, see Adding and
updating conferences.
Per-Participant Parameters
Content Contribution
Content contribution refers to the ability of video conferencing devices to contribute the content channel video for a
conference via the mechanism of opening a separate video channel, distinct from its main video stream. Specifically,
this section does not deal with the use of content by the MCU when sending content channels to viewing devices or
the use of other protocols (such as VNC) to supply the content channel video for a conference.
For a conference configured with content channel video enabled, each endpoint in that conference is either
permitted or prohibited from being able to contribute content video. H.239 is the protocol used by H.323 video
conferencing endpoints to supply or receive content channel video; BFCP is the protocol used by SIP video
conferencing endpoints to supply content channel video. Other content channel source configurations , such as the
use of a VNC connection, do not depend on any H.239 or BFCP contribution parameters.
Remember that what is termed Content contribution is more precisely described as the ability to start contributing
content channel video via H.239/BFCP. The nature of the H.239 and BFCP protocols used between the MCU and
endpoints is such that once an endpoint has successfully become the content source for a conference, the MCU is
not then able to force that endpoint to stop contributing the content channel video.
While an endpoint is supplying the content channel for a conference, it is considered to be holding the virtual content
token for the conference. This token must be relinquished before either another endpoint can start contributing video
via H.239 or BFCP or a content channel source such as VNC becomes active. This token is normally released by a
specific endpoint operation (e.g. a "stop content " option), or by that endpoint leaving the conference. However,
when Automatic content handover is enabled, the MCU will ask the endpoint (or computer) to return the token if
there is another participant who wants to start contributing content.
When Automatic content handover is enabled, it allows another participant to start sending content without having
to wait for the current content provider to stop sending content from his computer. In this case, the MCU will start
sending the 'new' content to the participants in the conference and will ask the endpoint (or computer) that was
originally providing content to return the token. Automatic content handover is a unit-wide/blade-wide configuration
option on the Settings > Content page.
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