The Announcement application has the same hardware requirements as Front End Servers. For details about hardware requirements, see Server hardware platforms in the Supportability documentation.

The Announcement application has the same operating system requirements and software prerequisites as Front End Servers. For details about software requirements, see Server and tools operating system support in the Supportability documentation.

All Front End Servers or Standard Edition servers that run the Announcement application must have the Windows Media Format Runtime installed for servers running Windows Server 2008 R2, or Microsoft Media Foundation for servers running Windows Server 2012 or Windows Server 2012 R2. For Windows Server 2008 R2, the Windows Media Format Runtime is installed as part of Windows Desktop Experience. Windows Media Format Runtime or Microsoft Media Foundation is required for Windows Media Audio (.wma) files that the Announcement application plays for announcements and music.

The Announcement application uses the following port:

• Port 5071   Used for SIP listening requests

Note:
This port is the default setting, which you can change by using the Set-CsApplicationServer cmdlet. For details about this cmdlet, see the Lync Server Management Shell documentation.

The Announcement application supports Wave (.wav) file format and Windows Media audio (.wma) file format for music and announcements. Audio file requirements for the Announcement application are the same as for the Response Group application. For details, see Technical Requirements for Response Groups.