Topic Last Modified: 2010-07-18
Microsoft Communications Server 2010 offers a rich set of conferencing capabilities:
- Instant messaging (IM) conferencing, in which more than two
parties communicate in a single IM session.
- Web conferencing, which includes document collaboration,
application sharing and desktop sharing.
- A/V conferencing, which enables users to have real-time audio
and/or video conferences without the need for external services
such as the Microsoft Live Meeting service or a third-party audio
bridge.
- Dial-in conferencing, which allows users to join the audio
portion of a Communications Server 2010 conference by using a
public switched telephone network (PSTN) phone without requiring a
third party audio conferencing provider.
Both scheduled conferences and ad-hoc conferences are supported and can easily be initiated by users.
IM conferencing capabilities are always automatically deployed along with IM conversation capabilities on Front End Servers. When you deploy Front End Servers, you can choose whether to also deploy the web conferencing, A/V conferencing, and dial-in conferencing capabilities.
The following sections describe what is required to deploy the various types of conferencing capabilities, including the planning process, components, hardware and software requirements, and the deployment process.
