Communicator 14 Media Device Selection

In Communicator 2007 R2 selecting the device you wanted to use as your audio device was a little painful. Having to search through a menu to get to the Audio Video Tuning Wizard is a little bit of a pain especially if you’re like me and you are constantly using different devices. I lost track of the number of times I was switched to my laptop speaker and microphone after a startup. Well in Communicator 14 this is pretty much a thing of the past.



Along with an improved monitoring capability to listen for multiple USB devices it is now easier to select the right device as shown with this screen shot above. This enables you to select the device you want straight from the main window. It also provides easier access to the Audio Video Tuning Wizard, which I pretty much haven’t had to use since switching to C14.This capability is also ported through to the call window where you can change devices on the fly while in a call.



It seems like a small change but I bet down the road it has a big impact on calls to the help desk.

Comments welcomed.

VoIPNorm

5 comments:

  1. The device selection is not only cumbersome, it does not seem to work well with IBM's and docking stations. Each time I re-connect to my docking station, i have to set both the hand/headset AND the Speakerphone to my headset device, otherwise it defaults to the speakerphone everytime, even though my usb headset is plugged in.

    More importantly - I hope there are more devices which will work with 2010, as the polycom CX 700 was a MAJOR factor in why this organization switched back to a cisco based phone platform. The placement of the speakerphone and its sensitivity to background noise was the main reason, and though there were a couple of other devices - none offered the quality and experience our users were used to.......

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  2. Docking stations can be an issue. IBM are not the only one's I have seen an issue with. In saying that I think Communicator 14 should solve a lot of the issues with that with improved monitoring of the USB devices.

    As for devices, there will be a series of new models from both Aastra and Polycom for the wave 14 release. I will have a post about this shortly.

    Also I should have some new interop information about Wave 14 and your Cisco deployment, so be on the look out for it shortly.

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  3. I respect Anonymous views and experience, but I am a bit surprised. There are some excellent devices available for OCS 2007 R2 - such for example as the Polycom CX 300 or the Plantronics MCD100. Those are wide band, very accurate, high gain... Much better than any traditional phone I have personally ever used.
    With respect to the docking - the issues I am aware of were attributable to flawed/non standard compliant USB stacks on those docking stations. There are less and less of those out there, but your vendor should be able to fix them in any case.

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  4. CX300 with CS14 provides excellent audio quality and I'd echo Chris' comments on the new device selection in CS14, much improved.

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  5. Totally agree with you Simon.


    So far with CS 14 I have used: Plantronics Savi W430-M, Plantronics Blackwire 420, Polycom CX300, Jabra Go 6400 and a Polycom CX600. I can honestly say with CS 14 and the new device selection I haven't had any issues to date with selecting devices and having Communicator track which device I prefer to use. Big change in experience which users will be greatful for.

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