Microsoft Lync Server 2010 : Windows, Browser, and Silverlight Clients - Web Conferencing

1. Starting a Conference

Web conferences can be initiated either through the direct sharing of a monitor or by scheduling a meeting and including a web conference. However, the simplest way to initiate a conference is through the Meet Now option.

In the top menu of the Lync client, when you click Meet Now, the following three options for joining an Audio meeting are offered:

• Do not join audio

• Use Lync (integrated audio and video)

• Call me at:

This creates a conference with only the initiating user in it. From here, use the People menu to perform the following tasks:

• Invite by Name or Phone Number

• Invite by Email

• Mute Audience

• Make Everyone an Attendee

• Play Entry and exit Announcements

• Remove Everyone and End Meeting

When inviting by name or phone number, Lync displays the existing contacts to simplify adding an attendee who is already known to the meeting organizer. Highlighting the contact and clicking OK sends an invite to the contact. The person is notified by a pop-up box and can opt to either join the conference or set her status to Do Not Disturb. From this point, the normal IM, audio, video, and application sharing functions are available. If authorized to do so, attendees can also send invitations to the conference.

2. Adding a Web Conference to a Meeting

Most commonly, people add web conferences through Lync Server 2010 to meeting invitations. You can either initiate this through the Lync client, by right-clicking a contact and choosing Schedule a Meeting, or by creating a normal meeting invite through Outlook and clicking the Online Meeting button. Clicking this button adds a link to the invite to allow recipients to join the online meeting as shown in Figure 1.

Figure 1 The Call Window

Clicking the Meeting Options button enables you to configure behaviors for dealing with meeting access and identifying who can be a presenter, as shown in Figure 2.

Figure 2. Access and Presenters

After it is sent, the meeting request appears in the recipient’s mailbox where it can be accepted. Opening the calendar item, the user is able to click the web link for the meeting.

When the link is clicked, the client is presented with options for how to join the audio conference:

• Do not join audio

• Use Lync (integrated audio and video)

• Call me at:

Although any of the options are valid, for this example, select Use Lync and click OK as shown in Figure 3.

Figure 3 Choosing Audio and Video

From here, the familiar Lync window displays that shows the conference call is starting. In the top of the window is a link for Join Information and Meeting Options. Clicking this link identifies the Conference ID and the Meeting link. This can be sent to additional attendees that you want to add after the fact. There are also two buttons:

• Copy All Information—This places the information on the screen into the clipboard where it can be later pasted into some other program.

• Meeting Options—This enables participants to view the Access and Presenter information that was set easier for the meeting. The meeting creator can use this button to modify the access and presenter settings after the meeting has already started.