Considerations When Using Media Transcoding

When vendors support interoperability with Lync 2013 endpoints using H.264 video, the media transcoding gateways will become largely irrelevant, and, unfortunately for the companies that invested in one, not of much use. As of this writing, it is hard to recommend that any organization invest in a media transcoding gateway unless there is a plan to support Lync 2010 endpoints for a long time.

Cisco also requires the OCS Enhanced Collaboration key to support SRTP media encryption when making calls with the Advanced Media Gateway, which comes at an additional cost.

LifeSize has an interesting approach with the UVC Video Engine for Microsoft Lync product. A UVC Video Engine server is typically deployed in each branch on a virtual host in order to minimize WAN usage or the hairpin behavior introduced by the Cisco AMG. The other notable feature is that the media transcoding gateway is used only when available, so it does not become a single point of failure within the network. If the LifeSize product is offline or unavailable when a user tries to make a call, the call is simply made in standard definition rather than failing.