Making Video Calls

Initiating a video call is as simple as right-clicking a contact and choosing Start a Video Call. Much as with the audio call, the recipient has the option to accept, decline, or redirect. Redirect gives the option to reply with an IM or to mark the recipient as Do Not Disturb.

When the call is accepted, the usual client window opens and is located on the Video tab. The recipient initially sees the caller, but the caller won’t see the recipient until after clicking Start My Video in the window.

Inside the video window are several buttons, including

• Mute microphone

• Adjust volume or mute speakers

• Display dial pad

• Hold

In addition, inside the video area itself, if the mouse enters this area, several additional buttons become available, including

• Pause My Video—Turns off the webcam on the system of the user that clicked it. At this point, the option changes to Start My Video, which turns the webcam back on.

• Pop Out Video—Disconnects the video window from the rest of the Lync client window so that it can be repositioned elsewhere. In this configuration, as well as in the initial configuration, the video window can be resized by simply dragging a corner.

• View Full Screen—Expands the video windows to encompass the entire screen. The option at the upper-right corner becomes Exit full screen.

• End Video—Click to downgrade the video call to an audio call.

Additionally, the name of the other participant appears in the lower-left section of the video window.

At the default window sizes, video conferences across a LAN connection are quite good. Factors such as latency and bandwidth might affect video conferencing across a WAN connection.