HDX RealTime Media Engine with other standards-based desktop video and conference room systems

[Marc-André Labonté]

Hello, 

 

when we are on the HDX RealTime Media Engine download page, the description text say that the RTME can work with other standards-based desktop video and conference room systems. See https://www.citrix.com/downloads/citrix-receiver/additional-client-software/hdx-realtime-media-engine.html

 

We are trying to configure the Mitel MiCollab client in Citrix and we want to use the RTME optimisation. When we make calls, the audio is not very good. Do we have something special to configure on the Receiver to use RTME with MiCollab Client or is that automatic?

 

I did not finc anything on Citrix Doc about that.

 

Thanks!

 

[Marc-André Labonté]

Finally, we have set  Citrix policy settings Audio quality to "Medium" and that solved the case.

 

Thanks for your help!

[Daniel Szomboti]

Hi Marc-Andre.

 

If I understand well the MiCollab is similar software to Skype (it allows users to make calls, keep a contact list, etc.) and is independent of Skype.

Please correct me if I am wrong but you want to use VM hosted MiCollab to deliver calls and want to make use of RTOP to improve the experience. If this is correct, this will not work. RTOP is specifically designed to work with Skype for Business, only.

 

However to improve the experience of your users with MiCollab you could do the following:

 

- Enable UDP audio for sessions

- Increase the audio channel priority

 

These two articles should give you enough information on how to improve the audio experience for users:

 

CTX133024 & CTX132764

 

Regards,

Daniel

[Marc-André Labonté]

Thanks Daniel for the reply and the information on how to improve audio experience. I will give it a try.

 

Just a question to clarify what i meant before : In the reference page i gave before, there is this description : 

The HDX RealTime Media Engine is a plug-in to the Citrix Receiver to support clear, crisp high-definition audio-video calls, particularly with Microsoft Skype® for Business. Users can seamlessly participate in audio-video or audio-only calls to and from other HDX RealTime Media Engine users, native Skype® for Business and Lync® client users, and other standards-based desktop video and conference room systems. 

 

So what Citrix mean by other standards-based desktop video and conference room systems. If it doesn't work with software other than Skype, then Citrix should remove this text from this page.

 

Thanks!

[Daniel Szomboti]

Yes, I agree the wording is a bit confusing.

 

It probably should read:

 

The HDX RealTime Media Engine is a plug-in to the Citrix Receiver to support clear, crisp high-definition audio-video calls, particularly(only) with Microsoft Skype® for Business. Users can seamlessly participate in audio-video or audio-only calls to and from other HDX RealTime Media Engine users, native Skype® for Business and Lync® client users or other standards-based desktop video and conference room systems.

 

Basically it means that using RTOP you can ring users of other software like Cisco Jabber, MiCollab, Xlite, etc. Given that software can inter operate with Skype or Lync (as RTOP uses the same codecs as Skype).

 

Hope this clears up the confusion.

[Marc-André Labonté]

Thanks Daniel for the clarification.

[Derek Thorslund]

Hello Marc-Andre,

 

For what it's worth, I'll add that Citrix offers APIs to help softphone vendors optimize their applications for delivery from XenApp and XenDesktop, much as we've done with Microsoft for Skype for Business, with Avaya for one-X, with Cisco for Jabber, etc. We would be happy to share our APIs with Mitel for potential optimization of MiCollab.

 

And if your users are on Windows devices, don't overlook the Local App Access feature, which allows the softphone to run locally (thereby offloading the XenApp/XenDesktop server from all media processing) and yet appear as part of the user's virtual/published desktop.

 

 

Regards,

 

 

Derek

[Marc-André Labonté]

Thanks Derek for the reply. 

 

Hope someone from Mitel see it and contact you. 

 

For now, it is not working really well. I have enable UDP audio for sessions and the priority for the audio channel is realtime and the problem is still there. 

 

If i call comeone on a IP phone, i can ear his voice really well, but my voice chopping on his phone. I will continue my testing today.

 

I have not find a way to confirm that the voice is really passing through UDP.

 

Thanks!

[Daniel Szomboti]

Well done Marc! Let us know if face any new challenges.

[Campbell Kay]

Hi Guys,

 

did you managed to get this working at all?

 

Thanks,

[Daniel Szomboti]

12 hours ago, Campbell Kay said:

Hi Guys,

 

did you managed to get this working at all?

 

Thanks,

 

Please try the suggestion in policy changes I made above some time ago. RTOP only works with Skype for Business.