TANDBERG Codian Video Conferencing Systems

Codian is a leading manufacturer of video conferencing infrastructure products.

Codian designs and manufactures the most advanced video conferencing products available in the market today, bringing you the best in IP voice, video and data conferencing.

Using a unique architecture and the latest hardware technology, Codian products are both easy to use and powerful, offering outstanding quality, performance and features.

The Codian product line includes Multipoint Control Units, ISDN gateways, Video Conference Recorders and Streaming Servers.

TANDBERG Codian MSE 8000 Series

The TANDBERG Codian MSE 8000 Series is an extremely powerful, fault-tolerant video-conferencing solution, designed for large scale video communication. Supporting up to 10 blades and 1 Gbit/s of audio/video conferencing, the MSE chassis delivers over 10 times the through-put of existing solutions. This product is ideal for enterprise corporations, service providers and government installations.

TANDBERG Codian MCU 4501

The TANDBERG Codian MCU 4501 is the industry's leading entry-sized, high-definition conferencing bridge. It offers organizations a low-risk, cost-effective solution for HD multipoint video conferencing. For those organizations with an existing SD video environment, it provides a seamless transition path to HD. Compatible with all major vendors' SD and HD endpoints, it delivers the best experience for each participant every time.

TANDBERG Codian MCU 4500 Series

The TANDBERG Codian MCU 4500 Series is the only conferencing bridge with the power to deliver a true high definition (HD) multimedia experience.

TANDBERG Codian MCU 4200 Series

The TANDBERG Codian MCU 4200 Series is a range of technologically advanced multipoint control units—designed to bring you the highest possible voice and video conferencing quality available today—wrapped in a versatile and easy to use interface.

TANDBERG Codian IP GW 3500 Series

The TANDBERG Codian IP GW 3500 Series is a gateway for seamless and secure voice and video communication from the Internet to the intranet.

TANDBERG Codian ISDN Gateway 3200 Series

The TANDBERG Codian ISDN Gateway 3200 Series is a range of high performance video gateways, which enables ISDN network connectivity for the Codian IP-based video infrastructure products as well as any IP-based endpoints.

TANDBERG Codian IP VCR 2200 Series

The TANDBERG Codian IP VCR 2200 Series of IP Video Conference Recorders allow you to record video and slides from standard video conferencing equipment. The content can be streamed live or played back on demand at multiple speeds to a PC or any video conferencing endpoint.

TANDBERG Codian ClearVision

The TANDBERG Codian ClearVision is a technological breakthrough set to change the expectations of video conferencing users forever. TANDBERG Codian ClearVision is a unique technology that magically transforms poor quality images, from standard and enhanced-definition endpoints, into 'near' high-definition clarity.

Codian Q and A

How do I create a conference that is not publicly accessible?

For H.323 callers, the MCU's default behavior is for all conferences to appear on the default auto attendant, and for that auto attendant to be available to all callers. This behavior can be changed in various ways:

It is possible to change the configuration of the default auto attendant so that it does not include all conferences, but instead just a specific selection. This can be set up from the administrator web interface; select the "Auto attendants" tab from the conference list web page, click on "Default" and then configure the "Accessible conferences" parameters as appropriate.
Conferences can be configured with a PIN so that only those who know the PIN can join them.
The default auto attendant can be configured with a PIN so that only a restricted set of callers can see the available conferences.
To restrict availability of conferences from the web interface, accounts can be configured to have "guest" access only and the "guest" privileges can be set appropriately. To do so go to Home > Users, select User ID "guest", and then change the "Guest access rights" as required.

In terms of accessibility from the web interface, logins with "user" or "admin" privilege can see the active and scheduled conferences and change those conferences' configuration.

To restrict availability of conferences from the web interface, accounts can be configured to have "guest" access only and the "guest" privileges can be set appropriately. To do so go to Home > Users, select User ID "guest", and then change the "Guest access rights" as required.

How do I configure the video firewall?

The correct configuration of the Video Firewall depends very much on the layout of the rest of your network, but here is a basic description.

The general idea of the Video Firewall is that one of the MCU's ethernet ports (typically port A) is connected to your internal network and the other, typically port B, is connected to the external network. This allows the MCU to host conferences with a mix of participants from the internal and external networks. This does not compromise your network security because the MCU will never route packets between the two ports, not even media packets.

The two ports are configured independently on the Home > Settings > Network A and Home > Settings > Network B pages, either manually or via DHCP depending on your network. You then need to configure the MCU's routing table (on the Home > Settings > Routes page) so that it can see endpoints in both networks. Typically this would be done by making one of the two ports the default (using default gateway preference) and then setting up explicit routes for the other interface. It may be easier to come up with a set of routes which covers the limited set of addresses in your internal network, so the approach would be to make the external network the default and then specify a set of routes to your internal one.

You can also define which MCU services (e.g. Web interface, incoming H.323 calls, etc.) are available on which ports using the IP Services Configuration on the Home > Settings > Routes page.

Which TCP/UDP ports do the Codian products use?

FTP - TCP:21 + TCP ephemeral (i.e. dynamic rather than fixed) ports used for passive mode
HTTP - TCP:80
H.323 - TCP:1720 + TCP ephemeral ports for incoming calls
RTSP - TCP:554
Outgoing H.323 calls will involve TCP connections from TCP epehmeral ports to TCP:1720 + a TCP ephemeral port
Media will be UDP from ephemeral ports to ephemeral ports

The Codian products allocate ephemeral ports in the range 49152 to 65535.

How can I control the VNC resolution?

With VNC, 1600 x 1200 is the maximum size supported. Until the MCU determines the actual resolution of the incoming data, a size of 1600 x 1200 is shown on the web interface.

For example, if the computer is uses a 1024 x 768, the MCU should detect that the size is actually 1024 x 768, and display it at the appropriate scaled size on other participants' views. You should not need to control the VNC resolution manually, as the MCU should cope with any size up to the maximum 1600 x 1200.

If you notice a problem (for example, what you see on participants’displays is incorrectly scaled), there could be a compatibility issue between the VNC program you are using and the MCU’s VNC implementation.

To enable our support team to look into any incompatibilities, please could you do the following:

let us know which version of MCU software you are running (this is shown on the Home > Status > General page)
let us know which VNC program you are using on the PC whose screen you are trying to view, and which version
use the MCU's in-built logging to capture a trace which should help us see what's going on; the steps involved here are:
1. Start from an MCU with no active H.323 or VNC connections (from restart would be ideal)
2. Go to the Home > Events > Capture filter page on the MCU's web interface
3. Change the VNC setting to Errors, warnings, information, and trace, and click Update settings
4. Establish the VNC connection again from the MCU web interface
5. Verify that the same fault condition (for example, no VNC video appearing on H.323 endpoints' displays) exists
6. Go to the Home > Events > Event log web page, click "Download as text", and send the resulting text file to us at support@codian.com

How do I get streaming with QuickTime and RealPlayer to work through a firewall?

For MCU streaming with QuickTime and RealPlayer to work through firewalls, you need to open TCP port 554, which is used for control data, and UDP ports 6970-6999. If this latter range seems too big, you may be able to just open ports 6970-6973; these are the default ports used by the players, but this is of course insufficient if multiple instances are running, for example, to stream more than one conference to the same PC.

IVCi is a TANDBERG Platinum Reseller and Certified Managed Service Provider. We are one of only a handful of companies nationwide that has been recognized with this dual distinction for our superior service and support of TANDBERG's integrated video conferencing solutions. Our factory-trained sales and technical staff install and support TANDBERG projects across the country and around the world. As with the other video conferencing products we represent, IVCi provides clients with one point of contact for sales, service, management and support of the entire TANDBERG product line.