For the streaming and recording of conferences, Avaya has developed the Avaya Equinox® Streaming and Recording Server (Equinox Streaming and Recording). Equinox Streaming and Recording is the Avaya platform for HD streaming and recording.
Before you install Equinox Streaming and Recording, you must make a number of decisions in order to ensure that the solution exactly matches the requirements of your deployment. For example, you must make a decision about scalability in accordance with the size of your enterprise. For a small enterprise, you can choose a single appliance which houses all of the Equinox Streaming and Recording components. For a large enterprise, you can choose a distributed solution with multiple media nodes. Equinox Streaming and Recording is highly flexible and easily adaptable, whatever your requirements. In addition, you must decide if you require a high degree of redundancy1 and whether you would like to enable external access and storage in the ‘cloud’. In both the Over The Top (OTT) and Team Engagement (TE) solutions, Equinox Streaming and Recording is optional, however if you want to record and playback videoconferences, you must install it.
If you would like users outside of the enterprise to access recordings, you can deploy Equinox Streaming and Recording in a Demilitarized Zone (DMZ) or use a reverse proxy server. In this way, the Equinox Streaming and Recording is similar to the Avaya Scopia® Web Collaboration server (WCS). If you would like users outside of the enterprise to access the videoconference, you must deploy the WCS in a DMZ or use a reverse proxy server. Equinox Streaming and Recordingand WCS also support a Network Address Translation NAT Firewall configuration in a DMZ deployment. NAT Firewall is an additional layer of security. It blocks unrequested inbound traffic.
Components
The Avaya Equinox® Streaming and Recording Server consists of the following components:
• Equinox Streaming and Recording Conference Point™ (CP)
• Equinox Streaming and Recording Delivery Node™ (DN)
• Equinox Streaming and Recording Virtual Delivery Node™ (VDN)
• Equinox Streaming and Recording Manager™
• Equinox Recording Gateway™
Equinox Streaming and Recording Conference Point™
You must configure a conference point to capture H.323 video content and deliver live and on demand webcasting. The Equinox Streaming and Recordingconference point includes an embedded transcoder to convert H.323 calls into Windows Media or .MP4 format.
Each conference point must be associated with a delivery node. A delivery node streams and optionally archives the content captured by the conference point and delivers it to client systems.
You can configure a conference point to be in a geographic location. This means that you can assign a location to one or more conference points which coincide with locations set for Scopia Elite MCUs and/or Equinox Media Servers in Equinox Management. When a program starts, Equinox Management includes the desired location, and a conference point close to the MCU/Media Server can be selected. If there are no conference points matching the location passed by Equinox Management, then any conference points without a location are treated as a single pool of conference points, and one of those is selected. If there are no conference points available, the call fails.
Each conference point has a limit to the number of simultaneous high definition or standard definition calls it can handle.
The CP includes the following features:
• Video conferencing H.323 capture and transcoding
• High definition support
• Scalability for up to 40 480p, or up to 60 360p recordings, or up to 75 audio-only recordings
• Scalability for up to 10 1080p recordings, or for up to 20 720p recordings
• G.711 and AAC-LC audio capture and transcoding
• H.263, H.263+, H.264 capture and transcoding
The media node or all-in-one server can include the CP and transcoder components. The H.323 video and audio and the optional H.239 stream received by the CP are sent to the internal encoder for transcoding into Windows Media™ format or H.264/AAC MP4/MPEGTS/HLS formats.
• Operating Systems: The transcoder runs on the Windows Server 2012 R2 or Windows Server 2016 64-bit operating system with Hyper-V (an add-on to the Windows Server that allows a Linux operating system to run on the same server). The CP runs on the CentOS 6.6 64-bit operating system. Using virtualization software, this enables both applications to run two different operating systems on the same server.
• Licensing: The server requires a single media node license for the CP. The license defines the number of simultaneous H.323 connections. An H.323 connection includes audio, video, and an optional H.239 secondary stream.
• Transcoding H.323 audio and Video: The CP connects H.323 calls to theScopia Elite MCUs (Multipoint Control Units) and/or Equinox Media Servers. When it establishes a video connection, the CP sends the audio and video data from the MCU/Media Server to the internal transcoder. The transcoder converts the data into a format that is suitable for streaming.
• Transcoding with H.239: H.239 is an ITU recommendation that allows for establishment of multiple channels within a single H.323 session. Existing videoconference equipment can be used to stream audio and video and a secondary channel can stream a slide presentation or another data stream to the viewers of a program. This function is typically used to stream slide presentations synchronized with live audio and video. If a program uses a secondary H.239 channel, the encoder inputs the second stream, decodes, scales and mixes it with the main video input for transcoding/streaming. The streams are then sent to the DN for delivery to the distribution network. The dual stream can also be recorded as a single MP4 program.
• High definition support: The CP supports high definition video and higher rate streaming quality and bandwidth. The CP supports the following ITU recommendations:
+ H.261 up to CIF Video
+ H.262 up to CIF video
+ H.263 up to CIF video
+ H.264 up to 1080p video
+ H.263+ up to 1024 x 768 H.239 data
+ H.264 up to 1080p H.239 data
+ G.711 audio
+ AAC-LC audio
The CP negotiates up to H.264 Level 3.2 video at 1.92 Mbps, and accepts up to 1080p and down to H.261 QCIF along with G.711 or AAC-LC audio. The streaming resolution and bandwidth rate depend on what you select for the bitrate when creating the program and what the Scopia Elite MCU and/orEquinox Media Server negotiates.
Equinox Streaming and Recording Delivery Node™
The DN provides on-demand and broadcast video delivery. Used alone or in a hierarchy of devices, the DN supports thousands of concurrent streams. The DN uses intelligent routing, content caching, and inherent redundancy to ensure transparent delivery of high-quality video.
Delivery nodes (DN) store all content that is created by the conference point and deliver the content to client systems at playback time. You must associate the conference point with the delivery nodes.
A source DN is the original DN that receives a recording file from its associated conference point. A source DN sends the recording file to all of the other DNs in the network.
The Delivery Node Details dialog displays a list of recording files, known as Source Programs and Distributed Programs. Source programs are programs (recording files) for which this delivery node is the main source for storage. Distributed programs are programs which other delivery nodes have forwarded to this delivery node.
Equinox Streaming and Recording Virtual Delivery Node™ (VDN)
A virtual delivery node (VDN) delivers content to a global content delivery network (CDN) provider for cloud-based viewer playback. The appliance and the network of the CDN act as one delivery mechanism. Therefore, the VDN appliance and the CDN together create the Equinox Streaming and RecordingVDN solution.
Upon program creation, the publisher includes the options of distributing the program to delivery nodes and to the Equinox Streaming and Recording VDN solution. VDN supports publishing recordings as well as live broadcast.
You can view the programs distributed to the VDN appliance and to be delivered to the CDN with the associated status of the program.
Equinox Streaming and Recording currently only supports the Highwinds Cloud CDN.
Equinox Streaming and Recording Manager™
The Equinox Streaming and Recording Manager provides a web-based interface to configure and manage streaming and recording software, devices, services, and users. The Equinox Streaming and Recording Manager application resides on a single hardware platform and provides access to all content in the Equinox Streaming and Recording environment.
There are two Equinox Streaming and Recording Manager portals:
• Equinox Streaming and Recording Manager Administrator Portal: Administrators use this portal to perform the following tasks:
+ Configure and manage video communications devices
+ Manipulate content
+ Monitor user roles
+ Create and set global policies
+ Identify best practices and usage effectiveness through comprehensive reporting
+ Allow access to the VDN for CDN deployment or programs
+ Manage organizations, in a multi-tenant deployment (including what profiles, categories and CDN settings they can access)
+ Create and manage viewer mappings to associate viewers with the appropriate distribution node location
• Avaya Equinox® Unified Portal: Viewers select the Recordings and Events tab on the main Avaya Equinox® Unified Portal page to access the viewer portal. Users can select the Schedule tab to schedule an event. Users can perform the following tasks in relation to recordings:
+ View programs
+ Navigate categories
+ View live or on-demand programs
Avaya Equinox® Recording Gateway™
You can configure Equinox Streaming and Recording to record:
• Audio-only conferences
• Audio and web collaboration conferences and MSS video
Audio-only and audio and web collaboration conferences use SIP. Video, audio, and web collaboration conferences use H.323. In order to support this mix of protocols, you must deploy an Avaya Equinox® Recording Gateway. You can deploy the Equinox Recording Gateway using the Avaya Equinox® Managementinterface. The Equinox Recording Gateway is similar to an Avaya Equinox® Media Server but does not accept regular client connections and is only used for recording purposes. When you add the media server (MCU) configured for high scale audio, you get three additional meeting types - Audio Service, Audio Service with Web Collaboration and MSS video, Audio and Web Collaboration. Each meeting type is also matched to a particular rate of encoding and screen resolution. This means that recordings do not use unnecessary resources and disk space if they are not required by the meeting type.
When a user records a conference, Equinox Management identifies the type of recording that is required by the user. It routes the media to the appropriate gateway, if one is required. Equinox Management also determines the most appropriate capture rate, resolution, frame rate, and encode rate for the Equinox Streaming and Recording Conference Point.
The Equinox Recording Gateway does not require a separate license. When you buy a media node, you receive an Equinox Recording Gateway as well. For more information on adding the gateway to Equinox Management and for information on configuring the meeting types, see Administering Avaya Equinox® Management, which is available on support.avaya.com.