Enhanced Media Features

Microsoft Office Communications Server 2007 and Microsoft Office Communications Server 2007 R2 will reach end of support on January 9, 2018. To stay supported, you will need to upgrade. For more information, see Resources to help you upgrade your Office 2007 servers and clients.

Improved audio/video collaboration is the centerpiece of Office Communications Server 2007 R2. Fundamental to this effort is an improvement in overall user experience during both phone calls and conferences. Among the media enhancements that have been implemented to achieve this goal are the following:

• Improved media resiliency

  End users can expect to have reliable voice communications that continue working even if transient network conditions cause signaling failure in an Office Communications Server component. If a user’s attempt to establish a new media connection fails, as during an attempt to add video to an existing voice connection, Office Communicator 2007 R2 automatically tries to restore this connection in the background without further user involvement.

• Improved voice quality

  Overall voice quality is significantly better for Office Communications Server 2007 R2. These improvements include:

  • Suppression of typing noise during calls.

  • Improved generation of comfort noise, which reduces hissing and smoothes over the discontinuous flow of audio packets.

  • Improved echo detection and reduced echoing at the beginning of a call.

  • Better regulation of audio volume among peer-to-peer callers and conference participants.

  • Improved codec selection for calls to the PSTN over low-latency connections.

• High-definition and VGA video

  High-definition video (resolution 1270 x 720; aspect ratio 16:9) and VGA video (resolution 640 x 480; aspect ratio 4:3) are supported for peer-to-peer calls between users who are running Office Communicator 2007 R2 on high-end computers. The resolution viewed by each participant in a single conversation may differ, depending on the video capabilities of their respective hardware.

  High-definition and VGA video are not supported for conferences.

  Administrators can set policies to restrict or disable high-definition or VGA video on clients, depending on computer capability, network bandwidth, and the presence of a camera able to deliver the required resolution. These policies are enforced through in-band provisioning.