Lifesize MCU - anything to know?

[glynieboy]

I have completed a trial on a Codian MCU and was most impressed. Looking at doing a trial with a Lifesize MCU, anything to look out for?

Any info/thoughts appreciated....

Cheers Glyn

[Sean Lessman]

I have completed a trial on a Codian MCU and was most impressed. Looking at doing a trial with a Lifesize MCU, anything to look out for?

Any info/thoughts appreciated....

Cheers Glyn

The RADVision MCU has many caveats around HD so make sure you get the full story. For instance, to encode an HDCP image, takes 8 of the processors out of commission dropping the 24 port count down to 16. If you also choose to decode HD, using an API command, the port count drops another 8 ports to a max of 8 ports on the blade. If you then decide to do AES encryption, the port count drops 50% (all calls above 768kbps with AES recduce the port count by 50%) to a max of 4 ports per blade. All this and 1 conference only per board.

The TANDBERG Codian gives you HD on every port and as many conferences as you want.

The other argument will be the price of the RADVision. However as you can see above, comparing apples to apples, the RADVision approaches $25k+ per port (HD encode, decode and AES) which is more than 4 times the cost of the TANDBERG Codian 4500.

Hope that helps,

Sean

[glynieboy]

Thanks for the info Sean.

Have I missed something fundamental here. Is the LifeSize MCU a re badged RadVision?

[Kevin]

Have I missed something fundamental here. Is the LifeSize MCU a re badged RadVision?

Sure is!
Kevin

[Sean Lessman]

Thanks for the info Sean.

Have I missed something fundamental here. Is the LifeSize MCU a re badged RadVision?

Yes, RADVision OEMs to Cisco, LifeSize, Aethra and Sony. Basically everyone else except Polycom and TANDBERG who have their own MCUs.

Sean

[glynieboy]

Hey Sean - thanks for this info, very useful to know indeed. I will see if they tell me full story when they come down next week! Appreciate your advice ;-)

[jo3baltes]

Just to clarify Sean's earlier comments: the RADVISION MCU will support up to 12 sites using AES and call rates above 768k to the max rates of 2Mb.

Using AES and high rate (or HD) calling doesn't affect DSP port availabilty as Sean explained. There is a CPU cost of course, but not affecting video port capacity.

[AceVid]

ummm I find it interesting that the lifesize mcu supports H.261, while their endpoints don't....is this still the case..I haven't checked in a while..

[Sean Lessman]

Just to clarify Sean's earlier comments: the RADVISION MCU will support up to 12 sites using AES and call rates above 768k to the max rates of 2Mb.

Using AES and high rate (or HD) calling doesn't affect DSP port availabilty as Sean explained. There is a CPU cost of course, but not affecting video port capacity.

No change in video port count? Is that considering both encode AND decode for HD? Out of the box, the Scopia will not decode HD unless you put in the command, and if that has no effect on port count, why even have the command?

Not trying to be difficult, but something doesn't add up.

Sean