Accord MGC 100

[osuets]

Has anyone upgraded to Ver 6 of the Accord MGC 100 MCU software. If so, how is it performing.

[jonbrady]

I have intalled Version 6.00.107 and been using it for over a week no problems. Have you upgraded before??

[zinman]

I recently upgraded one of our MGC-100's to version 6. We use E.164 dialing, which triggers our Quality of Service. As such, we must enter 0.0.0.0 as the IP address or the system dials IP instead of E.164. The Accord now pops up a message stating that the site your adding is set to the same IP as the site that was put in first. It will add the site but the pop-up message is a pain. Polycom is looking into it.

[zinman]

I am not sure if it's related to E.164 dialing but I am having 3 other problems.
1. When I build a conference using predefined sites, some sites come into the conference in IDLE mode. In this mode they will not connect, cannot be changed from dial out or dial in (depending on how they went in), but need to be deleted then re-added to the conference.
2. I have had 2 of my test conferences come up showing everything normal, but get no audio. I am still researching this as it may be my boo-boo
3. My P-tel 970 (running version 6) often connects as secondary. It happens less if it is not the first site in the conference. When it does happen, and will not connect on the 2nd attempt, I have to get the P-Tel rebooted (4.5 minutes!) to eventually connect.

[osuets]

Version 5.xx of the Accord software also had issues with the Pic Tel.

We have such a large and broad client base that currently we are running the last release of version 4. I am want to upgrade to version 6, but fear the issues that you speak of. Currently we connect to anything from the old Intel Team Stations to the Pic Tel, VTel, Zydacron...

Has anyone conncect via ISDN, or an Accord Bridge with ver 4 or 5 to an Accord running ver 6

[tjulian]

I've got an Accorg MGC-100 with ver 6.00.62. I also use two ISDN PRI's (no IP yet, our network is terrible anyways). I have no problems yet. I've had the software installed for about a month to a month and and a half, with no problems (at least none caused by the software).

[osuets]

That is good to know. Because one of our specialties is connecting transcoding ISDN to 323.

[Spider]

3. My P-tel 970 (running version 6) often connects as secondary. It happens less if it is not the first site in the conference. When it does happen, and will not connect on the 2nd attempt, I have to get the P-Tel rebooted (4.5 minutes!) to eventually connect.

try to build your conference in forcing all sites to use the same videoprotocol I guess in your case H261 would be the choice

just my 2 ct

[JoeAggie]

We don't really utilize all the "bells and whistles" of the MGC-100. We also use VC Wizard for scheduling and bridge control. My understanding is that 6.XXX is still not supporting the H.264 standard (just Polycom's version of the standard) but that is supposed to be addressed in the 7.0 release.

I was wondering, is everyone running the newer "+" cards in their Accords? Many of the benefits for the last couple of releases (5.XX & 6.XX) appear to be hinged on this newer hardware.


Thanks
Joe

[tom9933]

Hi,
We’ve been running the 6.0 release here at Wright State since the day it came out (bleeding is fun right?) and so far the stability has been excellent. We regularly used most of the hardware based Polycom line and a few Zydacron, VTEL and VCON endpoints. I agree the 0.0.0.0 bug is very annoying, but it hasn’t caused any problems other than a question from the operator when he first noticed it. BTW I’m running an IP only MGC 50 with video+ and audio 48/96 boards.
Hope this helps

[Slimey]

yes osuets we use a MGC-100 running 4.61.2 connected to a madgenetworks acessswitch 200 doing point to point over ISDN PRI to 22 sites and to 10 sites over IP with the help of a adtran atlas 800 and a cisco 3640 to various Polycom, VTEL, and VCON endpoints. 99% of the time all works well have not had any problems in over 2 years with this setup B)
knock on wood

we are waiting to upgrade to 6.x as soon as verizon (our vendor) gets the maintenance contract straightened out

[mazzarak]

we are running video+ cards on one of our bridges, and the main differences I've seen are purely aesthetic - Highlights round the speaker, a text field on screen showing the site name as written on MGC Manager, a choice of back ground colours as a change to the ocean grey look of old.

Though I'm sure there are other benefits too

[kfloo]

Please any expert engineer can help, i would lik to proposed the an MCU which support for 32 sites on lease line 2Mbps, 20 on ISDN 512kbps and 24 on IP 128kbps.

1) What the power consumption for the MCU ?
2) Need MCU schdeuling server for user control thru web browser, the equipment i need ?
3) Do MGC manager need a server, i come across there is a MGC server manager, is it the same?
4) for the Data base server do i need any software to link to MCU?
5) The client need biling solution, so the mcu generate the CDR does it must need the polycom provide zyross data collector or could we use the 3rd party mediator to masaage the cdr for the billing solution?
6) What equpment or any solution can able to generate alert when the MCU have fault or the network ISDN, lease or IP have congestion or others equipment such as server. Does the Polycom Conference suite can able to do that.

Thanks

[tjulian]

Originally posted by kfloo@May 27 2004, 02:39 AM
Please any expert engineer can help, i would lik to proposed the an MCU which support for 32 sites on lease line 2Mbps, 20 on ISDN 512kbps and 24 on IP 128kbps.

1) What the power consumption for the MCU ?
2) Need MCU schdeuling server for user control thru web browser, the equipment i need ?
3) Do MGC manager need a server, i come across there is a MGC server manager, is it the same?
4) for the Data base server do i need any software to link to MCU?
5) The client need biling solution, so the mcu generate the CDR does it must need the polycom provide zyross data collector or could we use the 3rd party mediator to masaage the cdr for the billing solution?
6) What equpment or any solution can able to generate alert when the MCU have fault or the network ISDN, lease or IP have congestion or others equipment such as server. Does the Polycom Conference suite can able to do that.

Thanks
kfloo, I'm not sure on all of your questions, but here's my take on them:

1. I have absolutely no idea on power consumption. You should check with your reseller for that information.

2. If you are talking about a web page for users to schedule their conferences, I'm sure it can be done, but I haven't seen it done yet.

3. MGC Manager runs on a local PC, and collects all its information either from the local PC or from the MGC...no server required...

4. The database for call information is all stored on the MGC, I belive, so you won't need a seperate database for that. If you are referring to the user-scheduling option, then yeah, it would have to be linked, somehow

5. The MCU generates a CDR, which can be retrived in several forms, such as CSV, which allows quick implementation into a spreadsheet, etc. There is also a billing field in the conference setup dialog....but I dunno what it is for...:D

6. The MGC will send SNMP traps across the network to inform you (or someone else) of errors, or other problems....pretty much however you have it configured.

Hope some of that helps. I know of a couple of vendors here in the US that might be able to answer some of your questions a bit more clearly if you need their info.

[kfloo]

Thanks tjulian,

Have you ever encounter that the MCU support MPI card using V.35 for lease line.
My question is if i using the lease line MPI card in MCU and replace it to Net card. can it be possible. Any currently in we are using a direct link V.35 and need a DSU/modem for both end,
In the case i replace the DSU so which mean the lease line coming from Telcom coaxial cable will convert it using G.703 with BNC to a RJ45 direct to Net card. can it be work.
As far as we using DSU in asia is because The DSU need to down grade the lease from 2mbps to 1.5 mbps for Vtel system.
I am not sure is the DSU serve as a bandwithd management or also as a boost the lease line signal from local to a remote site.?

Thanks . ;)

[tjulian]

I am not that familiar with the leased line scenario...so I'm afraid I can't answer your questions about that, but I think the reason you had to downgrade the 2Mbps connection to 1.5 with the Vtel was that the Vtel did not support E1, only US T1...The MGC-100 will support both, I belive, so you should not have to downgrade the link, but the DSU does act as a "booster" to increase the line signal...

[mazzarak]

kfloo

we have a product that can offer web based launching and monitoring, and also autogenerate billing information. But I guess it depends on your situation as to whether you are interested.

[tjulian]

mazzrak, dows that work with the MGC line or another product? If it works with the MGC, let me know, I *might* be interested....

[Glen Sykes]

1) What the power consumption for the MCU ?

5 Amps at 240V is a good bet although this is not an official figure. I used to have this figure as it is asked in tenders a lot (drat!)

2) Need MCU schdeuling server for user control thru web browser, the equipment i need ?

You need Polycom WebCommander for the MGC, which requires a Win2K web server. You can find the min' spec on Polycom's web site.

3) Do MGC manager need a server, i come across there is a MGC server manager, is it the same?

No, it is a client application.

4) for the Data base server do i need any software to link to MCU?

The MGC manager software has built in ODBC connectors. All you need is to be able to connect to the database from the client machine. FoxPro, Access, DBase, Excel and SQL are all valid data sources.

5) The client need biling solution, so the mcu generate the CDR does it must need the polycom provide zyross data collector or could we use the 3rd party mediator to masaage the cdr for the billing solution?

The CDR can be collected via either a manual process via MGC manager, or via an automated process such as Zyross. We run an MGC based service in my company and face the same issue. It is quite challenging to create custom software to get the CDRs automatically from the MGC. I'd recommend Zyross for the least stress route :)

6) What equpment or any solution can able to generate alert when the MCU have fault or the network ISDN, lease or IP have congestion or others equipment such as server. Does the Polycom Conference suite can able to do that.

The MGC manager alerts the operator via an exclamation mark on the site icon in a conference. However this is fairly easy to miss unless the conference is under scrutiny. I can't answer how PCS handles line faults.


Glen

[saad]

I have a problem building the Mgc100 from scrach

do anyone know about the procedure and boot files for PSOS or XPEK

[Slimey]

goto ftp://Current:Current@ftp.accordnetworks.com/ with your ftp client/IE and get RescueDisk for pSos.zip and MGC PSOS Boot Disk.zip.

One of those should have a readme explaning how to restore the pSoS OS but as far as restoring XPEK i have no idea. If i had to guess it could only be done at the factory.

oh btw.. in the RescueDisk for pSos.zip someone goofed and renamed the exe you need to run RescueDisk for pSos.exc you will need to extract this file and rename it RescueDisk for pSos.exe to run ;)