• Administration
  • Real-time monitoring
  • Media files
    • Uploaded files
    • Recordings
  • Power
  • Calls
    • SIP gateway settings
    • H.323 gateway settings
  • Network
    • Diagnostics
    • TCP/IP ports
    • Network interfaces
  • Video
  • Calibration
  • Backup
  • Users
    • Adding a new user
  • Skin styles
  • Language
  • Import/Export
  • Clearing the address book
  • License
  • About

Administration

This section allows you to configure the TrueConf MCU settings, create users, set access rights, and view the server statistics.

Real-time monitoring

To view data about server resource usage and check system info, go to the Real-time monitoring section:

Media files

Uploaded files

In this menu, you will find images and video files uploaded on the server. This will help you get ready for content sharing during a conference.

1. Upload a new file

2. Search by uploaded files

3. Check file info: title, upload date, format, and size

4. Download a file

5. Delete file

Uploaded files can be previewed in the pop-up window:

Recordings

All conference recordings are saved in the .mp4 format.

1. Search for recorded conferences

2. Check file info: title, upload date, format, and size

3. Download a recording

4. Delete a recording

When you click on a recording, a preview window will open (as in the case with uploaded media files .

Power

You can restart the TrueConf MCU, restart the operating system, and disable the hardware server.

Calls

To configure call settings, go to the Calls menu.

1. You can enable calls via SIP/H.323 protocols on the video conferencing server.

If the Use H.323 box is unchecked, you will be able to connect to a conference held on TrueConf MCU only via SIP protocol.

SIP protocol is needed for allowing users to join a video conference from a browser (via WebRTC). If this protocol is disabled, browser-based participation will be unavailable.

2. View the protocol status

3. Specify the call priority:

• Address book first
• Gatekeeper first

4. Set up the order of using SIP/H.323 protocols when you call users (if you specified both protocols in the address book).

5. Specify a name for the video conferencing server to be displayed on the conference participants' screens

6. Select the UI language of the dialogue window where a participant will enter meeting ID. This window will be displayed when a user calls TrueConf MCU by the server's IP or DNS name. This setting does not affect the UI language of the control panel.

7. Enable remote camera control of conference participants (if it is supported by participants' hardware)

8. Enable noise cancellation

9. Enable automatic gain control (AGC)

10. Enable avatar display for non-video participants

11. Indicating the time to display the screen for entering the conference ID, after which the connection with an endpoint will reset

SIP gateway settings

To set up a SIP gateway, please complete the following steps:

1. Click Settings next to the Enable SIP calls box in the Administration → Calls tab.

2. Check the Registration box in a pop-up window.

3. To make sure that SIP calls are always routed through the registration server, check the corresponding box.

4. If the Block spam calls box is checked, incoming SIP calls will be analyzed. TrueConf MCU will automatically decline calls in case of incorrect connection requests.

5. Select one of the following options in the SIP encryption list needed for configuring stream encryption via SRTP:

6. No encryption – encryption is not used.

7. Encrypt when possible – encryption is preferred, but not required. If encryption is not used on the client side, the participant will still be able to join the conference.

8. Encrypt all – TrueConf MCU will not establish connection with the endpoints that do not support SRTP.

6. Specify the IP address of the gateway in the Server address field.

7. Enter the authorization data into the Username and Password fields.

8. Select Transport protocol and Transport protocol.

9. Save changes.

If the registration is successful, Registered status will be displayed in the State: field.

H.323 gateway settings

To set up an H.323 gateway, complete the following steps:

1. Click Settings next to the Use H.323 box on the Administration → Calls tab.

2. Check the Use gatekeeper box in a pop-up window.

3. To make sure that H.323 calls are always routed through the gatekeeper, check the corresponding box.

4. Select H.235 encryption:

5. No encryption – encryption is not used.

6. Encrypt when possible – encryption is preferred, but not required. If encryption is not used on the client side, the participant will still be able to join the conference.

7. Encrypt all – TrueConf MCU will not establish connection with the endpoints that do not support H.235.

5. Enter the H.323 Alias and H.323 Extension into the corresponding fields.

6. Specify the Gatekeeper address.

7. Save changes.

If the registration is successful, Registered status will be displayed in the State: field.

Network

In the Network section, you will be able to:

1. Execute ping and traceroute commands

2. Create and download the TCP dump file

3. Set up the network connection

Diagnostics

Using 'ping' command

The video conferencing server can check accessibility of network resources via 'ping' command. To do it, enter the IP address or DNS into the address field and click Validate. You will see the result in the output field.

If you enter an incorrect address in the input field, the output field will display an error from the server.

Using 'traceroute' command

To determine the data packets route in TCP/IP networks and the path length, you can use the 'traceroute' command. To proceed, complete the steps mentioned in the previous command.

Traffic capture

TrueConf MCU is equipped with a network analysis tool that can capture and save incoming and outgoing data packets. To start capturing, click Start. When you stop log collection, a table with a list of files will be displayed below, indicating the time and file size. You can save the file by clicking and delete it using the button.

TCP/IP ports

To configure audio and video transmission protocols, go to the TCP/IP ports tab. You can also specify port ranges for the following protocols:

• BFCP

• H.245

• RTP.

This section also enables you to specify the size of RTP packets and select the ports for SIP and H.323 connections.

You can set up the priority of data streams according to the DSCP (opens new window) protocols:

• DSCP audio is for audio traffic

• DSCP video is for video traffic

• DSCP other is for other traffic, e.g. remote PTZ camera control.

The larger number you set, the higher priority will be given to the selected type of transmitted packets.

Network interfaces

On the Network interfaces tab, you can check the server system name and its MAC address. It is also possible select an IP addressing mode (static or DHCP). If the static mode is selected, the following parameters have to be specified:

• IP address

• Subnet mask

• Gateway

• Primary DNS server

• Secondary DNS server.

Video

In this section you can configure video encoding and storage settings:

1. Set the maximum size of media file storage

2. Select an encoding profile for the primary video stream

3. Select an encoding profile for the secondary video stream

4. Set the bandwidth for the secondary video stream (will be calculated as the percent of the total bandwidth allocated for both primary and secondary streams)

5. Set the time interval for shuffling or alternating participants in the video window (available only when selecting a layout supporting shuffling).

6. Select a video scaling mode for layout windows

7. Enable/disable avatar display in the fixed layout window (will be displayed if a participant has not yet joined the conference or has turned off the camera)

8. Enable/disable camera video preview of the participants in an active conference

Calibration

To ensure better performance, you should perform calibration each time when the server hardware is changed or when a major update of TrueConf MCU is released (e.g., an update from v 1.2 to v.1.3). This will allow you to increase the maximum number of users simultaneously participating in a conference and improve audio and video quality. Calibration also affects the correctness of the display of server statistics.

To perform calibration, go to the Administration → Calibration section and click Start calibration.

In the lower right corner there will be the calibration progress bar. You can end this process by clicking on the Stop button. During calibration TrueConf MCU will automatically rate the server performance in different modes and with different audio and video codecs.

When the calibration process starts, all ongoing conferences will be forcibly ended. Also, you won't be able to hold conferences on the server until the process is completed or canceled. The calibration can take several hours and depends on the server capacity.

Backup

Database backup allows relocating configurations from one TrueConf MCU video conferencing server to another. The .dump file created for import/export contains the following information:

• A list of conferences and their configurations

• Address book

• Administration settings.

To create a database, click on the Export button and select a location for saving the new .dump file.

To restore a database, click on the Import button and select a .dump file.

Users

TrueConf MCU has a multi-user administration system. Initially, there is only one admin user but you can allow more users to access the control panel.

Proceed to the Administration → Users tab and you will see a list of existing users.

When you select a user, you can see a card with the main information:

• Display name

• Login

• Editing and deleting buttons.

Adding a new user

Click the Create user button to add a new user.

1. Specify a user's display name.

2. Enter a login.

3. Set up a password.

4. Confirm the password.

5. Click Save.

Skin styles

You can use different color skins for the layout.

It is also possible to customize a participants' display name in the video layout. For example, you can edit:

• Font type, its size, and color

• Text alignment

• Background color

• Display name position in the video window.

All the changes will be displayed in the preview window.

Language

In this section, you will be able to select the interface language of the TrueConf MCU control panel.

Import/Export

To import an address book from an .csv or .xml file, go to the Import/Export menu, and you will see an import/export window.

To export users from the address book, select the file format and click Export.

To add contacts to the address book, click Import and select a file to be imported.

Clearing the address book

To delete all contacts and their conferences, go to the Administration → Clearing the address book section and click Clear the address book.

License

Go to the License menu to view information about the current license and license agreement or to re-register TrueConf MCU:

About

You can check the version of your TrueConf MCU in the About menu.

You can also use this tab to update the TrueConf MCU version. To do this:

1. Download the installation file from our website.

2. Click on the Upload file button to select the installation file.

3. When it is added to the list, click the icon to install the update. To delete the uploaded file click on the button.

TrueConf MCU should be updated via the control panel if it is a minor update when only the third digit of the version is changed (e.g., from 1.4.0 to 1.4.1). In case of a major release (e.g., from 1.4 to 1.5) you will need to make a clean install of the update as described in our article.