Backing Up Your Video Conferencing Codec

Backing Up Your Video Conferencing Codec

Take the time to back up your address book, so that in the event of a failure you won't loose all of the addresses you have entered & have to reconfigure your video conferencing unit.

It’s a real hassle when things go wrong but fortunately you did take the support contract option – right?

Well if you didn’t and you depend on your Video Conferencing equipment then consider the risk versus reward argument.  You will have to pay for a repair of course, but as you probably won’t have current software entitlement, you will also have to pay for the upgrade to current version software as repair exchanges always ship with current software and all that is before you consider the loss of use costs.

So you get help and discover that your codec is fried and great news, another is on its way. Great news that is until you get it because now you have to configure the unit like your old one so users don’t notice any changes and of course the new unit doesn’t have all your addresses entered.

So that’s why you need to back up now and then.

Address Book

Polycom VSX and HDX products can be backed up over the LAN to your PC.  Simply browse to your system and select the Utilities Tab where you can then select Profile Centre to save the setup profile to your PC and you can select import/export address book.

There is also a utility available: Click here to download it.

Incidentally, if you have a ViewStation, look at the Browser home screen to see the Address Book Utility, click it and save the Jar file then double click the saved file to run the application.

This is good for editing your address book, saving and restoring it to any VSX or ViewStation.  It is incompatible with GMS though but if you have GMS, you don’t need to worry about local address books anyway.

Tandberg MXP systems also have the ability to save system parameters. Browse to your system using Internet Explorer 6 (not 7) or Firefox and select Endpoint Configuration and then select Files. If you click on the System Parameters or Directory options on the left hand side, it will open a window showing you the file contents so click on File|Save as to create backup files (.prm) and use the browse and upload options to re-instate settings or directory accordingly.

Not much to it but well worth the effort.  You will be glad of it in the event of a failure.
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Glossary

A LAN network connects devices over a small area, usually in one building or a part of a building enabling resources to be shared.
Polycom, Inc. is the worldwide leader in unified collaborative communications that maximize the efficiency and productivity of people and organizations by integrating the broadest array of video, voice, data and Web solutions to deliver the ultimate communications experience. Polycom's high quality, standards-based conferencing and collaboration solutions are easy to deploy and manage, as well as intuitive to use.
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Certified Tandberg Partners are trained to consult on, supply and support the full range of Tandberg's video conferencing solutions.
Videoconferencing is a live communication between people in separate locations. It usually involves audio and text as well as video. Videoconferencing in its simplest form transmits static images and text between two locations. Sophisticated video systems today can transmit full-motion video images and high-quality audio between multiple locations.
Video conferencing solutions comprise of everything you need to enable video communication between people in separate locations. Video conferencing systems can range from simple desk top systems for one-to-one video calls through to a sophisticated system, fully integrated into the design of your room for a video call between many people at a number of different locations.