Tin Cups and String: The Convergent Microsoft UC Blog

I was recently tasked with demoing the Agent Communications Panel, a XAML browser application that integrates OCS 2007 R2 with Microsoft Dynamics CRM. After working with Microsoft for a few weeks we concluded that the ACP is only supported in non-IFD (Internet Facing Deployment) topologies (as is now described in the release notes).

With that in mind our options were limited at the demo site – build a VPN or find another remote access solution. Given that the whole point of Unified Communications is ubiquitous access I felt the VPN solution wasn’t ideal. The RTMs of Windows 2008 R2 and Windows 7 bring a new option: 2-way audio via terminal services.

I set up a Windows 2008 R2 server, Windows 7 client, and configured my RDP connection as below. After loading the Communicator 2007 R2 client with most recent patches (.37) and attempting to make a PSTN call from Communicator running on the terminal server… it worked. The upload audio was mildly choppy but download/playback was clear.

I suspect that improvements in QOS and the ability to separate audio from standard RDP traffic (the audio travels over port 3389 like all RDP traffic) will improve the upstream audio performance and make enterprise deployments feasible. For now it’s a great proof of concept.

Happy RDP-ing!

-Luke