Over the next month or so I will be hosting a number of 3-hour design clinics throughout various Microsoft Technology Centers across the Midwest which will focus on Video conferencing in Lync Server 2010 and how to leverage third-party video conferencing solutions to extend the overall experience and capabilities.  Additional events are also being held across the country (the schedule is included below).

These will be highly-interactive sessions driven primarily off a whiteboard (basically zero PowerPoint slides) and attendee participation is highly encouraged as often there is more than one way to architect different solutions and different environments across varying business sectors will ultimately have unique goals in mind.  Discussions will range from technical topics (like traffic signaling paths) to best practices and real-world usage.

The goal of these design clinics are two-fold: to provide a base level understanding of how video conferencing works in Microsoft Lync Server 2010 and its impact on traditional enterprise networks, and then to expand that design by demonstrating how third party video conferencing solutions integrate with Lync. Open discussions about leveraging this type of interoperability for video will focus on topics like extended scalability and resiliency, enriched end-user experience, mobility, recording, and connectivity to standards-based solutions.

Topics to be discussed will revolve around these core subjects, building from basic connectivity through a resilient multi-site environment.

• Endpoints
• Client Services
• Connectivity
• Conferencing Services
• Content Management
• Infrastructure Management
• Availability

These events will by presented by me and some of my colleagues in various Microsoft and Polycom offices throughout the country. All events are from 9AM to 12PM local time.

To register for any of these events simply click the Location name to be redirected to the registration web site.