Conferencing: Equinox versus Office Linx

[kulabird]

Can anyone speak to the conferencing abilities in Office Linx and where the abilities of Office Linx ends and the full featured-ness(?) of Equinox takes over?

Just curious as my site uses meet-me-conferencing extensively (native to CM, not the MMC server) but would like to host larger confererences (15+ persons) in house versus calling out to an outside service provider.

 

[kyle555]

Can't speak to Esna. I wouldn't say Esna 'ends' at any particular point and Equinox takes over. They're two different platforms that have certain aspects where they overlap, and I guess audio conferencing is one of them.

You can license Equinox as either 'over the top' or 'collaboration' - to say 'over the top' is a setup where you'd have as many bridges as you want and license X ports to use however you like. Equinox in the collaboration mode is licensed as 'any Aura Power user has a bridge and can get as many people as you can muster in a bridge'. Basically pay per port or pay per person who has a bridge.

I have no idea how it works with Officelinx. IP Office is a cheap and practical conference bridge!

 

[kulabird]

Huh, kinda funny needing to use IP Office as a conference bridge but having played with the GUI and building apps/functions like a flowchart is pretty neat. I did not mess with IP Office enough to be considered expert. Sorry, tangent.

Due to administrative concerns beyond my control, I cannot use IP Office at my site. Officelink or Equinox, definately I can install. I use a CMM on my site and as Avaya ended support at CMM 7.0, Officelink is currently the best option available - okay maybe the only option from Avaya. This purchase is still many, many months out and I'll still doing research and confirming issues. But during reseach, my coworkers and bosses wanted more large (10+ participants) conferencing functionality inhouse versus calling WebEX 1-800 numbers. Officelink does conferencing but it does not have the "full awesomeness" of Equinox conferencing. We have inhouse video conferencing and there is a distinct delination between 'audio' and 'video/IP' conferencing and at this time, ne'er the twain shall meet. Weighing the costs between the two and this might be more of an 'ask the CAM' issue. Maybe in the end, I'll need to install both, Officelink for AA/VM and Equinox for conferencing.