General Requirements
Internet Connectivity
Internet Bandwidth
The desktop client is optimized for every meeting type to run on a DSL speed Internet connection or better. This assumes the user will have at least a 500 Kbps (kilobits per second) upload speed and at least 5 Mbps (megabits per second) download speed with their service provider.
Typically, WiFi cannot properly sustain these speeds. Users will find a WiFi connected meeting starts with reasonable video quality, but may eventually degrade as other devices that share the WiFi connection disrupt the network throughput. WiFi connections for those expecting to present during meetings is discouraged.
Users should, therefore, connect to the Internet through a hardwired connection to assure a faster connection with fewer lost packets. This is particularly important to the desktop client as each video tile is a real-time stream so a 10 person meeting is the equivalent to nine simultaneous real-time videos streams from Netflix. Use a hard-wire connection, as WiFi wasn’t designed for this amount of traffic. That said we have many users report they have great meeting quality over WiFi so your results will vary depending on the quality of your WiFi and the other devices connected in your immediate area (WiFi bandwidth on any given access point is a shared pool of bandwidth, and the further a user is from an access point the less bandwidth is available).
Firewall rules
For organizations that have very strict network security for their firewall, it may be necessary to open some ports. The firewall will need the following ports opened for the client’s machine: 46015 or 36015 (all other users) UDP and TCP, both IN and OUT.
NOTE: Best audio and video quality will be achieved with UDP port 36015 or 46015 UDP open both IN and OUT for the connection. The client can operate over TCP 80 and 443 however the quality of video and audio suffers greatly.
Personal Computers
Operating Systems
The desktop client runs on the following operating systems
Windows 7 or newer
Mac OS 10.8.5 or higher
Linux 3-4 years old, version 7 or higher (x86 or x86_64 RHEL7/SLC7/centos7/debian7/etc).
Microprocessors
The desktop client runs on the Intel Coretm line of microprocessors starting with the Coretm Duo or later. The Coretm Duo was introduced in 2006 and Intel has continued to expand the user base on the Coretm i3, i5, and i7 microprocessors. The desktop client will run on AMD processors of equivalent power. Specifically excluded from the full SRN client experience are the Centrino and Atom processors which do not have the processing power to encode and decode multiple simultaneous video streams. Users will have a lesser experience which is sized to fit the reduced capacity of these microprocessors.
Personal Computer RAM
A minimum of 1 GB of RAM available for the client. Closing unnecessary applications will improve the performance of machines with limited RAM.
Personal Computer Software
The PC’s graphics card should support OpenGL v1.5 or later. This is not a difficult requirement for modern machines as this version is more than 10 years old, but very old or very weak machines (i.e. netbooks) might not comply with this requirement.
Cameras
Almost any webcam with VGA output up through 1080p will work. If your camera uses HDMI output ports (typical on camcorders) you may need a BlackMagic graphics card (Intensity Pro or Intensity Shuttle) to connect to your computer. Most notebooks with built-in cameras will work just fine. The client auto-detects available cameras and will intelligently select the appropriate camera, however, the user may desire to select another camera option from the camera pull-down-menu which is found on the arrow in the bottom right-hand corner of the camera icon. Multiple simultaneous use of cameras is also possible.
Microphones
Any microphone that connects to your PC should work. If others have a hard time hearing you it means that either your microphone gain is too low or you have an impedance mismatch between your computer’s audio line-in and your microphone. To increase your microphone’s gain go to your system sound menu and increase the microphone’s volume. If this doesn’t increase your volume to others, try to boost your microphone by selecting the boost checkbox in Window’s sound system menu. There is no equivalent boost mechanism for the Macintosh. If this does not increase your output volume to others you likely have an impedance mismatch between your microphone and computer. Consult your computer and microphone documentation for the appropriate impedance specifications. The following external microphone/speaker have noise-canceling capabilities and have been successfully tested with SRN client: Solo, Duet, Quattro2 and Quattro3 from Phoenix, the Plantronics 420M (especially for Linux Operating Systems) and the Plantronics Calisto P820. Many other external room sound devices have been used successfully by SRN client customers. This list is by no means comprehensive. SRN client has software-based echo cancellation and noise reduction built into the service. Some computer configurations can overpower this feature if your speakers are too close to the microphone. Adjusting speaker direction or volume can correct the situation.
NOTE: The user who doesn’t hear an echo is the one who needs to adjust their speaker position or volume.
Mobile Devices
A WiFi Internet connection is preferred over a carrier service as most WiFi networks are providing better bandwidth. Check the situation at your location as this is not always the case.
Operating Systems
There are separate client builds for the Android Operating System and iOS.
Android requirements
The mobile client runs on Android 2.3.3 Gingerbread (API level 10) or later. We recommend using a device with an ARM7 dual-core processor or better with a screen resolution of 1280×800 and a connection speed of 1Mb/s download and 500 kb/s upload (for bi-directional audio and video). Additionally, a headset is suggested for devices running Android versions below 3.0. Suboptimal performance can be expected on any device with lower capabilities.
iOS requirements
It is recommended to use iPad2 and iPhone 4S or newer with iOS 6.0 or later. A connection speed of 1 Mbps download and 500 kbps upload (for bi-directional audio and video). Suboptimal performance can be expected on any device with lower capabilities.
H.323 Devices
The client has been successfully tested to interoperate with the following companies’ H.323 devices.
Polycom
Tandberg
Cisco
Sony
Lifesize
Mirial
Hewlett Packard