Help me understand RealConnect concurrent Licencing

[Anonymous]

I have around 50 office 365 users and two meeting rooms running Skype for Business on Trio 8800s. 

I'd like to upgrade the Trios to Teams to allow me to get rid of Skype for Business but understand I'd lose video. RealCoonnect can help me here from what i understand.

We've 20+ remote workers who have video calls often through Teams already. I dont really want to have to pay for 20+ licences. So how does the licencing work? What scenarios count as 'one' for RealConnects concurrent licence count? 

Only where the call/video is initiated by an invite? i.e. not a Teams user to Teams user session?

Number of people on a video meeting?

Number of people on a call?

Only meetings involving the meeting room devices?

[mshu1]

Hi @dwdwdw,

a good lecture about RC you can find here:

http://blog.schertz.name/2018/02/what-is-realconnect/

http://blog.schertz.name/2018/10/realconnect-service-for-skype-and-teams/

Basicly you license per user/call to the interoperability service of Polycom (Real Connect). That means, if all those Trios make an RC connection to connect to a Teams call in paralell, you definitely need 30 licenses, but this is something that is highly unlikely to happen. 

I think your remote workers already have Teams? If they do "normal" Teams calls, the don´t need any RC at that moment, only your devices which can´t "speak" Teams natively (Trio, Group, etc.). They need a service (RC) to connect to Teams Calls. But all of those devices need a Teams invite from Outlook for example to take part of the conference call. An ad-hoc Teams call is not possible with these devices, you need to invite them to connect to the Teams call via RC.

I think you should contact a certified reseller, it is easier to explain orally. 😉 

[Adam_in_DC]

Poly is offering free RealConnect licenses for qualifying devices - and I'll assume that your Trios qualify.  You'll receive two RC licenses for the two Trios - and that will be all you should need.  You only need the licenses for the room - not all of your future Teams users. 

The licenses are free to use through June of 2020.  At that time - I am hoping the pricing will be very reasonable when it is re-established. 

Hope this helps. 

[Anonymous]

Thank you. Yes, all users currently have Teams. As all of our users have Teams, it sounds like the only 'users' we would need licences for would be the devices themselves. So for 2 video enabled devices, that would only be two licences.

I'll drop a call into a local Poly partner. 

Here's our primary meeting scenario:

• Meeting invite originates from a staff member
• Meeting room device is invited
• Meeting invite is a 'Teams' invite

Solution questions

Does meeting invite go out with a normal URL?

Or is the URL changed to accomodate RealConnect?

Would the device need to be left configured as a Skype for Business device rather than transitioned to a Teams configuration?

Meeting Room camera would still work?

Screensharing to room would still work?

[Adam_in_DC]

Does meeting invite go out with a normal URL?

• Yes

Or is the URL changed to accomodate RealConnect?

• No, but the invite has additional information not normally found in a regular Teams invite.  The company with the VTC must generate the invitation.  You cannot join a Teams meeting if the originator hasn't integrated with Real Connect

Would the device need to be left configured as a Skype for Business device rather than transitioned to a Teams configuration?

• Not sure on that one.  I do think this has been written about though. 

Meeting Room camera would still work?

• Absolutely.  That's the whole point of the system.  😉

Screensharing to room would still work?

• Yes - you can screen share via hdmi cable - or you can join the teams meeting yourself - but just remember to mute your mic and speakers.

[Anonymous]

Hi,

RealConnect service is a per-concurrent VTC license which enables standards-based (SIP/H.323) endpoints to join Teams meetings.

When you'll receive 2 licenses through the free promo for your Trios, up to 2 VTCs can join Teams meetings, either your own Trios or VTCs from remote participats who have received your Teams meeting invitation with the additional VTC dial-in informationthrough RC.

Teams desktop/mobile or MTR clients join natively and don't consume your RC licenses.

Once you have activated your RC license you can enroll it to all your O365 users or only to specific ones, at least you should enable RC for your O365 users who schedule Teams meetings and use your Trio O365 room resources.

BR

Chris

[Anonymous]

Very helpful, thank you!

Any sight of what the RealConnect license cost will be beyond June? Read somewhere around £80 per year, but also read £1,800 per year.

[Adam_in_DC]

We all have the same question. They need to get it right.

[mshu1]

What you need is the RealConnect for MS Teams Video Interop license for 2257€ (list price) per VTC per year. Minimum Qty is two, so you will start at around 4514€ for one year or 12188€ for three years. 

Indeed, there is a cheaper RC for Teams (158€), but this license is only available if you have your own Polycom VC infrastructure (Clariti).  

[Anonymous]

The cost of the RealConnect licenses beyond June 2020 is exactly what I'm trying to find out too!

Does anyone know the correct Product Number that we should be looking for?

The one mentioned on the "RC for MSFT Teams User License" document received for the free trial doesn't seem to exist anywhere online ...