VCONSOL - Communication and Collaboration Suite

VCONSOL - Major Features

In- conference features

Share Screen – Desktop/Application Sharing

VCONSOL Administration Features

Post Meeting Features

VCONSOL - Communication and Collaboration Suite

VCONSOL, the Communication and Collaboration Suite that combines various collaboration tools into a single, unified interface. The philosophy behind the communication and collaboration suite are the following.

All in one solution

VCONSOL is the ultimate all-in-one solution for your collaboration and communication requirements. It seamlessly caters to a wide range of scenarios, including high-quality boardroom conferences, large town hall meetings, very large webinars, and web rallies with millions of viewers on RTMP streaming platforms like YouTube and Facebook. With VCONSOL, experience top-notch audio, video, and interactive features for effective collaboration across all these diverse scenarios.

Inter-Operability with H.323 -SIP- WebRTC

VCONSOL prides itself on its exceptional interoperability, offering compatibility with a wide spectrum of Internet Communication and Collaboration protocols. With built-in support for H.323/SIP based legacy video conferencing devices such as Polycom, Cisco, and Tandberg, VCONSOL ensures effortless integration and connectivity across diverse communication platforms. VCONSOL seamlessly integrates a SIP gateway into its system, enabling participants to join conferences via dial-in audio from PSTN (Public Switched Telephone Network). VCONSOL offers seamless compatibility across all major web browsers on Windows, Linux, and Mac PCs, providing a consistent collaboration experience. Additionally, it natively supports iOS and Android devices, empowering users with powerful collaboration features on the go. Enjoy cross-platform flexibility and enhanced productivity with VCONSOL's versatile compatibility.

Seamless Integration

VCONSOL is equipped with robust API integration capabilities, allowing for seamless integration with other software systems and platforms. By leveraging VCONSOL's powerful API, organizations can enhance their existing workflows, automate processes, and extend the functionality of their applications, unlocking new levels of productivity and collaboration.

Flexible - Video Conferencing Technology

VCONSOL supports multiple videos conferencing technologies, including MCU (Multipoint Control Unit), SFU (Selective Forwarding Unit), and P2P (Peer-to-Peer). These technologies are the most common approaches in the industry, and the choice depends on the specific requirements of each customer. Regardless of the underlying technology, VCONSOL ensures a consistent user experience, offering a seamless and unified interface for all video conferencing needs.

Infinitely Scalable

With its scalable architecture, VCONSOL can handle a growing number of users, concurrent meetings, and data-intensive collaboration activities without compromising performance. As customer organization expands, VCONSOL ensures that collaboration experience remains seamless and uninterrupted, empowering customer’s teams to work efficiently and effectively.

VCONSOL's scalability will help the organization’s adaptability to changing demands, onboard new users effortlessly, and expand collaboration initiatives without limitations. Embrace growth confidently, knowing that VCONSOL can seamlessly scale alongside your organization, supporting your collaborative success.

Make in India and Hosted in India

A product entirely conceived and developed in India, VCONSOL has earned recognition as a premier solution within the country. It proudly secured the top position in the Grand Innovation Challenge 2020, assessed by the Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology, Government of India. Presently, VCONSOL caters to esteemed clients including the Government of India, ISRO, BARC, Indian Navy, NPCIL, and more.

Notably, it operates across multiple MeitY empaneled clouds in India such as Azure, Oracle, Tata, and AWS, ensuring widespread accessibility and reliability throughout India.

Secure and Safe - Data Privacy and Data Security

In VCONSOL, data in motion is secured through AES-256 Encryption Via DTLS-SRTP WebRTC. This encryption protocol ensures that data transmitted between users and the VCONSOL platform is secure and protected from unauthorized access or interception.

Additionally, data at rest within VCONSOL is encrypted using AES 256-bit encryption. This strong encryption algorithm provides a high level of security for stored data, further safeguarding it against unauthorized access or data breaches.

By implementing these, VCONSOL prioritizes the protection and confidentiality of user data, ensuring a secure communication and collaboration environment for all participants.

VCONSOL Video Conferencing Technology

VCONSOL technology is built upon a server-side real-time media mixing solution that utilizes MCUs (Multipoint Control Units) and Gateways. The system architecture consists of individual server nodes, which are independent and self-contained video conferencing units. Each server node comprises an MCU, SFU (Selective Forwarding Unit), and Gateways, allowing it to function as a standalone Video Conferencing Infrastructure.

These server nodes have the capability to handle video conferencing sessions and perform media mixing tasks. They can handle multiple conferences concurrently, accommodating increasing numbers of concurrent users.

What is unique about VCONSOL

VCONSOL leverages the integration of MCUs (Multipoint Control Units) and SFUs (Selective Forwarding Units) to enhance the user experience and support a larger number of participants in conferences. The system intelligently assigns active users to the MCU while passive users are connected to the SFU.

The MCU handles the active users, ensuring that they can actively participate in the conference by providing real-time video and audio streams. The SFU, on the other hand, focuses on passive users who are primarily observing or listening to the conference. The SFU optimizes the transmission by forwarding a single mixed video and audio stream to passive users, enhancing efficiency, and reducing bandwidth requirements on the client side.

This intelligent integration of MCUs and SFUs allows VCONSOL to optimize the conferencing experience for all participants, regardless of their role or available bandwidth. By ensuring a uniform mixed stream, even with low bandwidth on the client side, VCONSOL delivers an immersive video conferencing experience that maintains high-quality audio and video, facilitating effective communication and collaboration.

The integration of MCUs and SFUs in VCONSOL plays a crucial role in scaling the system to support a larger number of participants while maintaining optimal performance and a seamless conferencing experience.

VCONSOL - Major Features

Number of participants in single meeting

VCONSOL provides adaptable meeting sizes to suit the varied needs of enterprises, offering customizable configurations for individual users. Users have the freedom to choose from a range of meeting sizes according to their specific requirements. VCONSOL caters to two distinct user modes: Active Speakers and Passive Viewers, ensuring seamless real-time access to video, audio, and communication features throughout meetings. Moreover, VCONSOL extends its capabilities to accommodate Webinar users, facilitating large-scale events with the capacity to host up to 10,000 participants in a single meeting.

All in One Solution

VCONSOL is a board room conference platform as well as an outreach web Rally platform, It has built in capabilities to imitate a webinar and RTMP streaming from the meeting itself.

Video Quality

VCONSOL offers robust support for leading video codecs, including VP8, VP9, and H.264. These built-in codecs ensure compatibility and high-quality video streaming capabilities within the platform.

Audio Quality

VCONSOL is compatible with a wide array of industry-standard audio codecs, ensuring seamless communication. Supported codecs include G711, G722, G729, OPUS, and more, providing users with flexibility and high-quality audio experiences.

File Sharing

VCONSOL provides versatile file sharing options for participants during conferences and scheduling, enabling seamless collaboration. Alongside chat functionality, both active and passive participants can share various file types. Video files, Audio files, PDF documents and Image files without compromising quality, can be shared in the conference facilitated by a unique feature in screen sharing. Furthermore, documents , presentations can be shared prior to the conference during scheduling, enhancing productivity and preparation for all involved.

SMS/ EMail Integration

VCONSOL adopts an API-First Philosophy, empowering seamless integration with external messaging channels such as SMS, Email, and WhatsApp. This flexibility allows users to leverage their preferred communication mode for inviting participants, sharing presentation links, distributing recordings, and more, enhancing accessibility and convenience in communication workflows.

Text Chat

VCONSOL provides various chat options during conferences, allowing participants to exchange text messages and files privately or publicly. Moreover, file sharing is seamlessly integrated alongside chat functionalities, enhancing collaboration and information exchange among attendees. Additionally, passive participants and webinar users have access to a separate chat option tailored for interaction with active speakers, facilitating seamless communication and engagement.

Q&A for Webinar Participants

In VCONSOL webinars, participants have the opportunity to engage with active speakers through the dedicated Q&A option. This feature enables attendees to ask questions, seek clarifications, or share insights directly with the speakers, fostering interactive and informative sessions. By facilitating structured communication channels, VCONSOL ensures that webinar participants can actively participate in discussions and receive timely responses from the presenters, enhancing the overall learning and engagement experience.

Secure Meeting Ids and PIN

VCONSOL Meetings feature unique IDs generated for each scheduled or instant meeting, ensuring secure access. Additionally, separate six-digit meeting passwords are assigned for active and passive users, enhancing protection against unauthorized entry. Both active and passive users are assigned distinct meeting passwords (PINs) to access the sessions securely. This differentiation ensures that each user category has its unique authentication code, enhancing the level of security and preventing unauthorized access to the meetings.

However, users also have the flexibility to maintain consistency by utilizing the same meeting ID for recurring meetings through the scheduling options, providing convenience without compromising security measures.

Host , Co Host and Meeting Moderation

In VCONSOL Meetings, the user who schedules the conference or initiates the instant meeting automatically assumes the role of the host. Hosts possess full control over participants and meeting features, including the ability to designate any active participant as a co-host. Co-hosts inherit all privileges of the host, granting them control over audio, video, screen sharing, and other features for active participants. Additionally, hosts and co-hosts can initiate various advanced functionalities such as recording, webinars, RTMP streaming, breakout rooms, and more, ensuring seamless management and customization of the meeting experience. Hosts and co-hosts in VCONSOL Meetings have the capability to elevate passive viewers to the active speaker role. This functionality enables seamless participation and engagement, allowing hosts to dynamically involve additional attendees in the discussion or presentation as needed.

Video Layouts and Voice Activity Detection

VCONSOL offers seven default video layouts for conferences, including options such as the 25-videos grid, 16-videos grid, and the default 8-videos octa layout. Additionally, layouts like the 7-videos hepta, 5-video penta, and 1-video solo are available, with the flexibility to customize or expand them according to specific customer needs.

Hosts or co-hosts can switch between layouts and prioritize active speakers by pinning them, ensuring their prominence. If no active speakers are pinned, VCONSOL employs Voice Activity Detection with an intelligent algorithm to prioritize speakers, effectively filtering out background noise from participants. This ensures a seamless and focused meeting experience with clear visual and audio representation.

User Management

Users can log in to VCONSOL by using their individual user accounts and credentials. Alternatively, if available within the organization, VCONSOL also supports Single Sign-On (SSO) integration. This means that users can utilize their existing SSO credentials to access VCONSOL seamlessly. Moreover, VCONSOL offers the capability to integrate with various SSO and LDAP-based systems used by the organization, ensuring compatibility and ease of use within existing authentication frameworks.

Meeting URL ( Dynamic and Static)

VCONSOL offers the flexibility to create both static and dynamic meeting URLs through various scheduling options and instant meeting setups. While static meeting URLs can serve as personal meeting rooms, it's important to note that they may pose security risks due to their vulnerability to attacks. Therefore, while static URLs are available, it's advised to exercise caution and consider the potential security implications before utilizing them extensively.

Scheduling and Invitation

To schedule a conference, simply fill in the necessary fields and proceed to invite participants. You have the option to directly send the invitations via email or copy the conference information and distribute it through your preferred communication method.

VCONSOL offers three distinct modes of user presence: Active, Passive, and Webinar users. Each mode comes with its own set of invite information, providing the flexibility to engage a wider audience in conferences. By leveraging these modes effectively, you can maximize participation and involvement in your conferences.

Scheduled meetings on the platform automatically create calendar events, allowing invitees to seamlessly integrate them into their preferred calendars. These events include all necessary features for invitees to accept or decline the invitation as per their convenience.

Calendar events generated from the scheduling feature will provide reminders 10 minutes prior to the scheduled meeting time, ensuring users are well-prepared. Additionally, they will receive another reminder at the start of the meeting, helping to ensure punctuality and participation.

The scheduling functionality within VCONSOL empowers users to effortlessly create recurring meetings, whether on a daily, weekly, or monthly basis. This functionality allows users to establish a permanent meeting space tailored to their needs.

Contact Management

Users have the ability to compile an extensive list of contacts and groups consisting of their regular invitees. This way, when scheduling a conference, they can conveniently select the desired email addresses from the pre-existing list, streamlining the invitation process.

Scheduled Conferences and Instant Conferences

There are two methods to initiate a conference: scheduling a future conference or starting an instant conference. In both cases, users have the ability to invite additional participants even after the conference has begun using the invite option. This flexibility allows for seamless and dynamic expansion of the conference attendees during the ongoing session.

Hosts have the flexibility to cancel or reschedule scheduled conferences as needed, providing convenient control over meeting arrangements.

Conference History

Upon completion of a conference, the host gains access to the conference history, which encompasses an extensive log of user entry and exit times, along with a transcript of the chat conversation. Additionally, the host has the privilege to retrieve the recorded conference itself, as well as any presentations or documents that were uploaded during the conference. This comprehensive suite of resources allows the host to review, reference, and share the conference content and materials as needed.

User experience in day mode and night mode

Users have the option to choose between two distinct UI modes: Day mode and Dark mode. This allows users to select their preferred visual style based on personal preference or situational preference. Whether you prefer a brighter, daytime-inspired interface or a sleeker, darker interface, VCONSOL offers the flexibility to customize the look and feel to suit your taste.

Multilingual UI and UX

VCONSOL prioritizes user satisfaction by providing a language selection feature for both the user interface (UI) and user experience (UX). Users have the freedom to choose their preferred language from a range of options currently supported by VCONSOL, including Arabic, English, Spanish, Norwegian, Hindi, and various other Indian languages. User profile management.

User preferences

VCONSOL empowers users to personalize their meeting page, recordings, and broadcasts by allowing them to set their own watermark. This feature enables users to incorporate their unique branding, logo, or customized watermark onto these assets, adding a professional touch and reinforcing their identity during meetings, recordings, and broadcasts.

Control user permissions inside your conference

During the scheduling process, the host holds the ability to moderate certain conference features for participants. This includes the screen share permission, where the host can decide whether anyone can initiate screen sharing in the conference or restrict it to specific individuals. Additionally, the host can choose to mute the audio of participants upon joining the conference, effectively minimizing disruptions and maintaining a focused environment during ongoing conferences. These moderation options empower the host to customize the conference experience and ensure a smooth and controlled communication environment.

Decide the video layout options.

During a conference, when presenting the video layout, the host can choose to either include audio-only users alongside video participants or move them to a separate section, typically placed at the end of the layout. This flexibility allows the host to customize the visual presentation of participants based on their preferences and the specific requirements of the conference.

Upload documents and presentations while scheduling

As a host in VCONSOL, you have the capability to upload presentations or documents before the conference. These files can be shared with the invitees well in advance by providing them with the conference link. By visiting the conference link, invitees can access and view the uploaded presentations or documents, allowing them to review the content and come prepared for the conference. This feature facilitates efficient communication and collaboration by providing attendees with the necessary materials ahead of time.

Conduct large conferences.

For large conferences that exceed the regular quota on the system, VCONSOL offers the flexibility to select server nodes with larger capacity, provided they are available within the specific instance of VCONSOL being used. This feature enables the allocation of additional server resources to accommodate a higher number of participants, ensuring a smooth and stable conference experience. By utilizing server nodes with larger capacity, VCONSOL can handle the increased demand of largescale conferences efficiently.

Secured conference with invitees.

VCONSOL ensures that only invited participants can join a conference by implementing email verification for invitees. This means that invitees' email addresses are verified before granting them access to the conference. This verification process adds an extra layer of security and ensures that only intended participants with valid email invitations can join the conference, maintaining the confidentiality and exclusivity of the event.

Authenticated conferences

VCONSOL provides the option to enable a feature that allows only verified participants to join the conference. When scheduling the conference, the host can choose to enable this feature, which requires participants to go through a verification process before gaining access.

Virtual Background

In VCONSOL, users have the option to enable virtual backgrounds during conferences, allowing them to customize their video backgrounds. This feature lets participants choose from a variety of virtual backgrounds.

H.323/ SIP devices in a conference

VCONSOL operates as a Software MCU (Multipoint Control Unit) solution, facilitating interoperability with H.323, SIP, and WebRTC protocols. The maximum number of participants in a conference depends on the processing capacity of the MCU machines. VCONSOL seamlessly integrates H.323/SIP with its MCU alongside WebRTC, eliminating the need for third-party connectors to communicate with endpoints. While meetings are initiated through a software interface, there are no restrictions on the number of H.323 or SIP devices that can connect to the conference. This means that in a 100-participant meeting, all 100 participants can join from H.323/SIP endpoints if desired.

Number of Registered Software Clients and Mobile Clients

In on-premises installations of VCONSOL, the licensing model revolves around total conference participant concurrency, ensuring flexibility and scalability. With this approach, there are no limitations on the number of host accounts that can be created, nor on the registered PC or mobile clients. This means organizations can freely accommodate their desired number of users and clients within the licensed concurrency limit, without worrying about restrictions on account creation or client registrations.

Number of Conferences

In on-premises installations of VCONSOL, the licensing model is determined by the total number of concurrent conference participants rather than the number of conferences. This means there are no restrictions on the overall number of conferences within the system, but rather the total number of participants across all ongoing conferences is limited. This approach offers flexibility in organizing multiple meetings simultaneously while ensuring that the system's resources are optimally allocated based on participant concurrency.

Lock and Unlock Meeting

In VCONSOL video conferencing, the host or co-host can lock the meeting after it has started. Once the meeting is locked, even invitees with meeting credentials cannot join. The meeting will only be accessible to invitees again after it is unlocked.

Break out Rooms

The Breakout Room feature in VCONSOL enables conference members to hold isolated meetings within the main conference. This functionality allows for the creation of sub-rooms for separate discussions within the main session.

Waiting room/ Lobby

The Waiting Room/Lobby feature allows the host to keep all invitees in a lobby outside the main conference. This feature can be used for controlled participant entry and facilitates one-by-one entry for interview processes or individual one-on-one meetings using the same conference link.

In- conference features

As a host or co-host in a VCONSOL meeting, you will have access to a variety of features to facilitate smooth and effective communication. While a subset of these features will also be available to all participants in the conference, here are some of the features specifically available to the host or co-host.

Meeting Controls

Hosts and co-hosts have full control over the meeting, including the ability to start, pause, and end the meeting at any time.

Participant Management

Hosts and co-hosts can manage participants' audio and video settings, allowing them to mute or unmute participants, enable or disable video, and control participants' access to certain features.

Webinar

VCONSOL offers the host the ability to start a webinar directly from the conference itself. By initiating a webinar, the conference can be webcasted to a larger audience, expanding the reach beyond the participants directly involved in the conference. This feature allows hosts to share the conference content with a broader set of viewers, facilitating remote attendance and engagement. Whether it's for informational purposes, training sessions, or presentations to a wider audience, starting a webinar through VCONSOL enables seamless broadcasting and extends the conference's impact.

Live Streaming

VCONSOL empowers hosts to live stream conferences to RTMP supported social media platforms such as YouTube or Facebook. This feature enables hosts to reach a larger audience, potentially reaching millions of viewers by leveraging the vast user base and reach of these popular social media platforms.

Recording

VCONSOL incorporates a built-in recording feature that captures the entire conference, including the participants' video feeds and screen sharing activities. These recordings are automatically saved in MP4 format on the server side. The host has privileged access to these recordings, allowing them to review, retrieve, and manage the conference recordings as needed.

Each recorded file within VCONSOL is uniquely linked to its respective meeting, ensuring accurate organization and retrieval. In instances where multiple recordings occur during a single meeting, each file is associated separately with the meeting, providing comprehensive documentation with timestamp information. This meticulous recording system allows for easy identification and access to specific recordings within the context of their corresponding meetings.

Notifying the Recording Status

Whenever a recording starts within a video conference, each participant will receive an alert informing them that the session is being recorded. Additionally, a visible indicator, which shows recording in progress will appear on the screen for all attendees throughout the duration of the conference. This feature ensures transparency and keeps all participants aware of the recording status at all times.

Invitation for H.323/SIP users

VCONSOL includes the option to provide invitation information specifically for legacy video conferencing devices that utilize H.323 or SIP protocols. This information enables devices from popular brands such as Polycom, Cisco, or Tandberg to dial into the conference using the provided details.

Invitation from the conference

VCONSOL empowers hosts and co-hosts to seamlessly invite participants to ongoing conferences. They can easily generate invitation links for active speakers, passive viewers, webinar participants, and H.323/SIP device users. These links and joining information can be copied and shared via participants' preferred messaging tools, ensuring effortless communication and accessibility for all attendees.

Breakout room

VCONSOL includes a feature that allows participants to group into child conferences when necessary. This functionality enables participants to split off into smaller, separate meetings, referred to as Breakout rooms, while still maintaining a connection to the original main meeting. Once the side meetings or discussions in the child conferences are completed, participants can rejoin the main meeting.

Polls and Quizzes

VCONSOL empowers meeting hosts to engage participants through interactive polls and quizzes, facilitating real-time feedback collection and knowledge assessment. Hosts can initiate multiple polls and quizzes within a single conference session, allowing for versatile engagement opportunities. Participants can seamlessly respond to polls and quizzes, providing valuable insights and enhancing overall interaction and participation. This feature enriches meetings by fostering dynamic engagement and facilitating meaningful interactions between hosts and participants.

Conference Control – Waiting Room and Lock Conference

VCONSOL offers a waiting room facility to provide control over conference entry. When the waiting room is enabled, participants joining the conference are directed to the waiting room before entering the main conference. The host then has the authority to allow participants to enter the conference from the waiting room, ensuring that only authorized individuals are granted access.

Additionally, VCONSOL provides the option to lock the conference, which adds an extra layer of security. When the conference is locked, it prevents unauthorized access, ensuring that only participants who have already joined the conference can enter. This feature helps maintain the confidentiality and integrity of the conference by preventing any uninvited participants from joining.

Conference Audio Video Controls

In VCONSOL, active participants have control over their audio devices and cameras during a conference. They can freely change their audio input and output devices or switch them on and off as needed. Similarly, participants can control their camera settings, such as enabling or disabling video. VCONSOL also provides convenient keyboard shortcuts to streamline access to these features, allowing participants to quickly toggle their audio and video devices without interrupting the flow of the conference.

Raise Hand

VCONSOL incorporates a "Raise Hand" option to facilitate effective communication and participation during conferences. Active participants can utilize the Raise Hand feature to seek attention or indicate their desire to speak, signalling the host and other participants that they have something to contribute or a question to ask.

Passive participants also have the ability to use the Raise Hand option to request permission to transition from passive mode to active mode within the conference. By raising their hand, passive participants indicate their intent to actively engage in the discussion or participate more actively in the conference. This allows the host or conference organizers to manage the transition of passive participants to active participants, ensuring a smooth and orderly flow of communication.

Share Screen – Desktop/Application Sharing

Share Screen – Entire Screen or Specific application

Screen sharing facility which is common is video conferences. The active participant can share their screen or specific application in the conference.

Share Video

To ensure a high-quality video sharing experience during screen sharing in VCONSOL, especially for videos with 30 or more frames per second, there is a dedicated feature called "Share Video." With this feature, active participants have the ability to share a local video file or provide a video URL hosted on platforms like YouTube or other Video-on-Demand (VoD) services.

By using the Share Video feature, participants can bypass the limitations of traditional screen sharing, which may lower the video frame rate to save bandwidth. Instead, this specific sharing option allows all participants to experience the original video playback from the source directly. This ensures that the participants can enjoy a smooth and immersive video experience, capturing the details and fluidity of high frame rate videos.

Share Audio

VCONSOL provides a facility to share audio files within the conference. Participants can use this feature to share audio files directly with other participants, allowing them to listen to the audio content during the conference.

Share Screen – Image

VCONSOL offers a dedicated image sharing feature to address the limitations of screen sharing when it comes to high-quality images. Instead of relying on traditional screen sharing, this feature allows participants to share images in their original quality and detail.

By using the dedicated image sharing feature, all participants in the conference can access the actual image file, ensuring that the original quality is preserved. This enables participants to view the image in its full resolution and appreciate the finer details without any loss in quality.

Additionally, participants have the option to download the shared image, granting them the ability to save and use the original file for their own purposes beyond the conference.

Share Screen - PDF Document

VCONSOL offers a dedicated feature for sharing PDF documents, providing participants with the ability to share the original file in real time. This feature allows participants to share PDF documents with the conference attendees, enabling them to browse through the pages of the document directly within the conference interface.

Furthermore, participants have the option to download the shared PDF document, allowing them to save a copy and use it beyond the conference. This enhances collaboration and reference capabilities during and after the conference.

Share Screen – Document Camera

Indeed, VCONSOL supports the functionality to share a second camera as a document camera within the conference. This feature enables users to utilize a secondary camera to showcase physical documents, objects, or even display the participants in a hybrid room environment.

By leveraging the second camera as a document camera, users can easily share live video feed of physical documents during the conference. This functionality is particularly beneficial for presentations, demonstrations, or collaborative discussions involving physical materials that need to be shared with remote participants.

Additionally, in a hybrid room setup, where some participants are physically present, the second camera can be used to showcase the physical participants in the room, ensuring their active involvement and engagement within the conference.

Participant Management (Active – Passive – Webinar users)

VCONSOL provides a directory listing of active and passive participants, offering the host or co-host the ability to effectively manage and control the conference. This directory serves as a centralized interface for managing participants' audio, video, and camera settings, ensuring seamless communication throughout the conference.

Furthermore, the host or co-host has the authority to remove participants from the conference if necessary, providing a means to maintain the integrity and security of the meeting environment.

Conference Chat (Active – Passive – Webinar users)

VCONSOL offers three distinct instant messaging options within the conference, catering to different communication needs:

Chat between Active Users: This option allows active participants to engage in real- time text-based conversations with other active participants. They can exchange messages, share information, ask questions, and collaborate directly within the conference.

Chat between Active and Passive Users: This feature enables communication between active participants and passive participants. Active participants can initiate conversations with passive participants, allowing for one-way or two-way communication depending on the conference setup.

Chat between Active Speakers and Webinar Participants: This option facilitates communication between active speakers (presenters) and webinar participants (viewers). Active speakers can interact with webinar participants, answer questions, and engage in discussions while maintaining a structured presenter-audience communication dynamic.

Active participant chat also includes a file sharing feature, enabling participants to share files within the conference.

MultiLingual Translation (Available with additional pricing)

Real-time translation in VCONSOL, participants who speak different languages can communicate seamlessly without the need for human interpreters or additional tools. The translated speech is usually displayed as subtitles or text on the screen, allowing all participants to understand the conversation in their preferred language.

Note - The feature is available with VCONSOL , but will be provided on demand it will be charged separately. This is not included in the base price provided in the commercial proposal.

Screen Sharing Permissions

VCONSOL provides meeting hosts with the option to control screen share permissions both when scheduling and initiating meetings. Hosts can choose whether to allow participants to start screen sharing only with host permission, ensuring smoother video conferencing experiences by preventing unwanted screen sharing incidents.

Whiteboard

VCONSOL offers a dynamic Whiteboard feature as a collaborative tool, allowing all active participants to engage in real-time collaboration and brainstorming sessions. This interactive digital canvas enables users to draw, annotate, and share ideas collectively, fostering creativity and teamwork. With the Whiteboard, participants can visually express concepts, sketch diagrams, and illustrate points, enhancing communication and facilitating collaborative problem-solving. This feature empowers teams to collaborate effectively, irrespective of geographical barriers, resulting in more productive and engaging meetings.

VCONSOL Administration Features

VCONSOL Dashboard

The VCONSOL dashboard offers an insightful graphical representation that provides an overview of various conference metrics for a selected period. Some of the metrics available for visualization on the dashboard include:

Total Conferences: The dashboard displays the total number of conferences held within the selected period, providing a quick snapshot of conference activity.

Active Participants: It presents a graphical representation of the number of active participants in the conferences over time, allowing you to track and analyze participant engagement.

Passive Participants: The dashboard provides an overview of the number of passive participants in the conferences during the selected period, helping you understand the audience size and reach.

Conference Duration: It showcases the duration of each conference, giving you insights into the length of individual meetings and helping identify patterns or trends.

These graphical representations offer a visual summary of the selected period's conference data, enabling you to easily comprehend and analyse the overall conference activity, participant engagement, and conference duration. The dashboard provides a comprehensive overview that assists in monitoring and assessing the effectiveness and impact of your conferences. Manage and Monitor running conferences.

See an overview of conferences running on the platform with a backend control to monitor and administer each conference with out access to the conference data.

Manage your organisations inside the conference

Within VCONSOL, you have the capability to manage your organization and its departments effectively. The platform provides management tools that allow you to organize and oversee users and departments within the specific VCONSOL instance running for your organization.

By utilizing these management tools, you can efficiently handle user accounts, roles, permissions, and access levels. This enables you to define and manage user hierarchies, department structures, and user privileges based on your organization's requirements.

Manage the user accounts and their capabilities on the platform.

VCONSOL's admin dashboard offers comprehensive options to manage user accounts within the system. As an admin, you have the authority to set user-level features and capabilities based on your organization's requirements and policies.

Within the admin dashboard, you can perform tasks such as: User Account Management: Create, modify, or deactivate user accounts, granting access to the VCONSOL instance for authorized individuals.

User Permissions and Roles: Assign specific roles and permissions to users, defining their access levels and capabilities within VCONSOL. This allows you to tailor the user experience based on their roles and responsibilities within the organization.

User Authentication and Security: Manage user authentication methods, such as Single Sign-On (SSO) integration, to enhance security and streamline user access to VCONSOL.

User Activity Monitoring: Track and monitor user activity, providing insights into usage patterns, participation levels, and overall system engagement.

Conference Management

In VCONSOL, the admin user is equipped with a high-level management tool that allows them to monitor all active conferences within the instance. This tool provides a comprehensive overview of ongoing conferences without accessing the actual conference data, ensuring privacy and security.

The admin user can view real-time information about active conferences, including details such as participant count, conference duration, and other relevant metrics.

This enables the admin to have an up-to-date understanding of the conferencing activity within the system.

Additionally, VCONSOL provides a history of conferences to the administrator, offering valuable high-level debugging information and forensic data. The conference history allows the admin to access key details about past conferences, aiding in troubleshooting, analysis, and gathering insights into the system's performance and usage patterns.

Conference Nodes

As an admin, VCONSOL provides you with the capability to manage the MultiConference Unit (MCU) or Selective Forwarding Unit (SFU) attached to your instance. You have the option to switch the MCU/SFU on or off based on your scaling requirements and resource availability.

Furthermore, the admin dashboard allows you to monitor the real-time usage of each node in the MCU/SFU. This monitoring feature provides valuable insights into where conferences are taking place and how users are allocated across the nodes. With this information, you can efficiently allocate resources, optimize performance, and ensure a smooth conference experience for all participants.

By having control over the MCU/SFU and access to real-time usage data, you can effectively manage and scale your conferencing infrastructure to meet the demands of your organization, ensuring optimal performance and resource utilization within your VCONSOL instance.

Configurations

The admin dashboard in VCONSOL provides a powerful feature for configuring instance-level settings and applying high-level control over the system. Within this area, you can set various limits and configurations to fine-tune the conference experience. Some examples include:

  1. Conference Participant Limits: You can define the maximum number of participants allowed in a conference, setting limits for both active and passive participants. This ensures that conferences remain within desired capacity levels.
  2. Conference Timeout: You have the ability to specify the time interval for conference timeouts. This determines the duration after which a conference will automatically end or disconnect if there is no activity.
  3. System-wide Configurations: The admin dashboard enables you to configure system-wide settings such as default audio and video quality, default language preferences, and other global configurations that apply across the entire VCONSOL instance.

By leveraging these instance-level configurations, the admin has comprehensive control over the behaviour and parameters of the VCONSOL system, allowing for customization based on organizational requirements, resource allocation, and desired conference settings.

User Tags

Indeed, tags provide a valuable tool for admins to categorize and manage users beyond the organization level in VCONSOL. By assigning tags to users, the admin can create customized groups, categories, or labels based on specific criteria or characteristics.

Tags can be utilized in various ways, such as:

  1. User Segmentation: Admins can assign tags to users based on their department, role, location, or any other relevant criteria. This allows for easy segmentation and targeted management of user groups.
  2. Access Control: Tags can be used to define access levels and permissions for different user groups. Admins can set specific privileges or restrictions based on the assigned tags, ensuring appropriate access rights for different categories of users.
  3. Reporting and Analytics: Tags enable admins to generate reports and analytics based on specific user groups. This facilitates data analysis, insights, and decision-making based on user categories.

Using tags, admins can effectively categorize and manage users in VCONSOL beyond the organizational level, providing enhanced control, segmentation, and customization options based on the unique requirements of the organization.

Branding and Theming

VCONSOL understands the importance of branding and offers extensive whitelabeling and theming options, making it effortless to customize and align the platform with your customer's unique brand identity. This feature allows you to tailor the look and feel of VCONSOL to reflect your customer's branding, resulting in a cohesive and personalized user experience.

With the branding and theming options available, you can easily customize various aspects of VCONSOL, including:

  1. Logo and Branding: Replace the default VCONSOL logo with your customer's logo, ensuring consistent brand representation throughout the platform.
  2. Color Scheme: Customize the color palette to match your customer's brand colors, creating a visually consistent and harmonious user interface.
  3. Typography: Select and apply fonts that align with your customer's brand guidelines, maintaining brand consistency in text elements.
  4. Custom CSS: Utilize custom CSS to further modify and refine the visual appearance of VCONSOL, offering greater flexibility in branding and theming.

White-labelling and theming options in VCONSOL enables you to transform the platform into a branded and cohesive experience that aligns with your customer's unique identity and enhances their brand presence.

Monitoring and Alerts (DevOps Tools)

VCONSOL incorporates real-time alerts and monitoring tools utilizing Prometheus and Grafana. These tools enable proactive incident detection and reporting within the system. In the event of an incident, alerts are automatically triggered and sent to administrators and the respective DevOps team through multiple communication channels.

By leveraging Prometheus, VCONSOL can continuously monitor various metrics and performance indicators in real-time. When any predefined thresholds or anomalies are detected, alerts are generated. Grafana provides visualization and dashboarding capabilities, allowing administrators and DevOps teams to gain insights into system health and performance.

The alerts can be configured to notify administrators and DevOps teams through multiple channels, such as email, SMS, or other communication platforms. This ensures that the right personnel are promptly informed about any incidents or potential issues, allowing for swift response and resolution.

With real-time alerts and monitoring powered by Prometheus and Grafana, VCONSOL enhances system reliability, facilitates proactive incident management, and enables efficient communication and collaboration among administrators and DevOps teams for prompt issue resolution.

Storage Management and Configuration

In VCONSOL, administrators have the ability to configure recording storage sizes at different levels: user, organization, and instance. This granular control enables administrators to manage available storage resources effectively, tailoring them to meet specific requirements and ensuring optimal utilization. By providing this flexibility, VCONSOL empowers administrators to make informed decisions regarding storage allocation and usage across the platform.

Conference Feature Configurationn

Administrators can configure video conference features from the dashboard, offering control at the user, organization, and instance levels. This allows for customization of enabled or disabled features such as video, audio, screen sharing, text chat, file transfer, participant limits, webinars, RTMP streaming, and more.

File transfer configuration

The admin dashboard of VCONSOL incorporates built-in file transfer management, enabling administrators to configure various settings. This includes specifying the maximum file size and permitted file extensions for transfers during conferences. Such granular control ensures secure and efficient file sharing practices across the platform, enhancing collaboration while maintaining administrative oversight.

Access control and Whitelisting of IPs

VCONSOL offers robust access configuration capabilities, allowing administrators to implement IP whitelisting for specific installations. This feature enables the restriction of access to VCONSOL instances by specifying approved IP ranges. By whitelisting trusted IP addresses, administrators mitigate the risk of unauthorized access and potential security threats, thereby safeguarding the integrity and confidentiality of the platform. This proactive measure ensures that only authorized users within designated IP ranges can access VCONSOL installations, enhancing overall security and peace of mind.

Archiving and Backup

VCONSOL offers the capability to archive recorded files to local storage as part of its backup procedure. This ensures that recorded content is securely stored for future reference and compliance purposes. Archiving recordings to local storage provides an additional layer of data protection and facilitates easy access to historical meeting data when needed.

Multiple failed login attempts and MFA

VCONSOL incorporates built-in security features such as restricting multiple failed login attempts and enabling multi-factor authentication (MFA). Administrators have the flexibility to configure these security measures at the user, organization, and instance levels. MFA can be activated using various methods including Authenticator Apps, SMS, and Email, enhancing overall account security and protecting against unauthorized access.

Scheduled Backup of Storage

VCONSOL administrators have the capability to schedule the transfer of conference recordings to secondary storage as needed. This can be arranged based on the age of the recordings or by selecting specific date intervals. This feature allows for efficient storage management, ensuring that primary storage is not overwhelmed and that older or less frequently accessed recordings are archived systematically. By implementing this practice, administrators can optimize storage utilization and maintain system performance by keeping the most relevant data readily accessible.

Password Policy

VCONSOL administrators have the ability to set and customize the password policy, as well as configure the allowable number of login attempts. Administrators can specify criteria such as password complexity, expiration periods, and mandatory password rotations, in addition to determining how many unsuccessful login attempts will lock a user out of their account.

Management of Recordings

VCONSOL is equipped with built-in capabilities for managing videos stored in both primary and secondary backup storage systems. It offers an intuitive search function that allows users to locate recordings based on date, time, meeting host, or meeting subject. Additionally, the system enhances storage efficiency through a de-duplication process, which tracks all backup activities to ensure that duplicates are minimized. This not only optimizes storage space usage but also streamlines the management of stored content, making it easier to access and manage video recordings effectively.

Content Filtering and Templates

Vconsol administrators have the ability to filter out abusive words and undesirable text content in meeting chats. They can add or edit terms that need to be removed from the conversation.

The admin dashboard provides an option to add or remove file types by specifying file extensions that are permitted for file transfers during the conference.

Post Meeting Features

Playback of Recording

VCONSOL records meetings server-side in encrypted MP4 format, granting exclusive access to hosts. Hosts can download recordings to their local machines and playback using any preferred video player. Additionally, hosts can share the download link with participants, enabling them to download and utilize the recording as needed. This feature enhances accessibility and flexibility in post-meeting usage of recorded content.

Transcript and Meeting Minutes

A meeting transcript is a verbatim record of everything that was said during the video conference. It includes a word-for-word account of each participant's spoken words, capturing all the details of the conversation. Meeting transcripts are typically used for legal, official, or detailed documentation purposes.

Note - The feature is available with VCONSOL, but will be provided on demand it will be charged separately. This is not included in the base price provided in the commercial proposal.

Chat Transcripts

Hosts in VCONSOL have the capability to access and download chat transcripts for active participants, passive participants, and webinar users. This comprehensive feature allows hosts to review and retain a record of all chat interactions that occurred during the meeting. By providing access to chat transcripts, VCONSOL ensures transparency and accountability, facilitating effective communication management within the platform.

Statistics and Attendance

VCONSOL offers hosts access to comprehensive statistics and attendance records through Call Detail Records (CDR), providing valuable insights into meeting dynamics and participant engagement. By leveraging this feature, hosts can analyze attendance trends, participant interactions, and overall meeting performance, enabling informed decision-making and optimization of future meetings. This functionality enhances the effectiveness of meetings by empowering hosts with actionable insights derived from detailed analytics.