Microsoft Enables Lync-Skype Video Calls

The company enables one of the last major missing features in the Lync-Skype integration process, an undertaking nearly two years in the making.One of the last major barriers between Lync, Microsoft's unified platform for business communications,and Skype was demolished.Lync users can now make video calls to Skype account holder and vice versa,the company announced on 5 December.now Lync users can perform the daily operations and cooperation face to face" with customers, partners and suppliers via Skype,said BJ Haberkorn,director of product marketing for Microsoft Lync,in a blog.

However,there is a catch.While Lync users need a current version of Lync 2013 client for Android, Apple iOS or Windows only,capacity requires Skype users a Windows desktop client (7.0.x.100 version) installed. But other compatible mobile versions are on the way.we support Skype clients to expand to other platforms,starting with Android and iOS in the coming months, Haberkorn said.Microsoft also plans to support and integrate Skype ID management capabilities worldwide directory Skype contact when the rebranding of the Lync comes into force next year.

Microsoft has to consolidate its business units Lync and Skype since the beginning of 2013 for the assets we have in the consumer using Skype and at the enterprise level with Lync, can have a unified platform that really brings the communication of the room room, boardroom in a way that makes and streamlined islands and connected rather than isolated significance, Giovanni Mezgec, general manager of Lync, told eWEEK at the time.

On November 11, Microsoft announced that it will use one of their most popular brands by renaming Lync Skype for business sometime during the first half of 2015 Gurdeep Pall, corporate vice president of Skype, promised a new experience client, the new server version and updates Office 365 service in a company blog.

We believe that Skype for companies to relight the way people communicate with each other by organizations to reach hundreds of millions of Skype users outside the walls of their activities, continued. Over 300 million people use Skype, the company estimates.For now, Microsoft is working to provide a safe experience showed high fidelity Haberkorn.

Lync Skype video calls to enterprise-class encryption of both media and signalling via TLS Transport Layer Security and SRTP [Secure Real-time Transport Protocol], by default, he said. It includes standards-based connectivity to cross the personal and corporate firewalls with STUN [Utilities for NAT Transversal Session], select [Using Relay NAT Transversal a] and ICE [Interactive Connectivity Establishment].

On the video front, the integration includes high quality, scalable video using the industry standard H.264 SVC codec, stated Haberkorn. Audio is handled by Skype's own SILK audio compression standard, which "is used for billions of minutes of audio calls every day, and provides a phenomenal balance between audio quality, bandwidth utilization and power consumption.