The final part of my series on the Citrix 2016 Partner Summit summarizes the notes Citrix provided around HDX RealTime Optimization Pack 2.0. Part 1 recapped news around XenApp and XenDesktop and part 2 covered XenMobile and PVS 7.7. As always, please reach out if you're looking for any more information.

HDX RealTime Optimization Pack 2.0

• Native Skype for Business 2015 UI - Provides the full Skype for Business UI experience and eliminates the limitations of a hybrid UI. Examples of features that were not supported in HDX
  • Here's a demo Citrix did at the Summit for Business and NetScaler SD-Wan
• RealTime Optimization Pack 1.8 but are now available through the native Skype for Business UI include:
• Call Delegation - Enables setting up a Skype for Business meeting on behalf of someone else. For example, an administrative assistant setting up meetings for a manager.
• Voicemail access, playback, and delete - Ability to access your voicemail, play it, and delete from Skype for Business.
• Response groups - Enables the response group feature, which routes incoming calls to groups of people called response group agents.
• Team call groups - Set up a team of people who can answer your calls. You add and remove members and specify when they can answer calls for you. Members phones ring and once someone answers the call, the other phones stop ringing.
• Authentication and SIP signaling  handled exclusively by the Skype for Business client - This release introduces architectural simplifications that improve robustness and user experience (for example, initialization time).

Fallback mode controlled by the following registry setting:

• Warning: Editing the registry incorrectly can cause serious problems that may require you to reinstall your operating system. Citrix cannot guarantee that problems resulting from the incorrect use of Registry Editor can be solved. Use Registry Editor at your own risk. Be sure to back up the registry before you edit it.
• Key: HKLM\Software\Citrix\HDXRTConnector or HKCU\Software\Citrix\HDXRTConnector
• Value: DWORD DisableFallback
• If the value is present and has a nonzero value under either registgry key, disable fallback mode; otherwise, enable fallback mode.
• Web proxy support - Enables external access using a web proxy with limitations. For more information, see Limitations in 2.0.
• Click-to-Run - Devices where Microsoft Office applications have been installed using Click-to-Run support HDX RealTime Optimization Pack.
• Pairing Status Indicator - Icon that displays these status states:
  • Connecting - MediaEngine.Net is trying to establish a RealTime Connector connection.
  • Connected - There is a RealTime Connector connection over a virtual channel and the version of remote RealTime Media Engine matches the version of mediaEngine.Net exactly.
  • Fallback - There is a RealTime Connector connection to a local RealTime Media Engine process.
  • Disconnected - A registry setting (policy) prevented MediaEngine.Net from running RealTime Media Engine locally.
  • Version mismatch - Same as Connected but the version match is not exact (different patch or build numbers)
• Improved audio-video quality - Improvements to the RealTime Media Engine:
  • Improved resilience to packet loss
  • Improved echo cancelation
• Skype server settings - HDX RealTime Optimization Pack obeys the Skype for Business Server settings that control whether or not the endpoint can do audio and/or video calling.
• Active speaker identification - Displays a photo of the current speaker.
• Call and video call buttons added to the contact card - Enables calls and video calls to be started with a click of a button in the contact card.
• Automatically join meeting audio controls - You can use Settings to specify how you want to join a meeting:
  • Use Skype for Business (full audio and video experience)
  • Use a phone number
  • Don't join audio

If you have any questions, don't hesitate to reach out.

By Peter Crepeau, Solutions Architect