Avaya Communication Manager Administrator's Manual page 293

Hourglass Tone
The answering party may hear different things when the incoming multimedia call is answered depending
on the nature of the originator. If the origination is directly from an H.320 DVC system or if the
originator is an Enhanced mode complex on a remote server, an immediate audio path will not exist
between the two parties. This is because the H.320 protocol must be established after the call is answered.
It takes several seconds for the H.320 protocol to establish an audio path. During this interval the
answering party will hear special ringback. When the audio path exists the special ringback will be
removed and replaced with a short "incoming call tone" indicating that audio now exists. The
combination of special ringback followed by incoming call tone is referred to as "hourglass tone."
Hourglass tone is an indication to the answering party that they should wait for the H.320 call to establish
audio.
Early Answer
The answering party may administer their station in such a way as to avoid hearing hourglass tone. If the
station screen has set the
call on behalf of the station and proceed to establish the H.320 protocol. After audio path has been
established, the call will then alert at the voice station of the Enhanced mode complex destination. The
station may then answer by going off-hook and will have immediate audio path. No hourglass tone will
be heard by the answering party.
- multiple call appearance operation
With an Enhanced mode complex all calls to or from the complex are controlled via the voice station.
Each voice or multimedia call has its own call appearance which may be selected without regard for the
nature of the call using the specific call appearance. This allows a multifunction station to control
multiple voice or multimedia calls in exactly the same way they would control multiple voice calls.
As an example, a user may originate a simple voice call on the first call appearance. A multimedia call
may then arrive on the second call appearance. The user activates HOLD on the first call appearance and
selects the second call appearance to answer the multimedia call. The user may then activate HOLD on
the second call appearance and reselect the first call appearance or select a third call appearance and
originate another call.
- creating a multi-party video conference
An Enhanced multimedia complex can create a spontaneous video conference in the same way that a
spontaneous voice conference is created. Given an active call, the user activates the CONFERENCE
button. This puts the current call on HOLD and activates a new call appearance. The user makes a
multimedia call according to the instructions for originating a multimedia call and then selects
CONFERENCE to combine or merge the two call appearances. This results in a 3-way conference.
If all three parties are video equipped, then a 3-way video conference results. Conference members see
the current speaker on video. The current speaker sees the last speaker on video. If one of the parties is
not video equipped, then a 3-way audio conference exists and the two video equipped parties have 2-way
video. The CONFERENCE action may be repeated until 6 parties have been conferenced together. The
6 parties may be any mix of voice or video, local or remote parties.
The following steps create a multi-party voice/video conference:
1
Enhanced mode complex station A originates a multimedia call to, or receives a multimedia call
from, party B. Station A and party B have 2-way voice and video.
2
Station A, activates CONFERENCE.
Administrator's Guide for Avaya Communication Manager
November 2003
field to y, then the system will answer the incoming multimedia
Early Answer
Managing MultiMedia Calling
Enhanced Mode MM Complex
293