Adding participants

You can add a participant to a conference in two ways: either on an "ad hoc" basis, where an endpoint previously unknown to the MCU is only configured when it is immediately required, or on a preconfigured basis, where the MCU uses its record of the endpoint in the conference configuration. An ad hoc participant's details must be provided each time the MCU invites it, while a preconfigured endpoint can be added to a conference in advance to be called whenever the conference is active. This is especially useful for recurring conferences. See Adding preconfigured participants.

To call an endpoint immediately you can enter a participant's endpoint details or select a preconfigured endpoint and call out. The endpoint can be an H.323 or SIP endpoint. Follow the links below for the detailed procedures:

• Adding an H.323 participant (ad hoc)
• Adding a SIP participant (ad hoc)
• Adding preconfigured participants

Note that participants called by the MCU will have chairperson privileges by default. For more information about chairperson and guest privileges, refer to Using IDs and PINs in the Adding a conference topic.

Adding an H.323 participant

To call a participant with an H.323 endpoint into an active conference:

1. Go to Conferences to display the Conference List.
2. Click a Conference name and then click Add participant.

3. To add a new endpoint (one that you have not added as a configured endpoint):

   1. Select the H.323 radio button and in Address, enter the IP address, E.164 number, or H.323 alias of the participant's endpoint.

      For information about other conference settings, refer to Configuring H.323 endpoints.

   2. Click Call endpoint.

4. To invite an existing (configured) H.323 endpoint:

   1. Scroll down to the Endpoints section and select the check box next to the endpoint name.
   2. Click Add selected.

Adding a SIP participant

To call a participant with a SIP endpoint in to an active conference:

1. Go to Conferences to display the Conference List.
2. Click a Conference name and then click Add participant.

3. To add a new endpoint (one that you have not added as a configured endpoint):

   1. Select the SIP radio button and do one of the following:

      • For Address, enter the IP address, or SIP URI of the participant's endpoint (in the format [email protected]).
      • For Address, enter the number registered with the SIP registrar and select Use SIP registrar (ensuring that you have configured a SIP registrar on the Settings > SIP page).

      For information about other conference settings, refer to Configuring SIP endpoints

   2. Click Call endpoint.

4. To invite an existing (configured) SIP participant:

   1. Scroll down to the Endpoints section and select the check box next to the SIP endpoint name.
   2. Click Add selected.

Adding pre-configured participants

You can choose participants whose endpoints have been configured previously to be part of a scheduled conference. These participants will be automatically invited into the conference by the MCU every time the conference runs. This is useful if you regularly invite the same participants into a conference.

You can preconfigure up to 200 endpoints in this way.

To add previously configured endpoints to a conference:

1. Go to Conferences to display the Conference List.
2. Click a Conference name and then click the Configuration tab.
3. Click Pre-configured participants. The pre-configured participants page will be displayed. This page lists all the endpoints that have been configured on the MCU (see Configuring an H.323 endpoint and Configuring a SIP endpoint).
4. Select which endpoints you would like to add as pre-configured participants in this conference.
5. Press Return to conference configuration.
6. Make any other changes you require to the conference configuration, then click Update conference. (If you do not click Update conference, you will lose the selections of configured endpoints made in the previous steps.)

Related topics

• Displaying conference lists
• Configuring H.323 endpoints
• Configuring SIP endpoints