Solstice Conference Setup

The following guide assumes that you have already done your Solstice Setup, have connected your Pods to your enterprise network via Ethernet, and have performed the Baseline Deployment Steps.

Pre-Deployment Considerations

  • As a new category of room system that does not burden a room design with single-purpose dedicated hardware, Solstice Conference is far more versatile and cost effective but does have some specific prerequisites to ensure a high-quality conferencing experience. Our Solstice Conference Checklist outlines those specifications and requirements of the various system components – host laptop, local area network, and audio/video peripherals – most of which are consistent with current best practice IT methodologies.

  • Ensure your network has a bandwidth of up to 80 mbps per host connection, has an end-to-end latency < 50 ms, and allows peer-to-peer TCP connections. As a note, bandwidth utilization is largely dictated by a combination of conferencing application and video camera used.

  • The necessary network ports need to be open. For example, ports 80 and 443 will need to be opened for Solstice to access the licensing server and software upgrades. You will also need to open up additional network ports for certain features to work. For more information, see Open Network Ports.

  • Ensure the following network ports are open: Default base ports +17 (e.g. If 53100-53102 are the configured base ports, open TCP ports 53100-53119). As a note, Solstice may pass UDP packets through these TCP ports. For more information on all of Solstice's open network port requirements, see Open Network Ports.
  • Deploy and configure Solstice Discovery Service (SDS).
  • Solstice Conference drivers are bundled in Solstice app installer and require elevated permissions to install. If end-users do not have elevated permissions, you have the option to centrally deploy the Solstice app using MSI or SCCM versions.

  • If you utilize a tool that limits program access, such as an anti-virus program or device management services, you will need to whitelist the Solstice App.

How To

In order to use Solstice Conference, the Solstice Pod must have current Solstice Subscription and the capability must be enabled by a Solstice admin. Before enabling Solstice Conference, you will need to update your Gen3 Pod to the latest version of Solstice. For more information on how to update your Pod, see Updating Solstice.

There are two ways to enable Solstice Conference: using Solstice Cloud or using the Solstice Dashboard. The Pods must have internet access for these settings to be applied.

Solstice Cloud

  1. From the Solstice Cloud Home page, in the left sidebar navigation panel, click Manage > Templates > Features.
  2. Create a new template, or edit an existing template.
  3. Under Room Services, select the Enable Solstice Conference checkbox.
  4. Click Save.
  5. In the left sidebar menu of the Solstice Cloud portal, click Manage > Pods. The Pod Template Assignments table displays.
  6. Select the checkboxes of the Pods you want to enable Solstice Conference for. You can select each Pod's checkbox individually, or select the checkbox in the header row of the table to select all of the Pods in the table.
  7. Go to the Features column, click a drop-down in that column for one of the selected Pods, then select the name of the template you just created or edited.
  8. A pop-up asks you to confirm the changes. Click Confirm. A green notification that the template was applied displays.

If a Pod is offline, any changes made will be applied when the Pod is back online.

Solstice Dashboard

  1. Open your Solstice Dashboard.
  2. Select the displays you wish to enable Solstice Conference for from the list of Your Solstice Instances.
  3. Go to the Appearance and Usage tab > Usage and Management section.
  4. Under Solstice Conference, select the Enable radio button.
  5. Click Apply.

Integrating a room calendar lets Solstice detect the web conferencing information in the calendar invite when users book a web conference and invite the room. This allows Solstice to start the scheduled web conferencing with the meeting host connects to the Solstice display.

There are two ways to integrate a room calendar: using Solstice Cloud, or using the Solstice Dashboard. The Pods must have internet access for these settings to be applied.

Solstice Cloud

  1. From the Solstice Cloud Home page, in the left sidebar navigation panel, click Manage > Templates > Calendar.
  2. Create a new template, or edit an existing template. Select the Enable Calendar Feature checkbox.

  3. From the Calendar Type drop-down, select the type of calendar you are integrating [for the room]: Microsoft Exchange, Office 365, or 3rd Party Only. Only select 3rd-party only if you are using Solstice’s OpenControl API to integrate a third-party calendar.

  4. If you are using Microsoft Exchange server, enter the Microsoft Exchange Server URL.

  5. In the Authentication type drop-down, select the type of authentication your server is using: Basic or NTLM.

  6. If you are a using either an Impersonation or a Delegation Mailbox, select the corresponding radio button.

    • If you selected No, skip to step 7.

    • If you selected either Impersonation or Delegation, you will need to enter in the user name and password for the impersonation or delegation account (required).

      The login credentials for email accounts will need to be entered individually for each Pod on the Manage > All Pods page.

  7. If you wish to hide meeting titles or meeting organizers from being visible on the room display, deselect Show meeting titles and/or Show meeting organizers.

  8. From the Update Interval drop-down, select the frequency at which the Pod will update the calendar meeting information visible on the display.

  9. Click Save.

  10. In the left sidebar menu of the Solstice Cloud portal, click Manage > Pods. The Pod Template Assignments table displays.
  11. Select the checkboxes of the Pods you want to integrate a room calendar for. You can select each Pod's checkbox individually, or select the checkbox in the header row of the table to select all of the Pods in the table.
  12. Go to the features column, click a drop-down in that column for one of the selected Pods, then select the name of the template you just created or edited.
  13. A pop-up asks you to confirm the changes. Click Confirm. A green notification that the template was applied displays.

Solstice Dashboard

  1. Open your Solstice Dashboard.
  2. Select the displays you wish to integrate a room calendar for from the list of Your Solstice Instances.

  3. Go to the Calendar tab.

  4. Select the Enabled option.

  5. From the Calendar Type drop-down, select the type of calendar you are integrating: Microsoft Exchange, Office 365, or 3rd-party only. Only select 3rd-party only if you are using Solstice’s OpenControl API to integrate a third-party calendar.

  6. In the Server URL field, enter the Microsoft Exchange server URL if that is the type of calendar you are integrating.

  7. In the Authentication type drop-down, select the type of authentication your Microsoft Exchange server is using: Basic or NTLM.

  8. Enter in the Username and Password for the room calendar account.

  9. If you are a using an Impersonation or Delegation Mailbox, enter them into the corresponding fields.

  10. By default, the meeting titles and meeting organizers will be visible on the display unless the meeting is marked in the organizer’s calendar application as “private”. If you wish to hide these for all meetings, disable the corresponding options under Privacy Settings.

  11. From the Update Interval drop-down, select the frequency at which the Pod will update the calendar meeting information visible on the display.

  12. Click Apply.

Enabling screen key allows users to quickly connect to a Solstice display by simply entering the display's 4-digit screen key into the Solstice app. As a note, SDS is required for this quick connect to work. Without screen key enabled, users need to enter the Solstice display's IP address in order to use the quick connect or one-step start functionality.

There are two ways to enable Solstice Conference: using Solstice Cloud, or using the Solstice Dashboard. The Pods must have internet access for these settings to be applied.

Solstice Cloud

  1. From the Solstice Cloud Home page, in the left sidebar navigation panel, click Manage > Templates > Features.
  2. Create a new template, or edit an existing template.
  3. Under Solstice Feature Options, select the Enable screen key checkbox.
  4. Click Save.
  5. In the left sidebar menu of the Solstice Cloud portal, click Manage > Pods. The Pod Template Assignments table displays.
  6. Select the checkboxes of the Pods you want to enable screen key for. You can select each Pod's checkbox individually, or select the checkbox in the header row of the table to select all of the Pods in the table.
  7. Go to the features column, click a drop-down in that column for one of the selected Pods, then select the name of the template you just created or edited.
  8. A pop-up asks you to confirm the changes. Click Confirm. A green notification that the template was applied displays.

Solstice Dashboard

  1. Open your Solstice Dashboard.
  2. Select the displays you wish to enable screen key for from the list of Your Solstice Instances.

  3. Go to the Security tab.

  4. Select the Screen key enabled option. A pop-up warning may appear.

  5. If you agree with the requirements of the warning, click Yes, enable Screen Key.

  6. Click Apply.

To gain all the benefits of Solstice Conference, users will need to install a new component when they first use the system. This component is needed to provide the core benefits of Solstice Conference: wireless bridging of room audio and video to the host laptop, and the ability to share the Solstice display to remote participants through an existing video conferencing application.

This one-time install can be accessed from the Solstice app's Conference tab and only takes ~20 seconds to complete. As a note, the install requires a user to have user-level administration privileges for their own account. Installing the additional component is optional, and users that don’t need to host a Solstice Conference can use Solstice as before without the additional component.

For most enterprise users of Solstice Conference, Mersive recommends pre-installing the most recent version of the Solstice app and the included Solstice Conference drivers through the use of centralized management (MSI or SCCM).  An installer flag will allow an administrator to pre-install everything that is needed for Solstice Conference onto the user device without needing to change a user's privileges. For more information, see Deploy the Solstice App with MSI or SCCM.

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Physical Setup