Speaking at TechEd North America 2014

25/03/201425/04/2014Ståle Hansen Leave a comment

I am proud to announce that I am speaking at TechEd North America 2014 in Houston! This is the second international talk I am doing this year and my previous talk was in Las Vegas at the Lync Conference 2014. Apparently the session I did on the Lync Conference had the correct content and I am excited to be giving the same talk at TechEd. The topic was Phone Number Management in Lync Server 2013.

TENA

Title: Phone Number Management in Microsoft Lync Server 2013
Level: 400
Url: http://tena2014.eventpoint.com/Speaker/Details/207466a5-469f-e311-b30e-00155d5066d7
Session Code: OFC-B416
Time Slot: Wednesday May 14, 8:30 AM – 9:45 AM
Room: 350D
Abstract: Ståle Hansen, the creator of Get-UnusedNumbers PowerShell script, walks through how phone number management is done throughout different Lync deployments. The session will start with some of the basics and will quickly move over to more advanced scripting and tools that can be utilized in user creation workflows and user management scenarios. Be sure to attend this session if you want tips on phone number management in your environment or customer deployments.

Improvements

I will try to work with the talk and do more demo’s around third party offerings and also evolve the script with the input I got during LyncConf so stay tuned for that.

You see only a white screen when viewing Lync 2013 desktop sharing

11/03/201411/03/2014Ståle Hansen 9 Comments

On a couple of Windows 8 computers I have seen the issue where I receive only white screen when someone shares their desktop with me in Lync 2013.

This applies to

Fresh installed Windows 8 computer
One year old Windows 8 computer
Lync Peer to Peer collaboration
- The issue is consequent so it is not a specific deployment issue
Lync conference
- All other attendees can see the screen fine so it is not an appsharing issue
The issue is client related so it will be present for Lync Online as well as Lync on-premises

The experience

WhiteAppSharing
Continue reading →

Launching Lyncnumbers.net

16/02/2014Ståle Hansen 1 Comment

I have teamed up with Lync Professional Lasse Nordvik Wedø in order to help administrators all over the world get a solid grip on their numbering plans within a Lync deployment.

We have separately developed scripts and techniques to cope with ours (and our customers’) numbering plans in Lync deployments with Enterprise Voice Enabled.

Attacking the challenges from two different perspectives, we realized our scripts and thoughts were complementing each other.

To help others, we have decided to launch a dedicated site to the subject, called “Lyncnumbers.net”. Under this umbrella we will keep updating the scripts (posted on the Technet Gallery), sharing tips on how to use them, explaining the different parameters in use and other tips and techniques we come along in our deployments.

At launch, there will be three scripts in the “toolbox”: Get-UnusedNumbers, Get-assignedlineuri and Search-LineURI. But who knows what we will end up with.

I will demo these scripts on my level 400 talk at Lync Conference 2014 in Las Vegas. Check out and sign up for my session: http://www.lyncconf.com/SessionDetail.aspx?id=9438

From here on, I will only post brief updates about these scripts on this blog, but post in-depth and practical information over at lyncnumbers.net

So head on over to the new site, to get a grip on the possibilities and give feedback

Slides from my NICconf 2014 talks are online

22/01/201428/02/2015Ståle Hansen 2 Comments

This year I had the honour to talk at the Nordic Infrastructure Conference (NIC) 2014 in Oslo, Norway. This is a great conference getting more traction in the market with A list speakers like John Craddock, Johan Arwidmark and Wally Mead. MVP Justin Morris and I had two Lync talks each. Below you can download my slides and read the key takeaways from my sessions. Sadly there where no recording this year, hope they will have the capaticy to record sessions next year. Continue reading →

Dial-in Conferencing in Lync now just requires Enterpreise CAL

20/12/201320/12/2013Ståle Hansen 5 Comments

Some time ago the CAL licensing for dial-in conferencing was changed. The change is that for users to be able to invite to a Lync meeting where users are able to dial in from a phone or a mobile now just require that this user has an enterprise CAL. Earlier the users that could invite to such meetings needed to have plus CAL in order to do this. The scenario is that users now can invite to a phone conference without being enabled for Enterprise Voice which requires Plus CAL. This is ofcourse policy controlled on the Lync server and has always been possible, but not from a licensing perspective.

Figure 1: Dial-in Conferencing in Lync

Feature	New or Improved	Standard CAL	Enterprise CAL	Plus CAL
Initiate an impromptu (ad-hoc) multiparty (3+ users) meeting with audio and video (including dial-out to PSTN or PBX users)	Improved		●
Initiate an impromptu (ad-hoc) multiparty (3+ users) meeting with audio (including dial-out to PSTN or PBX users)	Improved			●
Schedule and invite attendees to meetings with audio (including dial-out to PSTN or PBX users and hosted audio conferencing features), video, web conferencing and content sharing	Improved		●
Automatically join meeting audio from PBX or other phone number	Improved		●
Enable use of Lync Room Systems	New		●

http://office.microsoft.com/en-us/lync/microsoft-lync-licensing-overview-lync-for-multiple-users-FX103789668.aspx

Speaking at Lync Conference 2014 about Phone Number Management in Lync Server 2013

18/12/2013Ståle Hansen 1 Comment

I’m happy to announce that I will be speaking at the Lync Conference 2014 in Las Vegas 18-20 February. The topic is Phone Number Management in Lync Server 2013 and I will share my experience from the many Lync Enterprise Voice projects I have been involved in, both for Norwegian and global companies. The session will be level 400 (technical session) starting with an in-depth insight into how to manage Phone Numbers, then a walkthrough on how you can use Get-UnusedNumbers PowerShell script that I have developed and look at other tools that you can benefit from in your administration workflows.

There is one thing to deploy numbers for users, but there is a whole other process needed for maintaining available numbers in a day-to-day administration process. This will be the main focus for the this session. So if you want learn more about Phone Number Management in Lync Server 2013 I hope to see you in Vegas.

Level: 400
Url: http://www.lyncconf.com/SessionDetail.aspx?id=9438
Abstract: Ståle Hansen, the creator of Get-UnusedNumbers PowerShell script, walks through how phone number management is done throughout different Lync deployments. The session will start with some of the basics and will quickly move over to more advanced scripting and tools that can be utilized in user creation workflows and user management scenarios. Be sure to attend this session if you want tips on phone number management in your environment or customer deployments.

I want your input on the subject

The goal for the session is to give the audience the best view, and the most complete, overview on how to handle phone numbers in a Microsoft Lync 2013 environment.

I want to hear from the community how you handle phone numbers in your Lync environment, in your organization and/or in your customer’s deployments. Is it through Excel spreadsheets, manually, PowerShell scripts? I would love to use your feedback to improve the session. Please reply to this post, contact me directly or send me a tweet about how you resolve this scenario. I hope for good response and thank you in advance :)

Speaking at Nordic Infrastructure Conference january 2014

18/12/2013Ståle Hansen 1 Comment

For the third time I have been invited to speak at the Nordic Infrastructure Conference in Oslo january 2014. It is a huge honor to speak at such a premiere event with keynote by Andy Malone and speakers that are known for their technical knowledge and being good techtalkers. This year the focus is cloud and I will talk about Lync 2013 video interoperability and Lync Exchange integrations scenarios.

Fellow Lync MVP Justin Morris will also be presenting Lync sessions on rollout success factors and how Lync Server 2013 leverages the complete Microsoft infrastructure ecosystem.

Here’s the two sessions I’ll be delivering:

Understand how video works in Lync and how video interoperability can be utilized Lync 2013 introduced a new video codec, multiview and mobile clients that can do video. This session talks about how it works, Lync Room System and how you can use third party solutions to interact with all other video solution out there.

Understand how Lync integrates with Exchange The Microsoft Exchange integration is core functionality in Lync. This session will go through how the different clients access exchange calendar information and we will take a look at UCS, High-res photos, Lync in OWA and Exchange Unified Messaging as well as take a look at how Lync on-premises can integrate with Exchange Online

NIC Cloud Edition is on January 16th-17th at Oslo Spektrum and offers not just UC topics but sessions on System Management, Virtualisation, Cloud Services, client management and loads more. For more info check out the agenda here.

Lock down your Lync status and PC notifications using PowerShell

25/11/201323/08/2017Ståle Hansen 2 Comments

Recently I wrote a blogpost on Control your Lync presence during a Pomodoro Sprint using PowerShell. This awesome script uses a timer and the Lync SDK to lock down Lync for 25 minutes while I get some real work done. The only thing I did not find out was how to suppress is Outlook popups and other notifications.

Thanks to a great tip by MVP Olav Tvedt i found out that you can set your laptop in presentation mode using the commandline tool presentationsettings

PresentationSettings /start
PresentationSettings /stop
Works from PowerShell as well

Using the script on a desktop

Apparently PresentationSettings is not installed on desktop computers by default. Searching the net I found a post by MVP Robert Sparnaaij where he described that you can use registry to enable this feature on desktop computers as well: http://www.msoutlook.info/question/380

If you save the below text to a .reg file and run it you will add the settings necessary to enable PresentationSettings and you are good to go

Windows Registry Editor Version 5.00

[HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\MobilePC\MobilityCenter]
"RunOnDesktop"=dword:1

[HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\MobilePC\AdaptableSettings]
"SkipBatteryCheck"=dword:1

; WARNING: Using Registry Editor incorrectly can cause serious problems that may require you to reinstall Windows. Microsoft cannot guarantee that problems resulting from the incorrect use of Registry Editor can be solved. Use Registry Editor at your own risk.

Download the script and check out how I use the Pomodoro Technique with Lync and PowerShell here: https://msunified.net/2017/08/23/set-yourself-unavailable-with-this-open-source-powershell-based-pomodoro-timer/

Control your Lync presence during a Pomodoro Sprint using PowerShell

14/11/201311/02/2015Ståle Hansen 6 Comments

This article is for you Lync-PRO’s out there who want to differentiate yourself from the average Lync user and at the same time want to reach true flow state using the Pomodoro Technique

This article discusses

The Pomodoro Technique
Flow state by Jason Silva
My Lync controlling Pomodoro PowerShell Script
The Script

Continue reading →

MUCUGN: Slides and recording available Lync and Exchange integrations

12/09/2013Ståle Hansen Leave a comment

Microsoft UC User Group Norway (MUCUGN) had its first meeting over Lync 2013 june 19 2013. We where about 26 participants, which is great for the first meeting and the topic was Lync 2013 and Exchange 2013 integrations with demo. We recorded the session and the slide deck (in english) and the Lync recording (in Norwegian) are now available.

Remember to join us for our next meetup at september 17 where Lasse Nordvik Wedø will talk about Centralized Logging Service : http://www.meetup.com/MUCUGN/events/137807372/