need to understand the use of hardware conference bridge

[deepak24388]

Can any one tell me what is the use of the hardware coference bridge ? what i understand conference bridge cannot do transcoding for transcodeing you need a transcoder so how its supports the multiple codec(hardware conference bridge) or it only mix the multiple audio strem from multiple user into one .

can someone please help me here .

[Jaime Valencia]

Hardware Audio Conferencing

Digital signal processors (DSPs) that are configured through Cisco IOS as conference resources load firmware into the DSPs that are specific to conferencing functionality only, and these DSPs cannot be used for any other media feature. Any Cisco PVDM hardware may be used simultaneously in a single chassis for voice termination but may not be used simultaneously for other media resource functionality. DSPs on PVDM hardware are configured individually as voice termination, conferencing, media termination, or transcoding, so that DSPs on a single PVDM may be used as different resource types. Allocate DSPs to voice termination first, then to other functionality as needed. The DSP resources for a conference are reserved during configuration, based on the profile attributes and irrespective of how many participants actually join.

Hardware audio conference bridges offer a wider range of capabilities and codec format support than the software conference bridges. Cisco recommends using hardware audio conference bridges where the enterprise requires a more versatile audio conference bridge and codec support for higher-complexity codecs such as G.729 to take advantage of bandwidth savings.

https://www.cisco.com/c/en/us/td/docs/voice_ip_comm/cucm/srnd/collab11/collab11/confernc.html#28131

https://www.cisco.com/c/en/us/td/docs/voice_ip_comm/cucm/admin/8_5_1/ccmsys/accm-851-cm/a05confb.html#wp1055759