WebRTC Media Helper overview
Genesys Cloud’s WebRTC Media Helper is designed to allow you to successfully use WebRTC phones in a VDI environment without the need for fine tuning or additional VDI enhancements. More specifically, WebRTC Media Helper allows the WebRTC real-time media flow to run independently, outside of a VDI session even though the Genesys Cloud interface operates within VDI. Bypassing the VDI environment and terminating directly on the client workstation allows a WebRTC phone to function much like a hardware phone in a VDI environment. This provides an optimal audio quality experience.
| Genesys Cloud Client | WebRTC Media Helper | |
|---|---|---|
| Operates inside of VDI sessions/apps | ||
| Requires authentication | ||
| Audio device management | ||
| Responsible for call control & interaction handling | ||
| Responsible for bi-directional audio streams |
- The WebRTC Media Helper is designed to be used in conjunction with the native Genesys Cloud WebRTC client, or a custom client built on the Genesys Cloud WebRTC SDK. It does not work as a standalone WebRTC client or with a non-WebRTC SDK client application.
- The WebRTC Media Helper must be running outside of the VDI solution/session to provide benefit. This can be accomplished by running completely outside of the VDI environment, or by leveraging Browser Content Redirection (BCR), if supported by your VDI vendor. BCR provides the appearance of running seamlessly inside the VDI environment, while it is actually being rendered outside by the VDI client application.
- When configuring your VDI environment to operate securely using the Allowed IP Addresses feature, remember that WebRTC Media Helper is allowed by default and does not need to be added to the list of allowed IP addresses. This enables Media Helper to work in VDI environments when the Media Helper IP address is outside of the VDI environment Allowed IP Address range.
To see how WebRTC Media Helper works, see the diagrams in the Run Genesys Cloud in a Virtual Desktop Infrastructure (VDI) configuration article.
Even though the audio will route directly between the Media Helper client and the Genesys Cloud media services, users will have the standard Genesys Cloud Agent UI experience with regards to call control, interaction handling, and wrap up.
WebRTC Media Helper can be used in conjunction with the desktop and browser-based Genesys Cloud clients, stand-alone clients built using the latest Genesys Cloud WebRTC SDK, or the embeddable framework client.
Agents who will be using WebRTC Media Helper must have a WebRTC phone created for them and the agents must select that WebRTC phone in order for Media Helper to function. For more information see, Configure the Genesys Cloud WebRTC phone and Select a phone.
VDI audio I/O
When you use WebRTC, Genesys Cloud checks for the presence of audio devices (microphone and speakers) on the WebRTC client. However, when you use WebRTC in a VDI environment and enable the Require WebRTC Media Helper setting, Genesys Cloud does not check for audio devices. Instead, Genesys Cloud assumes that you have audio devices connected to your VDI terminal and then allows those audio devices to pass through to the virtual environment.
