Are you using Wyse V class thin clients? Then I think you'll be interested in this new Tech Preview release from Wyse.

TCX Flash Redirection is a complementary solution to HDX MediaStream for Flash that enables users of Wyse thin clients to experience improved Flash performance. How does it compare with HDX MediaStream for Flash? Whereas HDX MediaStream for Flash is currently just for Windows-based PCs and thin clients, TCX Flash Redirection supports Wyse Thin OS (WTOS) 6.3.0.

TCX Flash Redirection doesn't actually redirect the native Flash media stream to the client; the Flash Player still runs server-side. So I wouldn't expect any substantial improvement in server scalability. But the resulting images are "redirected" over a separate virtual channel, allowing for greater control of frame rate and compression, thereby delivering an improved user experience. Also, TCX Flash Redirection works together with TCX Rich Sound to provide high quality audio.

You can see TCX Flash Redirection in action on YouTube at www.youtube.com/watch?v=M4rPs84-FgY.

The solution works both with XenDesktop (Windows XP Pro and Vista VMs) and with XenApp (Windows Server 2003).

Here's some early feedback from a customer in Australia: "I am using [Wyse] V10L 6.3.0 on Citrix [XenApp] PS 4.5 and the Flash stuff is GREAT!"

Param Desai, Director of Product Management at Wyse, informs me that the Tech Preview is publicly available for customers via Wyse systems engineers and sales managers. So try it out and let us know what you think!

Derek Thorslund
Product Strategist, HDX Multimedia Virtualization

The senior architect at a major bank recently told me how they use Wyse TCX USB Virtualizer to deliver the Cisco IP Communicator softphone from XenDesktop to LAN-connected users. The Wyse V10L thin clients are equipped with Netcom GN 2000 USB headsets. He reports that the audio quality over USB is "excellent" and bandwidth consumption appears to be minimal. Sounds like a great solution for delivering potentially any softphone from XenDesktop to Wyse thin clients and desktop appliances!

So what about users who don't have a Wyse thin client? As part of the expansion of our HDX RealTime technologies, Citrix is near to completing the development of an enhanced audio subsystem for XenDesktop, comparable to what we have in XenApp 5 for Windows Server 2008. The HDX RealTime audio subsystem will provide broad compatibility with softphones and the "voice chat" feature of Unified Communications applications. And later this year, look for news of further enhancements to HDX RealTime with the Ulysses audio codec technology that I blogged about some time ago, designed to provide outstanding audio quality with minimal bandwidth consumption. These enhancements are aimed at improving the multimedia virtual desktop experience for on-premises users while establishing a foundation for future support of VoIP for remote workers.

Derek Thorslund
Product Strategist, Multimedia Virtualization

I hope by now a lot of you know about the new "unconference" portion of Synergy 2008, Geek Speak Live.  Part of Geek Speak Live is the Geek Speak Lounge (GSL).  Basically is an area to meet at during the Live event and meet with other members of the Citrix community and discuss and share new ideas and topics.  It's also where you can see some demos with a twist, more on this later! 

First, here's the proposed GSL layout:
 
There are 4 main demo areas.  The twist is that the demos are intended to let you experience future Citrix technology  more interactively, possibly using some applications and devices that aren't what you'd usually see us demo.

So here's the rundown:

Cool Devices - This section of  the GSL features gadgets that can be today, or may be enabled tomorrow with the ICA client to become your XenApp or XenDesktop ICA end points.  Customers are using cell phones and PDAs today to do this, but we have some new devices that are starting to change the game and starting to reach Nirvana Device status as described in Chris Flecks post.  You'll get to try them out in the GSL, in exchange for you opinion and comments on how use of such devices can add value to your business, or not!  Hopefully this demo area makes you think about app and desktop delivery in some new ways.  For a quick preview of some of the devices that will be present, check out the Nirvana Devices Invade Synergy Geek Speak Lounge post.  (Note: we originally had a BarCamp session on this topic, but due to the great response we've gotten from others willing to present, we've removed this from BarCamp.  But you can still get the hands on experience and knowledge in the GSL on this subject).

Project Alice Demo - Haven't heard about project Alice, also referred to as Reverse seamless?  It fits in very nicely with our XenDesktop story and is a sneak peak at some new technology we are working on to allow the user to leverage local applications running on the end point device in the context of their XenDesktop seamlessly.  Image having those favorite apps you have on your laptop seamlessly showing up as part of your Corporate XenDesktop environment with out needing to switch between the local desktop and XenDesktop. 

Project Apollo Games - You've probably seen some of the blogs on project Apollo.  Apollo does a great job of enabling the new graphics intensive features of next generation applications in a Citrix environment (preview at Derek Thorslund's blog).  Well this is the GSL twisted version of those demos.  We're going to have 8 Dell XPS 710 gaming systems running an early version of Apollo, remoting an action game to Wyse Thin Clients.  You've seen the CAD demos, now it's your turn to actually sit down and give the power of project Apollo some hands on time, in true Geek Speak fashion.  While you probably won't be publishing games to your end user's any time soon, you should be able translate the power of this demo into how project Apollo can help you move to the next generation of graphic intensive applications in your Citrix deployment in the future.   We'll have some of the apps Derek has blogged on with Apollo as well, for those non-gamers like myself

Apollo Media Center - To further show off some of the new video capabilities the Apollo team is working on, we will also have an Alienware Area 51 system running Media Center in the GSL.  And you guessed it, the Alienware system will be "Apollo-ized" and remoting videos out to a large screen monitor via a Wyse thin client.  Again, maybe not what you'd do in production, but you should be able to translate this demo with a twist into better ideas on how to deliver some of those training videos and other multi-media out to your users in the future.

The GSL should be a great place for you to meet with other members of the Citrix Community, discuss new ideas and hopefully come up with some new ones!

Thanks to Intel for sponoring the event, and the list of other partners supporting the GSL effort:

Alienware, Dell, Wyse, Nokia, Sprint, Celio, i-Mate, Impatica, Icuiti

We look forwared to meeting you there!

Adam

It's great to see the major desktop appliance (thin client) vendors, including HP/Neoware and Wyse, rallying around the Citrix Multimedia Virtualization Initiative. A notable example of how our ecosystem partners add value is TCX Multimedia 2.0 from Wyse, a streaming media solution (think training videos and corporate broadcasts accessed in an ICA session). At iForum 07 - The App Delivery Expo - Wyse and Citrix announced that TCX Multimedia 2.0 has achieved Citrix Ready status (see the press release from Wyse).

TCX Multimedia provides an intriguing complement to SpeedScreen Multimedia Acceleration (one of several technologies explained in Brian Madden's video on SpeedScreen). As with SpeedScreen Multimedia Acceleration, the media player runs on Presentation Server but the multimedia (video and audio) data stream is decoded and played locally on the client with a virtual channel being used for start/pause/stop and other controls. And both technologies deliver a great user experience by leveraging the processing power of the client device while maintaining the advantages of a centralized application delivery model. The key difference with TCX Multimedia is that the multimedia stream can be delivered directly to the user desktop appliance from a local media server instead of going through the data center. TCX Multimedia attempts to establish a direct path from the source to the client. This isn't always possible and the solution will fall back to obtaining the media stream through ICA when necessary to traverse firewalls, but when it is possible it has the benefit of consuming less network bandwidth and reducing the load on Presentation Server, which is good for performance and scalability (number of concurrent users per server). The beauty of the TCX Multimedia software is that it can intelligently and dynamically decide when to redirect the multimedia stream.

Another noteworthy feature of TCX Multimedia is its multicast support (limited to MPEG-1). Multicast provides a very efficient way of delivering the same multimedia stream to many users at the same time. Suppose your CEO is addressing the troops for a quarterly state-of-the-business update. Potentially a large number of people want to watch the videocast simultaneously, in real time. With multicasting, each individual packet can be sent to many endpoints simultaneously, consuming much less network bandwidth than if the media stream had to be replicated for every user. And multicast uses UDP/RTP. UDP (User Datagram Protocol) is better suited to live videocasts than TCP/IP because it is a "best efforts" protocol that doesn't get stuck doing retransmissions if some packets are lost; timeliness is more important than completeness. RTP (Real-Time Protocol) adds timestamps and other controls to help keep the audio and video in sync.

TCX Multimedia supports a broad set of media formats: MPEG-1, MPEG-2, MPEG-4 part 2, WMV (Windows Media Video), WMA (Windows Media Audio), AC-3 (Dolby Digital) and MP3. The notable omission at this time is Adobe Flash.

What next? Wyse notes that support for Linux is "coming soon".

Derek Thorslund
Product Strategist, Multimedia Virtualization