Desktop and Application Streaming

Enhance Zoom Virtual Meetings on Amazon WorkSpaces with the WorkSpaces Streaming Protocol

We are pleased to announce that Zoom now supports optimized real-time communication for WorkSpaces Streaming Protocol (WSP) Windows-based Amazon WorkSpaces. Media Optimized Real-Time Communication (Media Optimized RTC) allows the Zoom media framework to be offloaded to the supported client for direct communication. The direct communication between the WorkSpaces client and Zoom endpoint provides a local-like Zoom experience when the meeting is running inside the end user’s WorkSpace.

Architecture

Architecture illustrating the Zoom VDI client signaling the Zoom endpoint so that media is offloaded directly to the WorkSpaces client running the Zoom plugin.

The architecture above illustrates Zoom meeting optimization for Windows-based WorkSpaces using WSP. The VDI Zoom Meeting client within the WorkSpace signals Zoom infrastructure to offload the media traffic directly to the WorkSpaces client. The WorkSpaces client uses the Zoom VDI plugin to communicate with Zoom infrastructure to receive the meeting media traffic.

Preparing your WorkSpaces

Before installing the Zoom VDI components, you need to update your WorkSpaces configuration to support Zoom optimization. Within the WSP Group Policy Object (GPO), make two updates. First, enable WSP extensions and configure it for Server and client. Second, within Set the session resume timeout for WSP, disable Automatic reconnect. For more information, see Enable Amazon WorkSpaces for Zoom Meeting Media Plugin in the WorkSpaces Administrator Guide. Lastly, confirm you are running a Zoom supported version of the WorkSpaces client; version 5.10.0 or later. To determine your WorkSpaces client version, see Determine your client version in the WorkSpaces User Guide.

Installing the Zoom components

To enable Zoom offloading, Zoom provides two components that need to be installed. On the Windows machine the WorkSpaces client is installed, the Zoom VDI Plugin (Windows Universal Installer) is required. Within the WorkSpace, you need to install the Zoom VDI client. Both components need to be version 5.17.10 or later. To learn more, see Using Zoom for Amazon WorkSpaces in Zoom Support.

To validate the plugin is optimizing the Zoom traffic, confirm your VDI Plugin Status shows as Connected within the Zoom VDI client.

Summary

With Zoom media optimization for Amazon WorkSpaces, video calls bypass the cloud-based virtual desktop. This creates a direct connection between the Zoom platform and client device, reducing latency, and improving worker productivity. Zoom media optimization also helps lower VDI expenses by reducing the CPU and memory requirements of the virtual desktop; offloading video encoding/decoding to the client device. To read more on how Zoom’s optimization works, see Direct Optimization in Zoom Meeting Optimization for VDI. WorkSpaces also offers Media Optimized RTC for WebEx customers.

Author: Rohit Gulati Rohit Gulati is a Sr. Cloud Support Engineer and Subject Matter Expert in Amazon WorkSpaces and AWS Directory Services based in Dublin, Ireland. Rohit has experience in Enterprise Infrastructure for over 14 years including 6 years with AWS.
Author: Andrew Morgan Andrew came to AWS in 2019 from a large datacenter environment where he specialized in VMware, Cisco UCS, and automation. Through his time at AWS, he developed a passion for visualization workloads. In 2022, he started his current role as a Developer Advocate for DCV.