Disable HD video in Skype for Business Online

[Bunmi Ajayi]

Is it possible at this time to disable the use of HD video in Skype for Business online? I have a customer that has requested this. In SfB 2015 server you would normally use the Set-CsMediaConfiguration with parameter -MaxVideoConferencingResolution (maybe to VGA600K), this cmdlet isn't currently exposed. Next you could look at tweaking the Videobitrate parameters in a custom CsConferencing policy but from my very recent experience you are not allowed to change them - either using a set command or during the creation of a new CsConferencingPolicy.

[#2]

Firstly for on-premises SfB Server 2015 and Lync Server 2013 deployments changing the 'MaxVideoRateAllowed' parameter does not actually impact the SVC video used by all Lync 2013 and SfB 2015/16 clients.  That is a legacy parameter used only with peer-to-peer RTV video calls by Lync 2010 and older clients.  When these clients join conferences they are limited to VGA as the MCUs (on-premises or online) do not support high definition with RTV video streams.

More details can be found in this older article: http://blog.schertz.name/2011/10/hd-video-in-lync/

Secondly, there is no way to limit the video bandwidth in Office 365 today in an effort to limit resolutions.  The currentl list of available client and conferencing policies do not include the 'VideoBitRateKb' or 'TotalReceiveVideoBitRateKb' parameters.