With the Real-Time Audio-Video (RTAV) feature, you can use the local client system's webcam or microphone in a remote desktop or published application. Real-Time Audio-Video is compatible with standard conferencing applications and browser-based video applications. It supports standard webcams, audio USB devices, and analog audio input.

RTAV Acoustic Echo Cancellation (AEC)

Starting from the Horizon 8 2309 release, you can enable the Acoustic Echo Cancellation (AEC) feature to cancel echo when using a microphone in an audio or video meeting. To cancel the echo, enable AEC from the client registry, set the DWORD registry key named EnableAEC under Computer\HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\VMware, Inc.\VMware VDM\RTAV to 1, and reconnect your session.
Note: If you enable AEC, you cannot disable WASAPI.

AEC is supported on the default speaker device on the client side. If a user selects a non-default speaker device on the agent side, AEC will not take effect. The audio data may still contain echo even if AEC is enabled.

RTAV Hardware Acceleration

To use hardware acceleration registry keys for Windows, perform the following steps:
  1. Open the regedit.exe file located at HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\VMware, Inc.\VMware VDM\RTAV.
  2. Set the following options as appropriate:
    • forceNV = 1 to enable NVIDIA hardware acceleration
    • forceQSV = 1 to enable Intel Quick Sync Video hardware acceleration

Real-Time Audio-Video hardware acceleration works on your client only if the Graphics processing unit is supported on your computer and is compatible with FFmpeg.

RTAV Audio-in API Upgrade to Windows Audio Session (WASAPI)

Starting from the Horizon 8 2212 release, Horizon Client for Windows uses Windows Audio Session (WASAPI) API as the audio-in API by default instead of Wavein. To use Wavein as the audio-in API, disable WASAPI from the client registry, set the DWORD registry key named EnableAInWasapi under Computer\HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\VMware, Inc.\VMware VDM\RTAV to 0 and reconnect your session.
Note: For the Real-Time Audio-Video feature in nested mode, using WASAPI when RTAV is not running in bypass mode may result in low audio quality. To avoid this issue, you should disable WASAPI on the second-hop client. RTAV is in bypass mode in the following cases:
  • C1, A1, C2, A2 are on Horizon 8 2209 or later release
  • C1, A1, C2, A2 Horizon 8 2206 or earlier release
Nested RTAV is not in bypass mode for cases other than those described above.

For information about setting up the Real-Time Audio-Video feature on the agent machine, including configuring the frame rate and image resolution, see the Horizon Remote Desktop Features and GPOs document.