What is the main difference between a Cisco TelePresence Multipoint Control Unit and a Cisco TelePresence Multipoint Switch?

The Cisco TelePresence Multipoint Control Unit is a hardware-based bridge appliance that actively transcodes video and audio streams from all participants, enabling interoperability across different codecs and resolutions. This hardware transcoding architecture distinguishes it from the MPS, which uses passive switching without transcoding. The hardware nature means it can support mixed-endpoint conferences at the cost of higher latency.

The MCU is hardware-based, not software-based; it is the MPS that leverages switching logic more aligned with software-style packet forwarding rather than full hardware transcoding.

Automatic voice-activated switching is a feature associated with the Cisco TelePresence Multipoint Switch (MPS), not the MCU - the MCU uses continuous presence or chairman-controlled layouts instead.

Sub-10ms latency is a characteristic of the MPS due to its switching-only architecture; the MCU introduces higher latency because it must transcode every media stream in hardware.