Multicast media notifications are provided when unicast media encoders are unavailable to serve endpoints that send a communication session request to a call control device. When the call control device receives a communication session request from an endpoint, a determination is made as to whether any one of a plurality of unicast media encoders is available for the communication session request. When it is determined that none of the plurality of unicast media encoders is available, the endpoint is connected to a multicast media encoder that presents a multicast media notification to the endpoint. The multicast media encoder generates a video keyframe associated with the multicast media notification, synchronizes the video keyframe to a starting point of audio, and outputs the synchronized video keyframe.