Muting a participant's audio

There are several ways the audio being sent from one or more participants can be muted by an administrator or a meeting Host, known as being "administratively muted":

• Using the Administrator interface
• Using the Connect app
• Using DTMF

Administrative versus local muting

When a participant's audio is administratively muted, Pexip Infinity still receives their audio stream but does not add it to the mix being sent to all other participants. This is different from a participant muting their own microphone locally, when the local client or endpoint does not send any audio to Pexip Infinity.

For Pexip Connect Webapp3 clients, local muting is synchronized with server-side muting so that when a participant:

• mutes or unmutes themself, their mute state is updated on the server (Pexip Infinity)

• is administratively muted:

  • their mute state is updated on their local client
  • they can unmute themselves locally, unless a meeting Host using Webapp3 has selected the option to Prevent guests from unmuting
• is administratively unmuted, their microphone remains muted locally (for privacy reasons) and a dialog appears giving the option whether or not to stay muted locally
• joins a meeting with their microphone unmuted, and where the administrator has previously elected to Mute all Guests, the participant will join unmuted.
• views the Participants panel, the color of the mute indicators shows whether participants muted themselves (black) or were muted by a Host (red)

For all other Connect apps and other standards-based endpoints, local muting is not synchronized with server-side muting. This means that participants must be both locally unmuted and administratively unmuted in order to be heard.

Host participants using telephones or SIP/H.323 endpoints that support DTMF and who have been administratively muted can use DTMF to unmute themselves.

Administrators can customize the Connect apps so that the microphone is muted locally by default. In these cases, participants may still subsequently unmute and mute themselves locally via the standard controls on their client.

Note that low-level, almost imperceptible background noise is added to the audio mix in all conferences. This creates a similar effect to an open mic and gives reassurance that the conference is alive, even if all participants are muted. This background noise is not configurable and cannot be disabled.

Using the Administrator interface

Administrators can use the Pexip Infinity Administrator interface to either mute individual participants, or mute all Guest participants.

Muting an individual participant

To use the Pexip Infinity Administrator interface to mute a participant's audio:

1. Select the participant. You can do this in two ways:

   • Go to Status > Participants and select the participant to mute.
   • Go to Status > Conferences and select the Virtual Meeting Room or Virtual Auditorium that the participant is in. From the Participants tab, select the participant to mute.
2. At the bottom right of the screen, select Mute.

Muting all Guest participants

To use the Pexip Infinity Administrator interface to mute the audio from all Guest participants:

1. Go to Status > Conferences and select the Virtual Meeting Room or Virtual Auditorium.
2. At the bottom left of the screen, select Mute all Guests.

All Guest participants currently in the conference will be muted. Any Guest participants who subsequently join the conference using clients other than Webapp3 will be muted (Webapp3 participants will join muted or unmuted, depending on their local mute state). Individual Guest participants using clients other than Webapp3 can still be unmuted and muted by a conference Host or system administrator; Webapp3 participants can still unmute and mute themselves locally.

Using the Connect app

You must have Host privileges to use this feature.

Host participants can mute an individual participant, or mute all Guests simultaneously. Note that it does not mute the participant's speakers, so they will still hear all other unmuted participants, but what that muted participant says will not be heard.

When the Connect app is used to mute a participant, the Audio administratively muted? column of the Conference status page of the Pexip Infinity Administrator interface shows YES.

• Participants are not notified that they have been muted or unmuted, although Connect app participants see a red muted icon next to their name in the participant list.
• Participants can mute and unmute themselves using the Connect app, but only if they have Host privileges or are using Webapp3.
• A Connect app user with Host privileges can unmute a participant previously muted by another Connect app user.

Muting an individual participant

To use the Connect app to mute or unmute an individual participant's audio:

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Muting all Guest participants

To use the Connect app to mute the audio coming from all Guest participants:

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All Guest participants currently in the conference will be muted (indicated by a icon next to their name). Any Guest participants who subsequently join the conference using clients other than Webapp3 will be muted (Webapp3 participants will join muted or unmuted, depending on their local mute state). Individual Guest participants using clients other than Webapp3 can still be unmuted and muted by a conference Host or system administrator; Webapp3 participants can still unmute and mute themselves locally.

Using DTMF

If DTMF controls have been enabled:

• Host participants can mute and unmute all Guest participants by sending *5.
• Host participants that have been muted can unmute themselves via *6.

For more information, see Using a DTMF keypad to control a conference.