Configuring Pexip Infinity as a Microsoft Teams gateway

Pexip Cloud Video Interoperability (CVI) enables professional SIP and H.323 video conferencing systems to join Microsoft Teams as if they were native Microsoft clients.

It enables any video conferencing system to join Microsoft Teams meetings and allows authenticated systems to join as trusted participants without additional user interaction (i.e. lobby by-pass).

Third-party systems can connect to Teams meetings via the Infinity Gateway either via a Virtual Reception (IVR) or by dialing the conference directly.

This topic describes the configuration and administrative steps that are required within Pexip Infinity to route calls via the Teams Connector and operate as a Microsoft Teams gateway. It covers:

See Integrating Microsoft Teams with Pexip Infinity for more information about the user experience in Teams conferences.

Here are the prerequisites you must perform before configuring Pexip Infinity as a Microsoft Teams gateway.

Before configuring Pexip Infinity as a Microsoft Teams gateway, you should have:

You must have a teams license enabled on your platform (Platform > Licenses).
It allows you to configure Microsoft Azure tenants and route calls to Microsoft Teams. The teams license controls how many Azure tenants can be configured; there is no limit to the number of Teams Connectors you can install or the number of instances within each Teams Connector.

If necessary, contact your Pexip authorized support representative to purchase the required license. Note that appropriate call licenses are also required for each gateway call that is placed into a Microsoft Teams conference.

You must ensure that the Pexip Infinity client API is enabled.

Go to Platform > Global settings and in the Connectivity section ensure that Enable support for Pexip Infinity Connect clients and Client API is selected.

A Microsoft Teams tenant is a dedicated instance of Azure Active Directory (Azure AD) that your organization obtains when it signs up for a Microsoft cloud service such as Azure or Office 365. You must configure the details of your Teams tenant — your Tenant ID specifically — in Pexip Infinity and then associate your Teams tenant with your Pexip Teams Connector so that Pexip Infinity can communicate with your Teams environment.

The number of tenants you can configure is controlled by your teams license. Service providers need to obtain an appropriate number of licenses for each tenant they are managing. Multiple Teams tenants (tenant IDs) can use the same Teams Connector (you must ensure that each Tenant ID has been consented to use the Pexip CVI app).

To configure your Teams tenant:

  1. Go to Call control > Microsoft Teams Tenants and select Add Teams Tenant.

  2. Add the details of your tenant:

    Name The name that you specify here is used elsewhere in the Pexip Infinity interface when associating the tenant with a Teams Connector.
    Description An optional description of the Teams tenant.
    Teams tenant ID

    The Office 365 tenant ID where the Microsoft Teams users are homed.

    To retrieve your tenant ID from the Azure portal:

    1. Select Azure Active Directory.
    2. Under Manage, select Properties.
    3. The tenant ID is shown in the Directory ID field. You can use the Click to copy option to copy it.

    You can also check your tenant ID at https://www.whatismytenantid.com/.
  3. Select Save.

This Teams tenant is now available to associate with your Teams Connectors.

All communication between Pexip Infinity and Microsoft Teams is managed by Pexip's Teams Connector hosted in Azure.

To configure the address of your Teams Connector and decide whether to enable the Azure Event Hub (for scheduled scaling and enhanced status reporting):

  1. Go to Call control > Microsoft Teams Connectors and select Add Microsoft Teams Connector.

  2. Add the details of your Teams Connector:

    Name The name that you specify here is used elsewhere in the Pexip Infinity interface when associating the Teams Connector with a system location, Call Routing Rule or Virtual Reception.
    Description An optional description of the Teams Connector.
    Address of Teams Connector

    The FQDN of the Teams Connector to use when placing outbound calls to Microsoft Teams.

    This is the address you stored in $PxTeamsConnFqdn in the PowerShell variables initialization script, and is the FQDN (DNS name) of the Teams Connector load balancer in Azure that fronts the Teams Connector deployment e.g. pexip-teamsconn-eu.teams.example.com.
    Port The IP port to connect to on the Teams Connector.
    Teams tenant Select the Teams tenant to associate with this Teams Connector.
    Enable Azure Event Hub When enabled, this provides the ability to create scheduled scaling policies, and also provides enhanced status information for each Teams Connector node, such as call capacity and current media load.
    Azure Event Hub connection string

    When the Azure Event Hub is enabled you need to specify its connection string.

    The connection string is in the format Endpoint=sb://examplevmss-lltsgzoqun-ehn.servicebus.windows.net/;SharedAccessKeyName=pexip_teams_connector_access;SharedAccessKey=[string]

    To find this string in the Azure portal:

    1. Go to the static resource group for the Teams Connector (this has a name in the format <prefix>-TeamsConn-<region>-static-RG).
    2. Select the Event Hubs Namespace component (<name>-EHN).
    3. From the left-hand navigation menu, under Settings select Shared access policies.
    4. Select the pexip_teams_connector_access policy.

    5. Copy the Connection string–primary key.
    Minimum number of instances

    The minimum required number of instances in the Teams Connector scale set.

    This setting only applies when the Azure Event Hub is enabled, and is the number of instances that are always running when there are no scaling policies in effect (it overrides the manual scaling settings in the Azure portal). See Scheduling scaling and managing Teams Connector capacity for more information.

    If you increase this setting it can temporarily raise the "Scheduled scaling: some or all of the requested Teams Connector instances are not operational" alarm. It will last for a few minutes until the new instances are up and running. This is expected behavior and can occur with or without any scheduled scaling policies.

    Default: 1
  3. Select Save.

This Teams Connector is now available to associate with any system locations, Call Routing Rules or Virtual Receptions that you configure (as described below) to handle Teams conferences.

You can optionally configure each system location with a Teams Connector to use by default for outbound calls to Teams meetings placed from Conferencing Nodes in that location. You can also explicitly configure individual Virtual Receptions or Call Routing Rules with a Teams Connector that will override the system location's Teams Connector.

To configure a location with a Teams Connector:

  1. Go to Platform > Locations and select the required location.

  2. In the Microsoft Teams Connector field, select the required Teams Connector from the drop-down list, and then select Save.

You must configure the Call Routing Rules, and optionally the Virtual Receptions, that are required to route calls into Microsoft Teams.

There are two ways you can configure Microsoft Teams gateway calls within Pexip Infinity:

  • Routing indirectly via a Virtual Reception: here you configure Pexip Infinity to act as an IVR gateway or "lobby" by configuring a Virtual Reception to capture the Conference ID of the required conference, and then use a Call Routing Rule (typically the same rule as used for direct routing) to route the call into the Teams conference.
  • Routing directly via the Infinity Gateway: here you only use one or more Call Routing Rules to route incoming calls for specific alias patterns — that will typically include the Conference ID — directly into the relevant Teams conferences.

The Conference ID for a Teams meeting is between 9 and 12 digits long.

You will typically always configure the Virtual Reception indirect routing option, but depending on your requirements you may also choose to allow direct routing. The configuration required for these methods is explained below. Note that you always need to configure at least one Call Routing Rule whichever method(s) you use.

To route calls to Teams conferences via a Virtual Reception (IVR gateway) you need:

  • A Virtual Reception configured specifically to handle Microsoft Teams conferences.
  • A Call Routing Rule to route the calls handled by the Virtual Reception into the relevant Teams conference. Typically you would configure the Virtual Reception and Call Routing Rule patterns so that the same rule can also support direct routing if required.

The Virtual Reception requests the caller to enter the Teams Conference ID which it then sends to the Teams Connector for verification. You can then optionally transform the Conference ID to meet any dial plan requirements, before the Infinity Gateway then matches the (optionally transformed) Conference ID and routes the caller to the appropriate Teams conference.

The Virtual Reception details you enter here must correspond to the "Alternate VTC dialing instructions" that you specified in the InstructionUri switch in the New-CsVideoInteropServiceProvider command when installing the Teams Connector (see Authorize trusted app to bypass Teams lobby and configure dialing instructions).

To configure the Virtual Reception:

  1. Go to Services > Virtual Receptions and select Add Virtual Reception.

  2. Configure the following fields (leave all other fields with default values or as required for your specific deployment):

    Option Description
    Name The name you will use to refer to this Virtual Reception, for example "Microsoft Teams IVR gateway".
    Theme If required, assign a customized theme to this Virtual Reception to brand it as the gateway to Teams conferences, for example by customizing the voice prompts or changing the appearance of the Virtual Reception splash screen.
    Virtual Reception type Select Microsoft Teams.
    Teams Connector

    Select the name of the Teams Connector to use to resolve Teams codes.
    Lookup location

    Specify the location that contains the Conferencing Nodes (typically Proxying Edge Nodes) that will communicate with the Teams Connector. These are the nodes referenced in the $PxNodeFqdns variable in the initialization script.
    Alias (#1)

    Enter the alias that users will dial to use this Virtual Reception to place calls into Teams conferences.

    This must correspond to the ivr and d parameters that were specified in the InstructionUri switch in the New-CsVideoInteropServiceProvider command when installing the Teams Connector, i.e. the alias of the Virtual Reception is ivr@d, for example teams@example.com.

  3. If you have specified the ip parameter in the InstructionUri switch in the New-CsVideoInteropServiceProvider command when installing the Teams Connector, then you must specify that IP address as an alias of this Virtual Reception.

    Select Add another Alias and add Alias (#2).

    Alias (#2) This must be the same IP address of the Conferencing Node that is specified in the ip parameter, e.g. 198.51.100.40.
  4. Select Save.

To configure the associated Call Routing Rule:

  • Configure the Call Routing Rule as described below for direct and indirect routing.
  • If you want to use a different rule for routing via a Virtual Reception than the rules you want to use for direct routing (e.g. because you want to limit the supported incoming call protocols), then follow the same principles as the direct routing rule, but use different alias patterns in your Virtual Reception's Post-lookup regex replace string and your rule's Destination alias regex match string.

You need to create at least one Call Routing Rule, regardless of whether you are using indirect routing, direct routing, or both. The rule(s) must match the alias that has been captured — and probably transformed — by the Virtual Reception (for indirect routing) or match the alias originally dialed by the meeting participant (for direct routing).

Setting up direct routing

As with indirect routing, if you want to route calls to Teams conferences directly via the Infinity Gateway you need:

  • To decide on an alias pattern that participants will dial to access the Teams conferences. The alias pattern will typically include the 9 to 12-digit Conference ID, for example the pattern could be just <conference ID> or <conference ID>@<domain>, for example 234567890@example.com to access a Teams conference with a Conference ID of 234567890.
    See Dial plan conflicts if you have a more complicated dial plan to consider.
  • A Call Routing Rule that matches that alias pattern and, if necessary, transforms it such that it contains just the Teams Conference ID which it can then use to connect to the conference.

Setting up the rule for direct and indirect routing

In the examples used here, the alias pattern that the rule needs to match is <conference ID> or <conference ID>@<domain> in both the indirect and direct routing scenarios. For direct routing this is the alias format that is dialed, and for indirect routing it is simply the Conference ID that is captured by the Virtual Reception.

The other consideration you must make when configuring your rule is whether the participant is trusted and therefore can be admitted directly into the Teams meeting (bypassing the Teams lobby) or whether the participant is untrusted and therefore has to be admitted into the meeting by an existing participant (held in the Teams lobby). You can decide to treat all participants as either trusted or untrusted if that is appropriate for your environment.

If you need to distinguish between trusted and untrusted participants, you must set up at least two Call Routing Rules where, typically, the first rule is configured to match participants who meet your trusted criteria, and the second rule could simply be those participants who did not match the first rule (and are therefore untrusted). The rule configuration options that you are most likely to use to determine whether it is a trusted participant or not are:

  • Calls being handled in location: participants who are on an internal network for example, and whose calls are being handled by Conferencing Nodes in specific locations could be considered as trusted. Calls being received by Conferencing Nodes in locations that receive calls from an outside network or DMZ could be treated as external guest participants and thus not trusted.
  • Match incoming calls from registered devices only: you could choose to trust any call being placed from a device that is registered to Pexip Infinity.

For rules configured to match against trusted participants, you should enable the rule's Treat as trusted option, which would cause Pexip Infinity to route the call directly into the Teams meeting (see Authorize app to bypass Teams lobby and configure dialing instructions for more information). The call is held in the meeting lobby if the rule does not have Treat as trusted enabled.

The other important rule configuration option to consider is:

  • Priority: a number that determines the order in which the rules attempt to match the properties of the incoming call. Rules are processed in ascending number order, therefore, for example, you should ensure that any rules with Match incoming calls from registered devices only selected have a higher priority (lower number) than those rules where it is not selected. This is to avoid the call matching first against the "not selected" rule if all of the other rule settings are the same. Pexip Infinity's rule matching logic stops as soon as a matching rule is found, and this is why we recommend that your higher priority rules handle the "trusted" matching criteria first.

    You can configure multiple "trusted" rules and multiple "untrusted" rules if necessary — if you have a complicated dial plan, for example, but we always recommended that you give your "trusted" rules a higher priority (lower number).

To configure your Call Routing Rules:

  1. Go to Services > Call routing and select Add Call Routing Rule.

  2. The following table shows the fields to configure for your Call Routing Rule, and shows example values for three rules:

    • Rule #1: treats all devices on your enterprise network (handled by Conferencing Nodes in your "Internal network" location) as trusted.
    • Rule #2: treats any device that is registered to Pexip Infinity as trusted (regardless of the source location of the call).
    • Rule #3: treats any other call (not matching rule #1 or rule #2) as coming from an untrusted device.

    (Leave all other fields with default values or as required for your specific deployment.)

    Option Description Rule #1 Rule #2 Rule #3
    Name The name you will use to refer to this rule. "Enterprise network" "Registered devices" "Unknown / guest"
    Priority Assign the priority for this rule. 20 40 60
    Incoming gateway calls Ensure this option is selected. ☑ ☑ ☑
    Outgoing calls from a conference Leave unselected. ☐ ☐ ☐
    Calls being handled in location

    Applies the rule only if the incoming call is being handled by a Conferencing Node in the selected location.

    To apply the rule regardless of the location, select Any Location.

    		 "Internal network" location Any location Any location
    Match incoming calls from registered devices only Select this option if you want this rule to only apply to calls placed from devices that are registered to Pexip Infinity. You will typically use this option in conjunction with the rule's Treat as trusted setting. ☐ ☑ ☐
    Match Infinity Connect
    Match SIP
    Match Lync / Skype for Business (MS-SIP) /
    Match H.323

    Select one or more of Match Infinity Connect (WebRTC / RTMP), Match SIP, Match Lync / Skype for Business (MS-SIP) and Match H.323 as appropriate, depending on which types of systems/protocols you want to offer interoperability into Teams.

    		 Select these options as appropriate
    Match against full alias URI Leave unselected. ☐ ☐ ☐
    Destination alias regex match

    Enter a regular expression that will match the calls to be sent to a Teams conference.

    For example, to match an alias in the form <conference ID> or <conference ID>@example.com, you could use:

    (\d{9,12})(@example\.com)?

    (Note that Teams Conference IDs are between 9 and 12 digits long. Putting ( )? around the @domain part of the regex makes that part of the dial string optional.)

    		 (\d{9,12})(@example\.com)?
    Destination alias regex replace string

    If required, enter the regular expression string to transform the originally dialed (matched) alias into the 9 to 12-digit Conference ID to use to place the call into the Teams conference. If you do not need to change the alias, leave this field blank.

    When used with the example Destination alias regex match shown above you would use:

    \1

    which would extract just the <conference ID> element of the alias.

    		 \1
    Call capability

    To support incoming calls via SIP, H.323 and WebRTC/RTMP, Same as incoming call is recommended as this makes the most efficient use of Pexip Infinity resources.

    If you also want to support calls from Skype for Business / Lync, then you should select Main video + presentation instead to ensure that any SfB/Lync participants are able to escalate from audio-only to a video call after joining the conference (alternatively you can configure a separate rule just for matching incoming calls from Skype for Business / Lync and set that rule to use Main video + presentation).

    		 Select these options as appropriate
    Maximum call quality

    Controls the maximum call quality for participants connecting to this service:

    • Use global setting: use the global maximum call quality setting.
    • SD: each participant is limited to SD quality.
    • HD: each participant is limited to HD (720p) quality.
    • Full HD (1080p): allows any endpoint capable of Full HD to send and receive its main video at 1080p.

    Default: Use global setting

    See Setting and limiting call quality for more information.

    		 Select these options as appropriate
    Theme If required, assign a customized theme to this rule (which will then be used for callers that use this rule to gateway into Teams). For example, the theme could use alternative labels on some of the splash screens that are displayed when connecting to a conference. You can also customize and enable the in-lobby and mute notifications, or the in-conference DTMF/keypad layout control options. Select these options as appropriate
    Call target Select Microsoft Teams meeting. Microsoft Teams meeting
    Outgoing location

    Specify the location that contains the Conferencing Nodes (typically Proxying Edge Nodes) that will communicate with the Teams Connector. These are the nodes referenced in the $PxNodeFqdns variable in the initialization script.

    		 Select the location that contains the Conferencing Nodes that are referenced in the $PxNodeFqdns variable in the initialization script
    Teams Connector

    You can optionally select the Teams Connector you want to handle the call. If you do not specify anything, the Teams Connector associated with the outgoing location is used.

    		 Leave unselected
    Treat as trusted

    Select Treat as trusted if you want Teams to treat the devices routed via this rule as part of the target organization for trust purposes.

    Typically you will select this option if the rule is handling devices that are trusted from Pexip Infinity's perspective, for example, you could treat the device as trusted if the caller is coming from a specific location, or if the device is registered to Pexip Infinity.

    Trusted participants are automatically admitted into a Teams conference.

    		 ☑ ☑ ☐
    External participant avatar lookup

    This determines whether or not the Teams Connector requests from Exchange Online an avatar for each participant in the Teams conference.

    • Use global setting: use the global external participant avatar lookup setting.
    • Yes: request the participant avatar from Exchange Online via the Teams Connector.
    • No: use default avatar behavior.

    Default: Use global setting

    		 Select these options as appropriate
  3. Select Save.
  4. Repeat the above steps adding your second and subsequent rules as appropriate.

Using the Microsoft Teams IVR gateway service

After the Virtual Reception and Call Routing Rule have been configured, third-party systems and devices can now dial the alias of the Virtual Reception (e.g. teams@example.com) and then, when prompted by the IVR service, enter the Conference ID of the Teams conference they want to join. The Infinity Gateway will then route the call into the appropriate Teams conference.

Using the direct gateway service

After the Call Routing Rule has been configured, third-party systems and devices can now dial an alias that matches your specified pattern (e.g. 234567890@example.com) to be routed directly into the appropriate Teams conference (in this example the conference with a Conference ID of 234567890).

Dial plan conflicts

If the 9 to 12-digit Teams Conference ID and <conference ID>@<domain> style aliases might overlap with your existing dial plan, you can use something more specific for your aliases such as teams.<conference ID>@<domain> i.e. "teams." followed by the Conference ID and then the domain of your Pexip Infinity platform, for example teams.234567890@example.com.

In this case you would need to make the following adjustments to your Virtual Reception and Call Routing Rules (based on our examples above):

  • In your Virtual Reception:

    • set Post-lookup regex match to (.*)
    • set Post lookup regex replace string to teams.\1@example.com

    which will match everything entered into the Virtual Reception (which will be the Conference ID), and then prefix it with "teams." and append the "@example.com" domain, thus creating an alias in the form teams.<conference ID>@<domain>.

    For example, if the caller enters 121212121 into the Virtual Reception the post-lookup match and replace strings shown here will convert that into teams.121212121@example.com which then needs to be matched by your Call Routing Rule.

  • In your Call Routing Rule(s):

    • set Destination alias regex match to teams\.(\d{9,12})@example\.com
    • leave Destination alias regex replace string set to \1

    which will match the alias pattern produced by the Virtual Reception and the new extended direct routing alias format.

With these changes, callers dialing the meeting directly would need to use this extended format of teams.<conference ID>@<domain>, but there is no change to callers going indirectly via the Virtual Reception (they would still dial teams@example.com and then enter the Conference ID as before).

You also need to configure a different set of "Alternate VTC dialing instructions" to use the prefix parameter to append "teams." to the displayed direct-dial addresses. In this case, our example New-CsVideoInteropServiceProvider command would look like this:

New-CsVideoInteropServiceProvider -Name Pexip -TenantKey "teams@example.com" -InstructionUri "https://px.vc.example.com/teams/?conf={ConfId}&ivr=teams&d=example.com&ip=198.51.100.40&test=test_call&prefix=teams.&w" -AllowAppGuestJoinsAsAuthenticated $true -AadApplicationIds "c054d1cb-7961-48e1-b004-389e81356232"

If you have already configured the dialing instructions webpage, you can use the Set-CsVideoInteropServiceProvider command to amend it (see Changing the alternative dialing instructions or IVR address).

VTC participants see Pexip's standard 1+7 layout by default, but this can be changed to use other layouts. Meeting participants can also use DTMF/keypad controls to control the meeting layout during an ongoing conference.

Setting the default layout

Pexip's 1+7 layout is used by default for VTC participants within a Teams meeting, however this default can be changed to any of the other supported layouts.

The easiest way to change the default layout for all Teams gateway calls is to use local policy. This method also lets you control other layout options, such as the display of participant names, if required. You could, for example, use local policy to set the default layout to Adaptive Composition and then use one of the methods described below to dynamically change the layout to something else when and if required.

Note that the Teams Connector can only receive a maximum of 9 video streams from Teams, so, with the exception of the Adaptive Composition layout, you should not choose a layout that supports more than 9 participants.

This example local policy script enables the display of participant names and selects Adaptive Composition as the initial layout for all Microsoft Teams gateway calls:

Copy to clipboard 
{
  {% if service_config and service_config.service_type == "gateway" and service_config.called_device_type == "teams_conference" %}
    "action" : "continue",
    "result" : {{service_config|pex_update({"enable_overlay_text": true, "view":"five_mains_seven_pips"})|pex_to_json}}
  {% elif service_config %}
    "action" : "continue",
    "result" : {{service_config|pex_to_json}}
  {% else %}
    "action" : "reject",
    "result" : {}
  {% endif %}
}

If you want to apply the policy to a specific Call Routing Rule you can test against service_config.name (the Name of the rule), for example: service_config.name == "name of routing rule"

To use the 4 + 0 layout with Teams you would use: "view":"four_mains_zero_pips".

All of the layout names for the view setting are listed here.

Teams-like layout

To use the Teams-like layout you must use "view":"teams" and also enable the overlay text and active speaker indicators, as shown in the following script:

Copy to clipboard 
{
 {% if service_config and service_config.service_type == "gateway" and service_config.called_device_type == "teams_conference" %}
  "action" : "continue",
  "result" : {{service_config|pex_update({"enable_overlay_text": true, "view":"teams", "enable_active_speaker_indication":"true"})|pex_to_json}}
 {% elif service_config %}
  "action" : "continue",
  "result" : {{service_config|pex_to_json}}
 {% else %}
  "action" : "reject",
  "result" : {}
 {% endif %}
}

Note that:

  • The layout cannot be customized via themes.
  • It has the same hardware resource usage requirements as the Adaptive Composition layout.
  • This layout is a technology preview feature, and is only recommended for use with Teams gateway calls.

See Using external and local policy to control Pexip Infinity behavior for full details of how to implement a local policy script.

Dynamically changing the layout during a conference

The most convenient way for a VTC participant to control the layout during a conference is to use DTMF/keypad commands directly from their endpoint. This allows the user to select which layout they receive, and to control how presentation content is displayed.

By default the layout changes every time the endpoint sends *8 to the conference, and it cycles through all of the available Pexip layout types in this order: 1+7, Adaptive Composition, 1+21, 2+21, 2x2, 3x3, 4x4, 5x5, 1+0, 1+33.

However, some of these layouts are unsuitable for use with Teams as they support more video streams than can be received by Pexip Infinity from Teams, and would result in "broken camera" images being displayed.

Therefore we recommend that you customize this behavior via themes: the DTMF/keypad controls that are suitable for use in a Teams conference, and the sequence in which the layouts are displayed (by pressing *8), can all be customized by setting up your own theme in Pexip Infinity.

Here is an example theme configuration file (themeconfig.json) that is suitable for use with a Teams conference:

Copy to clipboard 
{
  "theme_version": 2,
  "dtmf_conference_control_commands": {
  "*4": "toggle_pres_in_mix",
  "*6": "toggle_self_mute",
  "*8": "cycle_layout",
  "*9": "toggle_multiscreen"
  },
  "dtmf_allowed_layouts": ["1:7", "ac", "2x2", "3x3", "1:0"]
}

This theme would override the default behavior and limit the DTMF controls to the following options that are relevant to a VTC connected to a Teams conference:

  • *4 command: toggles whether the presentation stream is sent to that endpoint in the main video mix (replacing some of the other video participants), or as a separate stream
  • *6 command: toggles the mute status of the participant
  • *8 command: cycles the layout through the set of available layouts as defined in dtmf_allowed_layouts
  • *9 command: toggles multiscreen participant display

It also limits the available layouts to Adaptive Composition ("ac") plus the other Pexip layouts that have a maximum of 9 or fewer video participants. If required, you can adapt the list to change the order, or to further reduce the available layouts by removing the layout types you do not want to use. See Layout examples for more information about the layout types.

You can then apply this theme to your Call Routing Rule(s) used to route calls into Teams (or you can set it as your default theme if appropriate for your deployment).

Note that:

  • You cannot use the Pexip branding portal to create your theme configuration file (themeconfig.json). You have to manually create your own theme configuration file (using the example above as the basis for this) and package it into a theme ZIP file. See Rules and requirements for customized themes for more information.
  • If multiple endpoints are gatewayed into the same Teams conference then they will all start with the same default layout, but any commands to change the layout received by the endpoint only apply to the endpoint issuing the commands.
  • If you switch from a less resource-intensive layout (such as "1+7") to a more resource-intensive layout (such as "ac") this will consume additional Conferencing Node CPU resources.

See Example themes below for links to some example downloadable theme files.

Other layout control options

You can also use the Pexip APIs to control the layout:

  • Client API: you can use the client API (typically via the Connect web app) to dynamically change the layout applied to a Teams gateway call. This involves using the transform_layout function with the client REST API or the transformLayout function with the PexRTC JavaScript client API.
  • Management API: you can use the transform_layout management API command.
  • Cisco endpoint macros: Cisco endpoints can use Pexip's Layout Controls macro that allows you to dynamically change the layout.

Using Adaptive Composition in a Teams conference

When Adaptive Composition is used with a Teams conference:

  • Up to 9 video participants are shown in the Adaptive Composition layout seen by VTC participants.
  • Each participant's video that is received from Teams for display to VTC participants is cropped and framed as appropriate.
  • The VTC participant's video stream sent to Teams is cropped and framed as appropriate.
  • Audio participant avatars are not supported.
  • Inactive video participants are not removed from the video layout.
  • Raised hand indicators are not supported.
  • Spotlighting is not supported.

You can customize the notifications that are displayed to gatewayed VTC participants when somebody is waiting in the Teams lobby, and you can also enable and customize the "Your mic has been muted" watermark icon that is displayed during a conference. You do this by customizing the theme that is associated with the Call Routing Rules used for direct and indirect routing.

The following tables describe the relevant theme elements you can customize.

Settings in the themeconfig.json file:

Name Content in Base theme Usage guidance
disable_conference_locked_indicator false Set this to true if you want to disable the in-lobby notifications.
conference_locked_indicator_text Conference locked

This is displayed when somebody enters the Teams lobby or there is a change in the count of waiting participants.

We suggest you change it to something more appropriate, such as "Action required".

conference_locked_indicator_n_waiting_text

{number_of_waiting_participants} waiting for host

This is also displayed when somebody enters the Teams lobby or there is a change in the count of waiting participants.

We suggest you change it to something more appropriate, such as "{number_of_waiting_participants} waiting in lobby".
conference_unlocked_indicator_text Conference unlocked

This is displayed when the lobby is empty (everybody has been admitted, rejected, or left the lobby).

We suggest you change it to something more appropriate, such as "The lobby is empty".
disable_watermark_mute_icon true Set this to false if you want to enable the "Your mic has been muted" notifications which are shown to a conference participant who is administratively muted.

For example, to implement the text label changes suggested above, and to enable muted indicators, you would configure your themeconfig.json file with:

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{
  "theme_version": 2, 
  "conference_locked_indicator_n_waiting_text": "{number_of_waiting_participants} waiting in lobby", 
  "conference_locked_indicator_text": "Action required", 
  "conference_unlocked_indicator_text": "The lobby is empty",
  "disable_watermark_mute_icon": false
}

In-conference graphic indicators:

File name Content in Base theme Usage guidance
icon_conference_locked.svg Used in conjunction with the conference_locked_indicator_text and conference_locked_indicator_n_waiting_text labels when people are in the Teams lobby.
icon_conference_unlocked.svg Used in conjunction with the conference_unlocked_indicator_text when the lobby becomes empty.
watermark_mute_icon.png Used in conjunction with the disable_watermark_mute_icon setting, and is displayed when a conference participant is administratively muted.

Audio files:

File name Content in Base theme Usage guidance

conf-participant_locked_out_48Khz_mono.wav

 Three knocks This is played to VTC participants when people are in the Teams lobby.

Example themes

We have provided some example themes that you can download from https://dl.pexip.com/resources/themes/index.html.

An example theme zip file, containing suggested themeconfig.json file settings for the in-lobby and mute notification, and some alternative svg graphics files for the locked/unlocked indicators is available in lock-mute-indicator-theme.zip. The indicators in the example theme look like this:

Another example theme, lock-mute-indicator-dtmf-theme.zip, extends the previous theme by including the recommended subset of DTMF commands that may be used to control a Teams conference.

See Rules and requirements for customized themes for more information on customizing themes.

You need to ensure that the endpoints and systems you want to gateway into Microsoft Teams can call into Pexip Infinity Conferencing Nodes, and that Conferencing Nodes can call out to Microsoft Teams.

This section contains additional interoperability and deployment feature information.
  • Each participant who is gatewayed via Pexip Infinity into a Teams conference consumes two call licenses (one for the inbound leg of the call and one for the outbound leg, as is standard for calls via the Infinity Gateway). Any external participants who are connected directly to the Teams conference do not consume a license. See Pexip Infinity license installation and usage for more information.

  • Bi-directional content sharing is supported between VTCs and Teams clients via VbSS:

    • A Teams client can only share its screen or a window with a VTC system; Excel Live, PowerPoint Live, OneDrive and whiteboard sharing is not currently supported.
    • If a VTC starts sharing content while it is held in the Teams lobby, when the VTC is admitted to the meeting the presentation will not be visible to the other participants in the meeting. The VTC participant would need to restart content sharing after being admitted into the meeting.

  • A CVI participant's ability to share content in a Teams meeting depends on their role (Presenter or Attendee) in the meeting, and the "Who can present" setting in the meeting options:

    • A trusted CVI participant is always given a Presenter role in the Teams meeting (and thus can present). However, you can subsequently change that specific participant's role if required.
    • An untrusted CVI participant joins the meeting with the Presenter role only if the "Who can present" meeting setting is Everyone, otherwise it joins as an Attendee and cannot present.
    • If a CVI participant is an Attendee and attempts to share content from their endpoint, the sharing request is denied and the attendee is informed via a message on their endpoint such as "Sharing failed" (the exact message depends on the endpoint, and some endpoints may not display a message at all).
  • Pexip provides the participant's display name if it is provided by the participant's device. This is independent of whether the device is trusted or not. If a display name is not provided, Pexip uses the device's SIP URI. Note that many devices use the system name as its display name. However, some older systems might choose, for example, to only provide the first part of the SIP URI (the part before the '@') as the display name.
  • If a participant in a Teams meeting is spotlighted by a Teams client, that participant is also spotlighted in the layout presented to any gatewayed VTC system (except when using an Adaptive Composition layout).
  • VTC endpoints that are gatewayed into a Teams meeting may sometimes be asked to send lower quality video (such as 180p). In these scenarios, even though Pexip Infinity / Teams Connector can support higher resolutions (and offers the higher resolutions to Teams), the video resolution requested by Teams can be lower — hence Pexip Infinity / Teams Connector sends the video format that Teams has requested. This is an operational behavior aspect of Teams and is beyond the control of Pexip software.

  • The Teams Connector requests from Exchange Online an avatar for each participant in the conference. This avatar is used:

    • to represent any audio-only participant within the VTC's conference layout (replacing Pexip's standard audio indicator )
    • in the participant profile in the Connect app roster.

    If the avatar request fails (the participant is not found in Exchange Online, or has no avatar) then a substitute graphic is generated based on the initials of the participant's name.

  • Teams users joining with PSTN audio (callback and manual dial-in):

    • If a Teams user chooses to get a callback from the meeting to their PSTN device (instead of using computer audio) the user appears in the Pexip layout as a video participant and also as an audio-only participant with the avatar of that user. However, the video participant does not get voice-switched into main view when they speak.
    • If a Teams user selects "manual dial-in" they appear in the Pexip layout as an audio-only participant without that user's avatar as that audio participant has no association with the Teams user (and is also separate from any video connection).
  • You cannot limit the Maximum outbound call bandwidth (the call leg towards the Teams Connector) — it is managed automatically by Pexip Infinity.
  • If the Teams conference is recorded, recording indicators are included in the video stream sent to gatewayed participants.