What's new in version 26?

The Adaptive Composition layout contains improvements to the process of removing and restoring inactive video participants in the video mix:

• There is a new inactive video participants indicator . This shows the number of inactive video participants who are excluded from the video layout, including any Infinity Connect participants who have muted their video. Previously these participants were included in the count of audio-only participants.

• Inactive participants are more quickly returned to the video layout when they are detected or become active again, removing the need for having to speak to be returned to the mix.

  • Web app participants: any activity in the web app, such as speaking or moving the mouse, instantly triggers a face-detection check.
  • Endpoint participants: now performs a face-detection check every 30 seconds, as well as when the participant speaks.

Other enhancements in this release:

• The Adaptive Composition layout can now be used in Virtual Auditoriums (in addition to Virtual Meeting Rooms).
• Support for Adaptive Composition in Pexip's Cloud Video Interop (CVI) integration with Microsoft Teams (see below).

Other (non-Adaptive Composition) layouts now also remove Infinity Connect participants from the layout mix if they mute their video:

• These are shown with a separate indicator on the left-hand side of the screen, and works in the same manner as for existing audio-only participant indicators.
• Up to 4 audio-only or muted-video indicators are displayed before they are collapsed into a single indicator.

Pexip's Cloud Video Interop (CVI) integration with Microsoft Teams has been enhanced:

• VTC systems that are gatewayed into a Teams meeting now see notification messages when an untrusted VTC or guest Teams client is waiting in the Teams lobby:

  • The messages are for information only — the VTC system cannot admit people into the meeting.
  • The notifications use Pexip Infinity's existing locked conference indicators, so the messages and indicators can be customized via themes in the usual way.

Other changes and improvements to the Teams Connector include:

• The ability to optionally specify a set of tags (name-value pairs) to apply to the Azure resources that are created for the Teams Connector. This uses a new $tags variable in the PowerShell variables initialization script.

• The redeploy/upgrade script now removes the dynamic Azure resource groups for you (those named <prefix>-TeamsConn-<region>-RG that contain the existing Teams Connector instances). This means you no longer have to perform this step manually via the Azure portal when upgrading or redeploying.

• Support for Adaptive Composition layout (technology preview)

  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 currently supported.

  The default layout for Teams meetings is still Pexip's standard 1+7 layout, but you can change this to Adaptive Composition via policy or via the transform layout management or client API commands.

• Version 26 of the Teams Connector contains updates that necessitate an upgrade to your Pexip platform to ensure compatibility with the latest updates to the Microsoft Teams APIs and to the Teams Connector's latest features.

We strongly recommend that you upgrade your Pexip deployment — both the Pexip Infinity platform and the Pexip Teams Connector — to version 26 as soon as practicable.

Integrating Microsoft Teams with Pexip Infinity

Configuring the layout seen by VTC participants

Customizing the in-lobby notifications

Upgrading the Teams Connector to the latest software

This release contains the following WebRTC enhancements:

• Improved video and audio resilience in lossy networks.
• Improved resilience and image quality for full-motion and still image presentation (now uses H.264).

Pexip's Epic telehealth integration contains the following new features:

• Epic telehealth patients can now launch their video visit via a join link sent by email or SMS text message.
• Pexip Infinity administrators can configure how the conference/appointment name is constructed via a new Service name template profile field.
• Pexip Infinity administrators can configure the content of the error page shown to users if a telehealth call launch fails via a new Error page template for launch failures profile field.

• There is a new One-Touch Join rule available to support invitations to Microsoft Teams meetings sent from domains other than your own, where the meeting organizer is using a Cisco — Teams integration.
• There is a new option for Zoom meetings to include the meeting password in the alias used to join the meeting, so that users do not need to enter the password themselves.

* Technology preview only

A new 1 + 33 layout is available.

This layout is suitable for large conferences. It displays 1 small main speaker and up to 33 other participants. (It can be enabled for selection via Platform > Global settings > Tech preview features).

This release contains the following administrative improvements:

• There is a new icon_video_muted.svg graphic (video_muted_indicator.png in legacy version 1 themes), which is used in non-Adaptive Composition layouts when a muted video participant is excluded from the video layout.

• In license management, if you select an existing license there is now an option to manually return the license (in addition to the existing online return option).

• Quicker reboot times when restarting a Conferencing Node on the same hardware due to faster sampling.

The use of HTTP Content-Security-Policy (CSP) headers on Conferencing Nodes has changed:

• CSP headers are now enabled by default on new and upgraded deployments (previously disabled by default).
• You can now enable or disable HTTP Content-Security-Policy headers, and modify the header contents, via the Administrator interface (Platform > Global settings > Security).
• The option in the security wizard to enable/disable CSP headers has been removed.
• The default CSP header content is unchanged from previous releases.

• The security wizard also contains the following new options:

  • Enable Referrer-Policy: same-origin on HTTP responses (default = yes)
  • Enable X-Frame-Options: DENY (yes)
  • Enable preload in HSTS header (no)

About global settings

Deploying Pexip Infinity in a secure mode of operation

Pexip Infinity version 26 behaves differently from prior versions in its handling of X-Forwarded-For headers in its break-in resistance checking.

Installations that use reverse proxies in conjunction with the break-in resistance options in Pexip Infinity need to take action after upgrading to v26:

• A new option in version 26 lets you define "Allow list address" entries that are exempt from break-in resistance checks (Call control > Break-In attempt allow list).
• You must create an allow list address with an Entry type of Proxy that contains the apparent IP address (from Pexip Infinity's perspective) for all trusted reverse proxies or HTTP(S) load balancers in use in your deployment. This allows Pexip Infinity to process the X-Forwarded-For header entries and, in turn, means that the break-in resistance features will work correctly to block malicious attackers who attempt to attack the Pexip Infinity deployment via the reverse proxy.
• You may also choose to add trusted call control systems (such as H.323 gatekeepers and SIP proxies e.g. Cisco VCS systems) to the allow list to prevent those IP addresses from ever being temporarily blocked by Pexip Infinity.

If you have previously disabled the break-in resistance features due to the attacks being blocked too aggressively, you may find that you can now find a balanced configuration that allows you to enable the feature and maintain a good level of protection against SIP scanners etc. but, with judicious use of the new Allow List feature, a significantly reduced risk of accidentally blocking legitimate users from accessing Pexip Infinity.

When setting up the Active Directory (AD) application and permissions to be used by Pexip Infinity to start up and shut down the Conferencing Node overflow instances, we now recommend using the Virtual Machine Contributor built-in role (previously DevTest Labs User).

If you have created your own custom role you should add the Microsoft.Compute/virtualMachines/powerOff/action permission to it.

If the powerOff action permission is not assigned you may temporarily see a "Not authorized to perform this operation" alarm, but the virtual machine will still get successfully deallocated.

This release contains the following administrative modifications:

• You no longer have to select a Telehealth Profile when configuring a Call Routing Rule for Epic telehealth integrations (this field previously had no effect and was just for your own information). The rule's call target option has also been renamed from Epic Telehealth profile to Epic Telehealth meeting.

Configuring Pexip Infinity to integrate with Epic telehealth

Each person in the Participant list now has an additional icon displayed if that participant is connected as audio-only, is a video-muted Infinity Connect participant, or is inactive, for example, if they are away from the computer (and thus their face cannot be detected in their video stream):

where the indicators represent:

Muted video or inactive (away)

Connected via audio only

There are more bandwidth selection options available in Settings > Bandwidth. You can now choose from Very Low (up to 256kbps), Low (up to 576kbps), Medium (up to 1264kbps), High (up to 2464kbps), or Very High (up to 6144kbps).

The default is Medium (up to 1264kbps).

By default the "raise hand" feature is only available in Virtual Auditoriums. There is a new raiseHandInVMR customization option in the settings.json file in a web app branding package that can be used to also enable the feature in Virtual Meeting Rooms.