New features and improvements in this release

The new features and enhancements included in Pexip Infinity version 35 are described below.

This topic covers the Pexip Infinity platform; for new features in the latest release of the Connect web app see the Connect web app release notes.

Pexip Infinity platform

Feature Description More information
SSO for administrators via OIDC You can now enable single sign-on (SSO) via an OpenID Connect (OIDC) provider to authenticate and authorize user accounts connecting to the Pexip Infinity Administrator interface. Using OIDC, you can allow multiple users to administer the platform and assign different privileges to specific groups of users. You can also use the OIDC provider's capabilities to enforce multi-factor authentication (MFA) of users accessing the administrator interface.

Managing administrator access via OIDC

Authentication overview

Pinning participants to prominent positions in a layout * Participant pinning allows you to place and lock specific participants in the most prominent positions in a layout when a conference is in progress. Pinning participants to the layout during a conference
Portrait mode support for WebRTC devices now fully supported Any WebRTC device requesting a preferred aspect ratio of less than 1 (such as 9:16) receives a layout specifically designed for a portrait display. This is now a fully supported feature and is enabled by default (it was technology preview in previous releases). Portrait layouts
Sending a banner message to all conference participants

You can send a banner message that is displayed at the top of the screen to all conference participants. It is supported in Virtual Meeting Rooms and Virtual Auditoriums, and in all layouts.

 Sending a banner message to all participants
New "1+1" conference layout

A new "1+1" conference layout is available. It displays one large main speaker with one overlaying participant.

 Conference layouts and speaker names
Custom layouts: watermark position When configuring a custom layout you can now specify within the layout's JSON file where to position the watermark. Custom layouts
Participant timeout now applies to gateway calls The Last participant backstop timeout setting (Platform > Global settings > Service configuration) now also applies to Microsoft Teams / Google Meet gateway calls. About global settings
Teams Connector enhancements: Teams-like layout framing improvements, CVI app certificate expiration alarm

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

  • The Teams-like layout has improved framing logic.
  • An alarm is now raised in Pexip Infinity if the CVI app certificate is due to expire, or has expired.

Pexip now recommends the use of a blue-green deployment model for Teams Connectors to make upgrades easier and minimize downtime.

Note that version 35 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 35 as soon as practicable.
Direct media: new VMR option to always use direct media When configuring direct media (end-to-end encrypted calls) on a VMR, you now have the option to make all calls always use direct media i.e. to always limit all calls in that VMR to two WebRTC participants. Direct media (end-to-end encrypted calls)
Participant policy improvements: display count and call tag override, and assign spotlight

There are several improvements to participant policy:

  • There is a new display count configuration option which allows the display count (the number of screens possessed by the endpoint) to be overridden. This could be used, for example, to override multiscreen participant display.
  • You can now override the call tag that is assigned to a participant.
  • You can specify a spotlight priority value to a participant.
 Participant configuration responses
Ducking controls in Pexip Secure Meetings for Justice (Human Interpreter)

Ducking reduces the volume of certain participants when another participant is speaking. If a participant is set to prominent, the audio of all non-prominent participants will be ducked when the prominent participant is speaking.

Ducking is for use as part of the Human Interpreter feature in Pexip Secure Meetings for Justice deployments only, and can be controlled from participant policy, or the client REST API with the new functions receive_from_audio_mix and send_to_audio_mixes.

Pexip Secure Meetings for Justice

Participant configuration responses

Pexip client REST API

Writing local policy scripts

Improvements to the Guests see other Guests control for Virtual Auditoriums

This setting controls whether Guests see other Guests during a Virtual Auditorium.
Previous setting options were Yes or No to Guests seeing other Guests when the last Host left the conference. These have now been replaced with the following options:

  • If no hosts are present (default): Guests see other guests only if no other Hosts are present.
  • Always: Guests are always shown to other Guests (if there is space in the layout after Hosts).
  • Never: Guests never see other Guests.

Note that this setting still does not effect the behavior at the start of a meeting — Guests always still see the "Waiting for the host" screen.

Changes to local/external policy:

The data type of the Virtual Meeting Room / Virtual Auditorium service type response field guests_can_see_guests has changed from a boolean to a string.

  • true is now no_hosts. This is the default. Guests see other Guests only if no other Hosts are present.
  • false is now never. Guests never see other Guests.
  • always is a new option. Guests are always shown to other Guests, if there is space in the layout after Hosts.

If you are currently providing a value for guests_can_see_guests then you need to revise your policy response to use the new data type / values.

 Configuring Virtual Auditoriums
One-Touch Join support for manually configured EWS URL Previously, the One-Touch Join feature used Exchange Autodiscover to determine the EWS URL(s) for the mailboxes it needed to read. Now there is an option to bypass Autodiscover and manually specify the EWS URL to use for all mailboxes in a given OTJ Exchange Integration. EWS URL
Teams SIP Guest Join usage information available in PCC When configuring a One-Touch Join meeting rule for Microsoft Teams SIP Guest Join, you can now optionally include your Pexip Service Company ID so that these calls can be tracked in Pexip Control Center (PCC). Pexip Service Company ID

* Technology preview only