New features and improvements in this release

The new features and enhancements included in Pexip Infinity version 37 are described below.

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

Pexip Infinity platform

Feature Description More information
Layout improvements: new splash-screen background image, in-conference indicators, customizing an unused slot with participant pinning, customizable second screen and support for 3x3, 4x4, 5x5 and custom layouts in multiscreen systems

There are several modifications to the Base theme and improvements to how some layout features are displayed:

  • The Base theme has a new default background image that is used on splash screens. Also, most of the splash screens (such as the Welcome screen shown below) no longer display any overlay graphics/icons by default, but they still display any text-based messages, such as "Welcome".

    The PIN entry screens and "no presentation" screen do still display overlay icons as per previous releases.

  • The in-conference indicators and messages that are shown in the information bar at the top of the layout (which indicate states such as a locked conference, raised hands etc), have been improved:

    • The information bar now has a line separator between indicators with associated numbers and those without numbers. It also has a more subtle border and tint.
    • Some of the icons used in the information bar (raised hand, locked conference, recording/streaming) have been updated, and the expanded in-conference message indicators now have a plainer background for improved accessibility. For example:

  • When using participant pinning, you can now customize via themes a slot's appearance when there are no participants found.
  • If you have a multiscreen system:

    • The second screen can now be customized via themes to show an image or background of your choice when it is not being used to display conference content. A black screen is used by default.
    • You can now display conference participants across both screens when using a 3x3 layout. If dual screen is enabled when using a 4x4 or 5x5 layout it now displays 3x3 on both screens (previously it would display 1+7).
    • Custom layouts now support multiscreen systems. Each screen can have its own layout configuration applied, up to a total of 26 participants across all screens.

Conference layouts and speaker names

Base theme and other preconfigured themes

Pinning participants to the layout during a conference

Customizing the unused screen in a dual-screen system

Custom layouts

Multiscreen participant display

Policy enhancements: multiscreen and "presentation in mix" overrides in participant policy

Local and external policy has the following additions:

  • In participant policy you can now override whether the participant is enabled for multiscreen participant display, and whether they receive presentation as part of the layout mix.
Requests and responses when using the Pexip Infinity external policy API
Theme updates and improvements: "unused screen" splash screen, new default font, improved information bar messages color customization, unused slot customization for participant pinning, blank SVG icon files

There are several improvements and updates to themes and splash screens:

  • There is a new configurable unused_screen splash screen within the theme configuration file that defines the appearance of an unused second screen in multiscreen systems.
  • "Inter" is now the default font for overlay text (splash screen text and in-conference messages).
  • The text and background colors of the messages when the layout's information bar (notch) is in light mode can be customized via a new light_mode field in the indicator_color_config setting in the theme configuration file. You can also now separately specify the background and border colors of all messages.

    The new border field is required when customizing a message. If you have an existing custom theme that includes indicator_color_config you must update it to include a border value for each specified message type.

  • Within a pinning configuration file you can now override the default behavior of what is displayed in an unused slot. You do this on a per-slot basis by defining a reserved_appearance dictionary for a slot.
  • Many of the overlay icon SVG files that are used by splash screens now contain empty/blank images. However, they are still referenced by the splash screens for backwards compatibility, but as they are blank by default they do not affect each screen's new default appearance in version 37 (which many now typically only show a background image and a text label).

Rules and requirements for customized themes

Live captions now a fully supported feature and multiple AIMS server support

With the release of AIMS v1, live captions is no longer a technical preview feature. You can now connect to multiple AIMS servers to enable live captions; these connections are configured under the new Platform > Media Processing Servers page.

The live captions feature requires integration with a Pexip Private AI platform. For full details, see Pexip Private AI and AIMS.

Live captions (Global settings)

Configuring media processing servers

Enabling live captions

One-Touch Join updates: proxy bypass, Webex API FQDN override

One-Touch Join has the following improvements:

  • You can now elect to bypass a configured web proxy for One-Touch Join connections to the Exchange server and to Microsoft Graph.
  • You can now change the domain used to connect to the Webex API from the default if, for example, you are using Webex for Government.

Using a web proxy

Cisco Webex Cloud configuration

Kerberos authentication support One-Touch Join and Secure Scheduler for Exchange (previously VMR Scheduling for Exchange) in Exchange on-premises environments now support the use of Kerberos for service account authentication.

Enabling authentication (One-Touch Join)

Enabling authentication (Scheduling)

Japanese language support The Management Node Administrator interface can now be displayed in Japanese. Changing the display language
VMR portal user group permissions

Two new administrator permissions that are dedicated to managing user groups have been added to Pexip Infinity: May view user groups and May modify user groups.

These permissions are typically used by the VMR portal to view and update VMR settings.

After upgrading to version 37, these two new permissions must be added to the user/service account used by the VMR portal for Management Node API access.

Managing administrator roles

Deploying the VMR self-service portal

Administrative improvements: Improved account selection for OIDC access, background backup or snapshot creation request

This release contains the following administrative improvements:

 
  • Improved account selection for administrator access via OIDC:

    • When configuring the OpenID Connect service, you can specify a Domain hint to pass to the service as a hint to the expected login account.
    • When logging into the Management Node via OIDC you now have the ability to log out of the OIDC service and to select a different account.
  • You can now use the management command API to submit a background backup or snapshot creation request.

Managing administrator access via OIDC

Management command API