Configuring Virtual Auditoriums

Large Pexip Infinity conferences can take place in Virtual Auditoriums. Each Virtual Auditorium has one or more aliases associated with it, and participants access the conference by dialing one of these aliases. Virtual Auditoriums can be PIN-protected, and you can also assign Host and Guest privileges to conference participants.

To create a new Virtual Auditorium, go to Services > Virtual Auditoriums and select Add Virtual Auditorium.

To edit an existing Virtual Auditorium, or to view its details (including all the aliases associated with it), go to Services > Virtual Auditoriums and click on the name of the Virtual Auditorium.

You cannot convert an existing Virtual Meeting Room into a Virtual Auditorium. Instead, you must create a new Virtual Auditorium and reassign the existing aliases to it. For more information, see Changing from a Virtual Meeting Room to a Virtual Auditorium and vice versa.

Any changes you make to Virtual Auditorium configuration will be replicated to all Conferencing Nodes within around 90 seconds and will be applied to any subsequent conferences in that Virtual Auditorium. If there are any conferences already in place that use the Virtual Auditorium, any attempts to join it after the configuration has been replicated may be affected by the new configuration settings. For this reason, we do not recommend changing Virtual Auditorium configuration while a conference is in progress because this will lead to an inconsistent user experience.

When adding or editing Virtual Auditoriums, the options are:

Option	Description
Name	The name used to refer to this Virtual Auditorium. If you can access this Virtual Auditorium via a Virtual Reception then the Virtual Auditorium Name entered here is shown to conference participants as they are transferred into the Virtual Auditorium (it is overlaid onto the virtual_reception_connecting splash screen of the theme associated with the Virtual Reception that is transferring the call).
Description	A description of the Virtual Auditorium.
Creation time	This read-only field shows the date and time when this record was first configured.
Host PIN	This optional field allows you to set a secure access code that must be entered by participants before they can join the conference. If Allow Guests is set to Yes, then the Host PIN will apply to the conference Host(s) only. For more information, see About PINs, Hosts and Guests. PINs must use the digits 0-9 only. PINs may optionally end with #. PINs must be between 4–20 digits long, including any #.
Allow Guests	Yes: the conference can have two types of participants: Hosts and Guests. You must configure a Host PIN to be used by the Hosts. You can optionally configure a Guest PIN; if you do not configure a Guest PIN, Guests can join without a PIN, but the meeting will not start until the first Host has joined. No: all participants have Host privileges. Default: No.
Guest PIN	This optional field allows you to set a secure access code that must be entered by Guests before they can join the conference. For more information, see About PINs, Hosts and Guests. Host PINs and Guest PINs must be different. PINs must use the digits 0-9 only. PINs may optionally end with #. PINs must be between 4–20 digits long, including any #. If the Host PIN ends in # and a Guest PIN is used, the Guest PIN must also end with #. If # is not used, Host PINs and Guest PINs must have the same number of digits. You cannot configure a Guest PIN unless you have already configured a Host PIN.
Host view	The maximum number of other participants that Hosts will see, and the layout used to show them. For more information, see Selecting the layout seen by participants. Default: Large main speaker and up to 7 other participants (1+7 layout).
Guest view	The maximum number of Host participants that each Guest will see, and the layout used to show them. For more information, see Selecting the layout seen by participants. Default: Large Host speaker and up to 7 other Hosts (1+7 layout).
Show names of participants	If participant name overlays are enabled, the display name or alias of each participant is shown in a text overlay along the bottom of their video image. For more information, see Showing the names of participants as a text overlay. Default: No.
Mute all Guests	When enabled, Guest participants will be muted when they first join the conference. After the conference has started, Hosts can use the Infinity Connect client to unmute Guests, either individually or as a group. Default: No.
Lock presenter as main speaker	When a presentation is being shown, whether the main speaker position shows the presenter or the current speaker. For more information, see Selecting the layout seen by participants. Yes: When a presentation is being shown, the main speaker position will always show the video image from the endpoint that is showing the presentation, even if others are speaking. No: When a presentation is being shown the main speaker position will be voice-switched as usual. Default: No.
Theme	The theme for use with this Virtual Auditorium. For more information, see Customizing conference images and voice prompts using themes. Default: <use Default theme> (the global default theme is used).
Advanced options
Automatically dialed participants	When a conference begins in this Virtual Auditorium, a call will be placed automatically to any participants selected here. To add an Automatically Dialed Participant that is not already on the list, select the icon to the right of the selection fields. For more information, see Automatically dialing out to a participant from a conference.
Guests can present	Controls whether the Guests in the conference are allowed to present content. Yes : Guests and Hosts can present into the conference No : only Hosts can present Default: Yes
Enable chat	Whether chat messaging is enabled for the conference: Use global chat setting: as per the global configuration setting. Yes: chat is enabled. No: chat is disabled. Default: Use global chat setting.
Maximum inbound call bandwidth (kbps)	Enter a value in this field to limit the bandwidth of media being received by Pexip Infinity from each individual participant dialed in to this Virtual Auditorium. For more information see Managing and restricting call bandwidth.
Maximum outbound call bandwidth (kbps)	Enter a value in this field to limit the bandwidth of media being sent from Pexip Infinity to each individual participant dialed in to this Virtual Auditorium. For more information see Managing and restricting call bandwidth.
Conference capabilities	Allows you to limit the media content of the conference. For more information, see Controlling media capability. Default: Main video + presentation.
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.
Media encryption	Controls the media encryption requirements for participants connecting to this service. Use global setting: use the global media encryption setting. Best effort: each participant will use media encryption if their device supports it, otherwise the connection will be unencrypted. Required: all participants (including RTMP participants) must use media encryption. No encryption: all H.323, SIP and MS-SIP participants must use unencrypted media. (RTMP participants will use encryption if their device supports it, otherwise the connection will be unencrypted.) Default: Use global setting
Participant limit	This optional field allows you to limit the number of participants allowed to join this Virtual Auditorium. For more information see Limiting the number of participants.
Service tag	This optional field lets you assign a unique identifier to this service, which you can then use to track use of the service.
Aliases
Alias: #1
Alias	The alias that, when received by Pexip Infinity, will cause it to route the call to this service. The alias entered here must match the alias as it is received by Pexip Infinity. Wildcards and regular expressions are not supported. In most cases, the alias received by Pexip Infinity will be the same as the alias that the conference participant dialed from their endpoint, but there are some exceptions, described in About aliases and access numbers. You may also want to define multiple aliases for the same service to ensure that it can be accessed by devices and protocols that enforce specific alias formats — for more information, see Using multiple aliases to access the same service.
Description	An optional description of the alias. This is useful if you have more than one alias for a service. Note that this description may be displayed to end users on registered Infinity Connect clients who are performing a directory search.
Add another Alias	Select this option if you want the Virtual Auditorium to be accessible by more than one alias. For more information, see Using multiple aliases to access the same service.

Changing from a Virtual Meeting Room to a Virtual Auditorium and vice versa

While it is not possible to change an existing Virtual Meeting Room to a Virtual Auditorium (and vice versa), you can change the service to which an alias is routed. For example, if your sales team already have a Virtual Meeting Room with an alias meet.sales@example.com and you want these conferences to take advantage of the features available to a Virtual Auditorium instead, then:

Set up a new Virtual Auditorium (Services > Virtual Auditoriums > Add Virtual Auditorium) with the appropriate configuration, but do not configure any aliases.
Save the new Virtual Auditorium.
Go to the Aliases page (Services > Aliases) and select the alias of the existing Virtual Meeting Room.
From the Service name drop-down list, select the name of the new Virtual Auditorium.
Repeat for all aliases belonging to the existing Virtual Meeting Room.

All calls made to any of the aliases that previously belonged to the Virtual Meeting Room will now be routed to the Virtual Auditorium. The Virtual Meeting Room will still exist, but will not have any aliases, so no calls can be made to it.