Cisco Cisco TelePresence MCU 4510 Maintenance Manual
Understanding how participants display in layout views
Cisco TelePresence MCU Version 4.2 Printable online help
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Understanding how participants display in
layout views
layout views
The default behavior of the MCU is to display the "loudest" participants in the most prominent layout
panes. If there are more contributors than there are panes available, then the "quietest" participants
are not shown.
panes. If there are more contributors than there are panes available, then the "quietest" participants
are not shown.
However, different styles of layout introduce slight subtleties to this behavior, and in addition there are
a few ways in which participants or conference administrators may change the system used for pane
assignment. In particular, you may want to set the
a few ways in which participants or conference administrators may change the system used for pane
assignment. In particular, you may want to set the
In this section:
Big panes vs. small panes
This layout can be seen as the most traditional video-conferencing view. Each participant is displayed
in the same sized pane as the other participants. If there are more than four participants, the four most
significant (the four loudest) are displayed, with one pane each.
in the same sized pane as the other participants. If there are more than four participants, the four most
significant (the four loudest) are displayed, with one pane each.
By contrast, these example layouts have some larger panes, and the participants shown in those
panes are seen as more significant than the other contributors. When allocating participants to panes,
the MCU always fills the largest panes first. If there are more participants than panes then there will
never be empty big panes and non-empty small panes.
panes are seen as more significant than the other contributors. When allocating participants to panes,
the MCU always fills the largest panes first. If there are more participants than panes then there will
never be empty big panes and non-empty small panes.
To reduce the number of view changes when different participants speak (for example, when people
change from being active speakers to inactive contributors), the MCU duplicates participant views for
layouts with more than four small panes. For the three example layouts shown above, the
participant(s) shown in the large pane(s) of the first two layouts will be duplicated in the surrounding
small panes. However, the four small panes of the third layout will show different participants to those
displayed in the three big panes. This reduces the impact of audio volume changes on the composed
layout while not needlessly wasting view space. However, it is possible to configure the MCU not to
duplicate participant views in this way if so desired (see
change from being active speakers to inactive contributors), the MCU duplicates participant views for
layouts with more than four small panes. For the three example layouts shown above, the
participant(s) shown in the large pane(s) of the first two layouts will be duplicated in the surrounding
small panes. However, the four small panes of the third layout will show different participants to those
displayed in the three big panes. This reduces the impact of audio volume changes on the composed
layout while not needlessly wasting view space. However, it is possible to configure the MCU not to
duplicate participant views in this way if so desired (see
Participants viewing themselves
When considering which participants to show in which panes, a participant's self view has the lowest
priority. This has two main implications:
priority. This has two main implications: