Features added in previous versions

This section summarizes the features and enhancements that were added in previous releases of Pexip Infinity software.

This topic covers the Pexip Infinity platform; for features added in previous versions of the web app see the Pexip Web App release notes.

Features added in version 38

Pexip Infinity version 38 added the following features and enhancements:

Feature Description More information
Teams Connector enhancements: support for watermarked meetings

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

  • Watermarked Teams meetings are now supported (no action is required in Pexip Infinity to enable support).

Ensuring your CVI app ID is assigned

You must ensure that your CVI app ID is specified in your Cloud Video Interop connection information. This is normally done as part of the initial deployment of your Teams Connector when defining the CVI app behavior and granting interoperability.

If your CVI app ID is not assigned then your CVI calls will fail with Teams Connector version 38 or later. Your CVI app ID is also required to receive PowerPoint Live content.

Full details of how to check and (if necessary) assign your CVI app ID via the Get-CsVideoInteropServiceProvider and Set-CsVideoInteropServiceProvider commands are contained in the Teams Connector upgrade instructions.

We recommend checking that your CVI app ID is assigned in advance of starting the upgrade process.

Note that version 39 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 39 as soon as practicable.

Policy enhancements: previous service name added to call information; participant policy controls for receiving presentation and personal layouts; control transcoding of SIP-to-SIP gateway calls*; denoise and softmute support*

Local and external policy has the following enhancements:

  • The call information now contains a previous_service_name field which can be used to identify the name of the previous service prior to a call transfer.
  • Participant policy includes new options:

    • rx_presentation_policy: controls whether the participant can receive presentation content.
    • can_receive_personal_mix: controls whether the participant can receive a personal layout.
  • The response for Infinity Gateway calls can now specify via a new transcoding_enabled field if the video and presentation streams of SIP-to-SIP calls are transcoded or not.
  • The response for VMR and Virtual Auditorium service types can now specify denoise_enabled and softmute_enabled settings (when the denoise and softmute technology preview features are enabled).

Call information variables

Participant configuration responses

Infinity Gateway service type response fields

Virtual Meeting Room / Virtual Auditorium service types response fields

Personal conference layouts* A Host or Guest participant can choose the layout they receive without affecting the conference-wide layout received by other participants. Applying a personal layout
Support for audio-only device access to Media Playback Services A Media Playback Service can now be accessed via audio-only devices (in addition to access via the Pexip apps and hardware endpoints). Configuring a Media Playback Service
Exchange Scheduler: configurable alias description

Administrators configuring Secure Scheduler for Exchange Integrations can now use a jinja template to generate a description of the aliases used for single-use VMRs. These alias descriptions may be displayed to users of registered Pexip clients and apps who are performing a directory search.

By default the organizer's email address is included in the description, but this can be changed via the template.

Conference alias description template
Single Sign-On registration improvements

Registering devices via an SSO Identity Provider has the following improvements:

  • Device alias validation against Identity Provider attributes is now case-insensitive, allowing for a smoother experience when users who are registering their device via SSO enter an alias with a different case to that configured in the Identity Provider.
  • The LDAP synchronization template, used for bulk creation and updating of device aliases, now includes fields for Enable registration using IdP SSO and Identity Provider group so you no longer need to manually set these fields after a bulk import/update.

Authenticating registrations using Identity Providers

LDAP synchronization template

Support for displaying conference name on the "unused" splash screen When customizing the unused_screen splash screen via themes, you can now use the {conference_name} variable within your text labels. Rules and requirements for customized themes
OTJ-specific administrator permissions

There are two new administrator permissions which provide edit and view access to OTJ Endpoints only:

  • May modify OTJ Endpoints
  • May view OTJ Endpoints.
Managing administrator roles
OTJ: Google Meet SIP Guest Join usage information in PCC

The Google Meet SIP Guest Join meeting processing rule now includes a Pexip Service Customer ID field, allowing you to track these calls within Pexip Control Center.

After upgrade, you must update this rule to include your customer ID to ensure that these calls will continue to work in the future.

Google Meet SIP Guest Join
Administrative improvements: acknowledgeable alarms, log out of all active sessions

This release contains the following administrative improvements:

 
  • Warning-level alarms on the Management Node can now be acknowledged by the administrator and thus hidden from Live View.
  • When logging out of the Administrator interface you now have the option to log out of all active sessions.

Viewing alarms

Using the Pexip Infinity Administrator interface

* Technology preview only

Changes in functionality in version 38

Feature Description More information
Up to 4 Conferencing Nodes per system location can now process conference media A conference instance now has a limit of 4 Conferencing Nodes per system location that can process media for that conference (previously a limit of 3 nodes per location). Handling of media and signaling

Features added in version 37

Pexip Infinity version 37 added the following features and enhancements:

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.

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

Changes in functionality in version 37

Feature Description More information
VMR Scheduling for Exchange renamed as Secure Scheduler for Exchange The VMR Scheduling for Exchange feature has been renamed Pexip Secure Scheduler for Exchange, to distinguish it from the Pexip Secure Scheduler for Web product. This change is reflected in the Pexip Infinity Administrator interface. Pexip Secure Scheduler for Exchange
Client registrations use IdP display name When using an Identity Provider to authenticate client registrations, if a Display Name Attribute Name (SAML) or Display Name Claim Name (OIDC) is configured, the value returned by the IdP is provided to the client to use as its display name. If this is blank, the registered alias is used as the display name. Authenticating registrations using Identity Providers

Features added in version 36

Pexip Infinity version 36 added the following features and enhancements:

Feature Description More information
Layout improvements

There are several minor improvements to how some layout features are displayed:

  • The text-based in-conference messages that are temporarily shown at the top of the layout (which indicate states such as a locked conference, live captions, recording/streaming/transcribing/AI enabled, raised hands, and audio-only participant names when speaking), have been restyled. By default they are now shown in white text on various different background colors. For example:

    The text and background colors can be customized via a new indicator_color_config setting in the theme configuration file.

  • There is a new "AI" indicator, shown when Google Meet AI features are enabled.
  • Any content classification messages are now shown in an overlay banner at the top of the layout. If a banner message is also being displayed then they are combined into the same overlay.

Conference layouts and speaker names

Theme configuration file (themeconfig.json)

Theme improvements: raise hand DTMF command, new supported fonts, new AI files

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

  • There is a new dtmf_conference_control_command in the base theme: toggle_raise_hand, which is assigned to *3 by default, and toggles the raised hand status of the participant in a VMR.
  • There are two new supported fonts for overlay text: "Inter" and "Inter Medium".
  • In support of the new AI indicator for Google Meet, there are:

    • New audio files: conf-ai_started_48kHz_mono.wav and conf-ai_stopped_48kHz_mono.wav.
    • New fields in the themeconfig.json file: "disable_ai_indicator" and "ai_indicator_text".

Rules and requirements for customized themes

Using a DTMF keypad to control a conference

Teams Connector enhancements: improved Teams Rooms interoperability, updated in-lobby notification messages

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

  • Improved interoperability with Microsoft Teams Rooms:

    • Pexip app Hosts can now admit a Teams Room into a locked Pexip conference.
    • Dual-screen Teams Rooms are now automatically detected and will display conference participants across both screens when joining a Pexip Infinity VMR, providing it uses the Teams Room calendaring service* to join the conference. Local or external policy can also be used to provide similar behavior (by modifying the dialed alias) when calling into a Zoom meeting.
    • Improved support for sending DTMF commands from a Teams Room into a Pexip conference. This includes toggling receiving presentation content in the layout mix (*4), and toggling multiscreen participant display (*9).
  • Any in-lobby notification messages are now displayed at the top of the screen. Previously they were displayed as slide out indicators. The displayed message is still generated from the conference_locked_indicator_n_waiting_text theme configuration setting, but the conference_locked_indicator_text and conference_unlocked_indicator_text settings are no longer used in this context.
  • We now recommend assigning *2 to the DTMF command for toggle_teams_large_gallery in any customized theme for Teams integration. This is because *3 was previously recommended but this digit is now assigned by default to toggle_raise_hand (which is not currently supported in Teams meetings).
Breakout rooms now a fully supported feature

Breakout rooms, which are separate sessions that are split off from a main VMR or Virtual Auditorium that allow smaller groups of people to meet together, is now a fully supported feature. Updates in this release include:

  • The ability to customize the length of time the transfer modal is shown to Webapp3 users being moved to or from a breakout room.
  • Updates to workflow and dialogs in the breakout rooms panel when managing rooms via the web app.

Breakout rooms

transferTimeout

Participant pinning now a fully supported feature Participant pinning, which allows you to place and lock specific participants in the most prominent positions in a layout when a conference is in progress, is now a fully supported feature. Pinning participants to the layout during a conference
OIDC: ability to request additional scopes When configuring participant authentication for VMRs using an Open ID Connect Identity Provider, administrators can now request additional information using scopes. Additional OpenID Connect scopes
Codec selection when configuring Call Routing Rules When configuring Call Routing Rules you can now specify, per rule, which codecs to offer in audio/video negotiation (SDPs). Configuring Call Routing Rules
Safe Links support

Support for Safe Links URL rewriting:

  • One-Touch Join now supports meeting invitations that include URLs rewritten by Safe Links in Microsoft Defender for Office 365.
  • There is a new custom jinja filter, pex_safelinks_decode, which can be used to decode strings that have been encoded by Safe Links.

Custom Pexip filters

Policy enhancements: disable overlay text in participant policy; send DTMF in gateway calls; Teams Rooms OTJ call information; live captions support; registration requests support for SSO

Local and external policy has the following additions:

  • In participant policy you can control whether a participant's overlay text (display name) is disabled.
  • You can specify a DTMF sequence to send in a Infinity Gateway service type response.
  • When a Microsoft Teams Room joins a call via One-Touch Join the following fields are now included in service configuration requests (external policy) and call information (local policy):

  • You can specify the live captions source (audio) language and captions language.
  • External policy registration alias requests include support for single sign-on (SSO). Requests now include the remote_address field, plus a new policy request field of auth_type which can be either "credentials" or "sso".
Requests and responses when using the Pexip Infinity external policy API
Pop-up-free authentication

Administrators can now opt to remove the use of pop-up windows for Webapp3 participants when authenticating using SSO in order to join a meeting. There are two new options in the Administrator interface associated with this feature:

  • Disable pop-up windows (Users & Devices > Identity Providers > Add Identity provider) enables and disables this feature.

  • External Webapp Host address (Web App > External Web App Hosts) is required if you have disabled pop-ups and you either host the web app externally, or access the web app from a URL that is not a Conferencing Node's Configured FQDN.

About pop-up windows

Adding external hosts to Pexip Infinity

Administrative improvements: registration history, time-based media stream graphs, snapshot generation, packet captures

This release contains the following administrative improvements:

 
  • You can now view a history of registered devices via History & Logs > Registration History.
  • In Status > Participants:
    • A new field Is locally muted has been added which indicates whether the participant is muted locally on the client side.
    • The On Hold field has been removed (from the Administrator interface only — it is still available via the Management Status API).
  • When generating a diagnostic snapshot you can now navigate away from the page while the file is being generated and then download it later when the process has completed.
  • When performing a packet capture you can now filter it on IP address / subnet and you have more flexibility in selecting the type of traffic captured.

Viewing current and historic registrations

Viewing participant status

Downloading a diagnostic snapshot

Performing a network packet capture

Changes in functionality in version 36

Feature Description More information
Scheduling: minimum suffix length When configuring single-use VMRs as part of the Secure Scheduler for Exchange feature, the minimum suffix length is now 5 digits rather than 6. If you are using a short suffix you must ensure that this is appropriate to the planned usage in your deployment, both for security purposes and to ensure you have a large enough pool of aliases. Management Node generates aliases and join instructions
Epic Telehealth JWK Set URL (JKU)

Pexip Infinity now includes support for JWK Set URL (JKU), which may be required in a future release of Epic.

If your planned upgrade to Epic means your organization will be impacted, you should upgrade to v36 or later and then work with your Epic support representative to make the required changes on the Epic side, quoting Epic reference SLG 8598020 or Sherlock Checklist 1696.

Outline of the integration process