topic Re: Webex Camera view is too small in Webex Administration

Webex Camera view is too small

RobertMalak5465 — Tue, 27 Aug 2019 17:23:55 GMT

Hello,

We've been struggling since the last Webex update to figure out how to make the image of our webcam video larger on the screen. It used to be able to go full screen and now is just a tiny postage stamp. We plug in a camera and have to show things on our whiteboards as well as around the room to our meeting attendees online. I can't even aim the camera correctly anymore because the on-screen video is now so tiny. Surely, there must be a way to increase the size so you can actually see what the camera is aimed at?

Thanks for any help!

Re: Webex Camera view is too small

Paul Stojanovski — Wed, 28 Aug 2019 03:15:10 GMT

When you say that you cannot make the video any larger, are you referring to the self-view of the Webex Meetings client?

Re: Webex Camera view is too small

RobertMalak5465 — Wed, 28 Aug 2019 05:37:35 GMT

Yes, I believe that's correct. The self view. When we plug our camera into my laptop, a little box shows up. Today, we had a minor breakthrough. Decided to try the Chrome web browser instead of Firefox and we were able to stretch the video to make it a little bigger! It's still way to small, but now we can sort of see what it's pointed at. It starts off full-screen but then as soon as the first person dials into the meeting, it gets small and can be enlarged slightly.

Would like to get it full screen and then pin that for all to see on the webex. The pin your own video seems to have disappeared from this version of webex. It wants to switch to whomever is talking which doesn't work for us because the people on the call are supposed to be talking about what they see on our camera. The second they start to talk, they loose the ability to see our camera unless they pin it themselves.

Re: Webex Camera view is too small

NathanHale31502 — Thu, 14 Nov 2019 23:35:41 GMT

We are having the same issue. If there is a fix, that would be awesome. We have had to move on to another service.

Re: Webex Camera view is too small

RobertMalak5465 — Tue, 19 Nov 2019 00:15:17 GMT

Hello Cisco,

Do you even care? Since I posted this months ago, we haven't received any feedback or suggestions from you. In my last post, I thought Chrome was showing a larger view. I was wrong as it will shrink once another caller joins the call. How you think having a postage stamp size video of yourself showing on screen is the least bit useful is beyond me. We can't aim our camera correctly at the whiteboards we're trying to share because we can't see it!!

Should we move to Zoom or GotoMeeting since Cisco has apparently stopped supporting Webex?

Re: Webex Camera view is too small

mtabrez — Tue, 19 Nov 2019 05:05:41 GMT

Hi,

"The correct team of experts to help you are available by raising a case at support.webex.com. That said, once your issue is resolved, we'd love to hear if there was a fix that would work for our extended community. Come on back and let us know how you resolved this. thanks for being an active member of our Webex Community. "

Regards

Re: Webex Camera view is too small

herhodes — Thu, 21 Nov 2019 19:57:52 GMT

Hey there!

Thanks for using the community. I believe the experience you're having is actually as-designed. Normally, customers wanting to share large areas of non-people only content use a few different approaches:

1. they have a Webex video device, like room kit mini that makes it easy to control the view you're sharing, much better than a desktop camera. You can then take control of the view for attendees

2. They use the in-meeting whiteboard so that the white-boarding is democratized, and people joining from mobile or web can see it clearly, pinch and zoom to areas that interest them and even contribute. The advantage too is the whiteboard lives on and can be edited later. (vs. wiped off a board)

That said, I have passed on your feedback to our PM team who are reading your comments, and seeing if there are UX changes / enhancements that may work. Thanks for taking the time to feedback.

Re: Webex Camera view is too small

RobertMalak5465 — Wed, 01 Jan 2020 02:29:56 GMT

herhodes,

Thanks for your reply and suggestions.

1. We looked at fancier web cams but unless you're referring to something I don't know about, they were all cost prohibitive for a small company like ours.

2. Our room is covered in static white boards with information that we share during our webex meetings. These white boards are meant to display information for anyone who walks into the room any time of day/night so they can have a good idea of what is going on. This would not be possible with an electronic whiteboard.

All Cisco has to do is revert the functionality back to the way it was prior to the last update....

Re: Webex Camera view is too small

WeiKwongOng5555 — Mon, 06 Apr 2020 05:26:32 GMT

Hi, is there any changes / enhancement done so far, especially for the self-view video? my customer is satisfy with Webex Meeting experience using the Webex app in the laptop, except the size of the self-view video is too small for them.

Question: the size of the self-view video in the Webex Meeting is not adjustable? We cannot enlarge the self-view video?

Re: Webex Camera view is too small

Fritz_H — Mon, 06 Apr 2020 09:57:53 GMT

@RobertMalak5465

As far as I understood, you complain that your non-standard use-case is not fully covered by Webex, right?

You want to share content that is:

1. analog (?!)

2. obviously pretty small since you mention that the camera-operator can not "see what the camera is aimed at".

Since the standard-usage is

a: to share digital content (e.g. Screensharing)

b: to share video of people/faces (1 - n) - which are pretty easy to aim at with a mobile camera.

As far as I remember there are several layout-options/views, but honestly I can´t remember if that
was a Webex-Meetings-Meeting (sp?) or a Webex-Teams-Meeting...

The other issue, regarding the "automatic speaker switching" (?), true, that may be annoying in situations where it´s unwanted.
But as far as I remember, there is an option to disable that and lock the participants view to your video-feed.

kind regards
Fritz

Re: Webex Camera view is too small

RobertMalak5465 — Wed, 08 Apr 2020 01:14:08 GMT

Non-standard use case? I wouldn't call it that. What's non-standard about wanting to actually see what your camera is picking up? The image is just too **bleep** small! Who cares if it's focused on a person, a whiteboard or a room full of people. How do you propose you aim a camera on stand at different people in the room if you can't tell what it's picking up? We can't see it on the laptop we're presenting from so it's very hard to aim the camera! Cisco recommended we purchase one of their camera's instead but we're not spending more money on Cisco hardware.

Yes, the content was analog because people were writing on whiteboards in the office so others could come into the room to view them at a later time, so digital whiteboard does not work here. However, now that no one is in the office anymore due to Covid-19, this is no longer an issue.

I gave up on this and we're using Zoom now for most meetings.

Re: Webex Camera view is too small

Fritz_H — Wed, 08 Apr 2020 09:11:20 GMT

@RobertMalak5465

Having a video-call where the camera is constantly moving around filming "whatever" but not the presenter

is not the standard use case of such software.
Just take a look at the Webpages of skype, webex, Zoom etc.: lots of smiling faces but no cameras wobbling around in a room showing analog whiteboards...

As you now see (not just) my understanding of a "standard use case", lets focus on the main issue:

You can not see, what the cam is pointing at and what is the difference between showing a face vs. a Whiteboard?
good question indeed: targeting a face is pretty easy - its that smiling round thing with 2 eyes - easy to target at, no big preview needed.

a Whiteboard: same thing: its big, white and rectangular. Since I don not see the problem in focusing on such a big target
I guessed, that you want to show small details on that whiteboard.. which can be tricky - no doubt.

Did you ever come across the idea to use a 2nd Computer, Smartphone or Tablet to join your own meeting/presentation?

By doing that, you can see the full-screen content of your camera.

yes - that´s a work-around - but soo easy...

...and a lot better than wasting energy by getting angry and posting **beep** words, isn´t it?

regarding the Cisco Employee suggesting Cisco Video-Devices?
well, as a European I can say: honestly, what else did you expect from a shareholder-value driven, US-Company?

Conclusion: there is a work-around, lets try it!

Re: Webex Camera view is too small

MKob — Wed, 08 Apr 2020 13:01:32 GMT

deleted...

Re: Webex Camera view is too small

RobertMalak5465 — Wed, 08 Apr 2020 15:35:21 GMT

That's weird. Not sure why it changed my message to say **bleep** when I didn't curse. I purposely used a word that would imply anger but wasn't a curse word.

You keep referring to a scenario where each person is looking at their laptop camera and logged into Webex individually. That's what all of society is doing nowadays but back before Covid-19, we had 20 people sitting in a meeting room along with 20 people on the phone in various locations. That's why you need a camera to pan around the room, especially when one of them goes up to a whiteboard and starts pointing at or writing on it. Corporate meeting environment. They don't exist nowadays and I don't care anymore.

Anyhow, the point of this thread was to get the thumbnail size increased by Cisco back to the way it used to be. It didn't work. End of story and we all move on.

Re: Webex Camera view is too small

Fritz_H — Wed, 08 Apr 2020 16:34:16 GMT

@RobertMalak5465
regarding your issue: I actually did understand your use-case; I just wanted to explain why I see it as non-standard.

And I suggested a simple work-around: join your own meeting to get a big view of your Camera-Image.
I know - this is just the 2nd best solution - but if it helps to improve the situation as a temporary work-around: why not?

kind regards
Fritz

Re: Webex Camera view is too small

RobertMalak5465 — Wed, 08 Apr 2020 20:46:16 GMT

No 2nd-laptop. No room at the table for another laptop and now, no meeting room or people at the table due to Covid quarantine. But thank you for the suggestion.

Re: Webex Camera view is too small

Stoyan Stoitsev — Thu, 09 Apr 2020 21:54:40 GMT

If I understand this correctly, you would like to see your self-view in full screen so that you are sure what you are showing to the other side.
When the meeting starts go to the top middle of the screen and press the pin button, then just select to pin your own video. Done. Bonus, you can pin it for everyone if you are the host.
Note that this is available only when using the desktop app - gives you all the features ;)

Re: Webex Camera view is too small

RobertMalak5465 — Fri, 10 Apr 2020 17:59:51 GMT

yes, that pin used to be there and work fine for us. That's how this thread started. They took that pin option away from the latest version Version 39.5.18.19 for windows. My screen doesn't look anything like yours, so not sure which version you're running.

Re: Webex Camera view is too small

Stoyan Stoitsev — Sun, 12 Apr 2020 13:32:11 GMT

39.5 is a lockdown version. This means that your IT team has chosen to have your Webex site locked to an older version and to receive updates less frequent. The current Webex version is 40.2 and this is what I'm using. Please check with your IT team or your Cisco partner to get you off of that lockdown version so you can get all the new and exciting features.

Re: Webex Camera view is too small

RobertMalak5465 — Mon, 13 Apr 2020 18:05:58 GMT

Interesting. I did not know. Thanks for the info. I don't see them changing anything right now as they want more people using Zoom instead.