Touch 10 Missing Custom Layouts

[BradEast1]

My setup is as follows - 2 SX20's registered to CUCM and an SX80 also registered to CUCM. I am using Conductor and vTS for conferencing.

My issue is that I have created custom layouts for the SX80 using TC Console. When I place a one to one call from the 80 to a 20, my custom layout shows up fine on the Touch 10 device. However, when I conference in another participant (ad-hoc), I only see the default layouts on the touch 10.

[Shefali Sharma]

Hi,

For that purpose, on the TC Console, you will have to define a layout for a multi-point call with the desired number of participants on a video call.

Have you done that already?

Thanks,

Shefali Sharma

[BradEast1]

We have. It's setup up for dual display with participant 1 assigned to monitor 1 and participant 2 assigned to monitor 2. I've set it to the default layout and even tried to hide the other layouts. However, once the conference is created I only see the defaults on the touch 10.

[Patrick Sparkman · Accepted solution]

Just did some testing with an SX80 and C20 running TC7.3.6, connecting point-to-point as well as via a Conductor controlled TelePresence Server.  It seems when connected to a TelePresense Server with ActiveControl enabled, the Touch 10 will only present you with layouts that are available on the TelePresence Server, and will hide any custom layouts created using TC Console.  By default ActiveControl is enabled on all endpoints as well as on the TelePresence Server, if you disable ActiveControl on one of them, the custom layouts should appear and be selected

• To disable ActiveControl on the endpoint, using the web interface, navigate to Configuration > System Configuration > Conference > ActiveControl Mode.
• To disable ActiveControl on the TelePresence Server, this is done on Conductor in the advanced parameters section of the conference template, it's the "Enable iX protocol" option.

[BradEast1]

Thanks, Patrick! Disabling it on the endpoint did in fact get the layout to show during the call. However, it seems the settings I'm pushing via TC Console are not taking effect... If I have one person on the call and synchronize changes I make to the layout, they take effect immediately. If I change the layout for 2 or more participants, nothing happens.

I could not find this setting in Conductor. Is it on the conference template page or in advanced settings?

Again, thanks for your help.

[Patrick Sparkman]

Conferences involving a conference bridge such as a MCU/TelePresence Server are seen as a point-to-point call, this is because all the participants are connected to the conference bridge and only a single video stream is being sent to the endpoint.  Unlike if the endpoint were to host the conference and everyone connected to it, than any custom layout with greater than one participant can be used, and you'd see the participants in the various video panes you configure within the layout.

ActiveControl on Conductor is configured within the advanced parameters section of the conference template, it's the "Enable iX protocol" option.

[BradEast1]

So, are you saying the desired layout is not possible in our environment?

[Patrick Sparkman]

If you want to see individual participants in video panes you configure within the custom layout, the only way is for the endpoint to host the conference, which requires it to have the Multisite option key. 

If you want to configure where the video from the TelePresence Server appears, which contains video from all the remote participants within a single video pane and those participants appear within that pane based on the selected TelePresence Server layout, you can only use a custom layout that is configured for one participant. 

[BradEast1]

Thanks again for your help, Patrick.

We did get this to work previously, and I'm going to assume it was because we had multistream enabled. The codec was upgraded, which is what we believe initially broke the layout, and now we can't get it to work again. We've tried a few different releases and can't get multistream to work, and can't get the original firmware due to it being deferred. We're going to plan on upgrading vTS and Conductor to see if it will help.

[Patrick Sparkman]

I have an SX80 with the Multisite option key running on CE8.2.1, it doesn't matter if I'm hosting the conference using Multisite or on a TelePresence Server, I'm able to see participants on both screens without issue.  My configuration is pretty default, all the video settings are factory default at least.

[BradEast1]

We don't have the multisite key. It's registered to CUCM and we're using Conductor and vTS for conferencing.

Is multistream active during the call?

[Patrick Sparkman]

Yes, when connected to the TelePresence Server, Multistream is active.  I think it's off by default on the endpoint, so you'll have to turn it on, the option is under Setup > Configuration > Conference > MultiStream Mode.

[BradEast1]

It's enabled, but not working. When we view the conference on vTS the SX20's show multistream but the 80 is standard. We've tried a few different flavors of 8.X but can't get it to work. TAC says we need to upgrade CUCM but believe we'll try upgrading Conductor and vTS first.

Conductor 3.0.3

CUCM 10.5.2

vTS 4.1(2.29) (I believe)

[Patrick Sparkman]

Something that might help, take a look at the below Multistream presentation, it shows what an invite should look like so you can try and see if the SX80 is negotiating Multistream with the TelePresence Server.  It also provides some configuration and troubleshooting examples.

BRKUCC-2325 - Understanding Multistream in CMR Cloud, Hybrid, and on-Premises