Camera on in Breakout Rooms

[civilscout]

OK, I'm using WebEx Training for my non-profit groups to meet.

Breakout rooms are core to our regular meetings, HOWEVER, once we go into breakout rooms, all of our cameras turn off (well, most of them turn off, but regardless we can't see each other in the breakout session).  If my breakout room host wants to share a whiteboard or show a PPT, then it works great, but if they want to just have a 'face-to-face' with a smaller group, then I can't figure out how to enable this.

Is there a way to enable this, or could it be added?

Thanks!

[CarlosGarciaDubus58516]

Estoy usando WebEx Training.

En los breakout groups la función de cámara de video no funciona.

Es posible habilitarla?

Carlos García-Dubus

[skilambi]

This has been identified as feature request and is on the roadmap 2H of the year

[KGO7]

Thank you @skilambi and @SusieT  for that information. From an educator's point of view, if there is any way this addition could happen before the fall academic year, it would be a game-changer for many institutions.

[SusieT]

@KGO7 It is my understanding that there are no plans to add any new features to Training, and instead we will focus on incorporating them into Webex Meetings in phases. Video breakouts, hard mute (host has an option to mute such that attendees cannot unmute themselves unless host wants them to), Q&A in Meetings, and co-host functions are in the first phase of this development.

[KGO7]

Thank you @SusieT  - we use Meetings, not Training, so that is what I was hoping for.

[SusieT]

That's good to hear! It's a BIG request now, as you can imagine, so I know our product team is working hard to get this to you guys! We just have to make sure it's completely secure, as security is what we're built on! Stay tuned and if I get any additional information on timelines that I can share, I'll definitely post back here!

[heuveb]

Hi Susie,

What is the current status on adding break-out groups (*with* video!) to Meetings? I read in some other post (I don't remember where) that it might be available some time in September? Is that right?   As someone said, this would be a total game-changer for our institution; our institution supports WebEx ... but many faculty are using Zoom anyway because of the lack of video in break-out sessions.

Thank you!

Bram

[Jason.Klakoff]

Good news!  Here's an article that was posted recently on Cisco's Webex Help Center page:

https://help.webex.com/en-us/n8dklav/Explore-Training-Capabilities-in-Webex-Meetings

Explore Training Capabilities in Webex Meetings

Take advantage of the latest training capabilities available for the 40.9 Webex Meetings desktop app. Whether your meetings require more moderation or a virtual classroom, we’ve made teaching and training easier by adding video breakout sessions and cohosts. When your students or attendees need help, you can join individual video breakout sessions to see, hear, and share content to answer questions or clarify instructions. 

[heuveb]

Awesome!!  So do I need to download a new version of Meetings?

[Jason.Klakoff]

Yes, but that should be handled for you when your Webex service receives the update (based on the cluster group you're in).  After receiving the update, open your Webex Desktop app and it should detect the new version of your service and automatically run through the upgrade. 

If it doesn't, you can also open the Webex Desktop app, click on the menu gear icon in the top left corner, and select Check for Updates... 

The installation is pretty quick and easy.

[heuveb]

Thanks!  I contacted our IT people and they said that it is going to be a scheduled update sometime in September. Can't wait!!!

[EricGordon111415]

This is exciting. We, as an organization, might be in a "future cluster," since when I click "Check for updates," I am told that version 48.8.4.7 is the most current version.

I have reached out to our IT group to see if they have a sense of when 49.0 will be available. I am assuming that everyone on the Webex meeting must have updated their desktop app, correct?

[Matt_W]

this is not a current feature on Webex Event Center. However, face to face breakouts are slated for later this year in standard webex meeting center.

[SusieT]

Video is not available for Breakout sessions in Training. Webex will be incorporating breakout sessions (with video!) into Meetings this year. In the short term, we've used Webex Teams to have video breakout sessions in a unique way. One of my fellow CSMs created this attachment to explain how to do it. Hope this helps!

[Flora8612]

This can be confusing for participants and result in dropout during the breakout session.

[heuveb]

Could you please elaborate on how it is confusing to participants?

[Flora8612]

People have to join the breakout session via a link rather than within the same webinar session.

We need the breakout to have video feature thus the only way of having 5 rooms is to use 5 licenses to create 5 sessions to run simultaneously. People may be confused and join the wrong session and we cannot assign them prior to the session.

[heuveb]

Oh!  Is that within WebEx Training? My guess is not, since Training never supported camera within the break-out sessions in the first place, and breaking into groups was done automatically, and no separate links were needed to join the groups. So are you talking about WebEx Teams? 

Also, my understanding is that we're going to get break-pout sessions supported within WebEx Meetings, so hopefully that'll solve all problems.

[Flora8612]

Hopefully . We are not using WebEx teams as again that requires additional software to be downloaded which our company’s laptop restrict .

This is the issue we are facing for poll editor as well.

[KGO7]

@SusieT  do you know when Cisco will be releasing breakout sessions into Meetings? And will this be possible from your personal meeting room? This is such critical functionality for classrooms, and the ease of the PMR access is what we are looking for.