"Focus" view no longer available

[VLS]

Hi everyone,

I use Webex with the "Focus" view, but now I've seen that the feature is no longer available.

Do you know if there is a way to return to the previous application or, in any case, how to have the "Focus" view back?

Thanks in advance.

[ASBoyles]

In working with our WebEx Admin, Cisco's work-around is for the host to either zoom in on the person to be recorded or move them to stage. The host would then share their meeting content with everyone which locks everyone to the same screen (the way the host sees) and start the recording. By doing that, the recording actually records the shared content (since recording Focus is no longer an option). It works, but is not ideal. We have been told that Cisco is working on a better solution, but that's what we have been directed to do for now to ensure the content to be recorded is what actually gets recorded. In our situation, no one else shares their screen during the sessions.

[Kathy N.]

The Webex View layout options did change in the April release.  Please see the update notes at this LINK to see the new options.  For the Focus view you want, you can leave it in Grid view and zoom in so only one speaker is shown and you have options to Pin in the Stack or Side by Side views so that only the active speaker or a specific person is "On Stage." 

Hope this helps but please reply back if you have more questions.  I also appreciate it if the post was helpful to mark it.

Thank you,  

[benerson]

This can work, but when other people talk the selected video will switch to the user.  This makes our setup using multiple monitors so that the presenters can see specific people useless.  Seems like the easiest solution is to just allow the ability to "pin" again.

[eric.myers]

You can move presenters to the 'stage', but then as  ssteffensen 1 said, you can uncheck "show active speaker in stage" to keep just that presenter there. The problem is that you still get a filmstrip of other presenters along the top or side of the main presenter. I'm thinking now that there may be away to defeat that, but might need an additional monitor connected to accomplish it.

[ssteffensen1]

There is an option to "show active speaker in stage" that can be unclicked under the layout section. This is a mandatory setting for me to enable to avoid someone with an open mic popping up on the stage when you don't want them to be!

[kglick]

Yes the view and layout functions have changed drastically in 41.4.  Cisco has badly broken the pinning functionality and my customers are screaming. This article, posted on 4/15, is entirely incorrect.  Locking focus in 41.4 does not work like this in the slightest. https://help.webex.com/en-us/la12o0/Select-Who-You-Want-to-Focus-on-in-the-Main-Window-in-Webex-Meetings-and-Webex-Events

Today, in 41.4 in order to (pin) lock focus on a user, one must first find the video thumbnail of the attendee/presenter you want to focus on, click on the ellipsis in their video thumbnail "move them to stage" and then "sync my view for everyone".  There is no clicking the lock at the top of the screen and using the text search to quickly find the participant on whom you want to (pin) "lock focus".  Instead you have to scroll through however many thumbnails you may have in order to find the individual.  Doing that in a 50+ person meeting is beyond painful.  It makes the functionality, essentially, useless!

[ssteffensen1]

I agree....Cisco needs to add the ability to search to easily add someone to the stage!!

Maybe that we'll be so lucky to see it come in 41.6

[Ashish Patel]

Might help https://help.webex.com/en-us/xcwws1/What-s-New-for-the-Latest-Channel-of-Webex-Meetings "Scale or Hide the Filmstrip in the Stage Views"

[eric.myers]

This looks promising

[eric.myers]

If you have a dual screen set up, you can make your 'stage' full screen then move the pallet of other attendees to the second screen and make that full screen (using the double carat on the pallet). From there you can lock participants to the first 5-6 locations. When you select the Lock Participants option then you get the search window, which helps when you have more than 25 people attending. Then once you have them locked on the second screen you can move them to the stage. 

[ASBoyles]

This works fine for live meetings, BUT when recording, it records everything, not just the participant you want to record. In the past, we could put the participant in focus and set the recording preferences to Focus so we would only record the video of the participant in focus while also capturing all of the audio from the meeting. This is a big issue for us...

[PMartinez_SLCo]

I have the exact same issue from one of my users as well. Thanks for pointing it out @ASBoyles 

[stefanduenkel]

this is working just till someone shares their screen. then everything gets messed up and you get the screen share in large and your focus on one participant is gone. this is a big problem for us, because we normally use web ex for Call ins into livestreams.

[eric.myers]

You can hide the shared content, but it's more difficult to do now. You have to get your camera views back into a floating box and then clicking the double-carrot in the top right corner to get the camera views enlarged and the shared content in the floating box.

The other way to get almost full screen video is to go to grid view and then use the magnifying slider to zoom up to one camera view, but it doesn't fill the screen and you always have the left and right arrows on screen to scroll to the other attendees.

[stefanduenkel]

Yes. Iknow how to get it back.
But you cant just fix it. If i use one focused camera as a source for a livestream and someone is sharing his screen this focused Camera is gone. Not working for me

[Mario De Agostinis]

I cannot find anymore the option: Lock video for everyone.

Is there a way to lock a video for everyone, even if that video is not the speaker ?

Thanks !

[kglick]

First find the video thumbnail of the person on whom you want to "lock focus".  Click the ellipsis in the top right of the thumbnail and select "move to stage".  Now click "layout" and select "sync my view for everyone".  This applies to 41.4 and possibly 41.2-3.  When you sync your view for everyone, the view layout of attendees changes to match yours.  The unfortunate part of this is that under the older functionality attendees COULD NOT change away from your pinning choice.  Now they can thus robbing hosts and presenters of the ability to show and conduct the meeting in the visual manner which they desire.

[PMartinez_SLCo]

The problem we have is the recording shows the film strip even if you have focus set as the recording default. You used to be able to pin the user and it would record that way. Hopefully Cisco will address soon. They are usually pretty good at fixing features that used to work and now don't.

[kglick]

Check via a browser your personal room preferences settings for recordings. That's what controls what the recording looks like.

kev

[PMartinez_SLCo]

Yep, did that before posting on community board. Thanks for the suggestion though.