Change layout for all or selected participants in a meeting

You can change the video layout for all participants or selected participants by clicking on individual participant who are dialing in from a SIP endpoint and web app. You can choose one of the layouts shown here:

Except for the Single layout, these are dynamic layout "families" that change as more participants enter the meeting. For instance, the Equal layout is showing panes of equal size, and it expands from a 4 participant view up to a 25 participant view.

For more information about the different layouts, see Cisco Meeting Server Administrator Quick Reference Guide: Screen Layouts and Pane Placement.

You can assign a preset layout for the new participants joining an ongoing meeting or those who reconnect after being disconnected from the meeting, providing a seamless experience. Any layout set by a meeting participant using the web app will override the layout that you have set for that participant using Meeting Management

Only individual participants who have layout permissions can subsequently change their layout.

Note: If pane placement is turned on, we recommend that you use the Pane placement configuration button to change layouts. This is because pane placement uses specific versions of each layout family that you cannot choose here.

Note: Only a subset of the existing Meeting Server layouts are available in Meeting Management.

You cannot change layouts for Lync/Skype for Business clients or for the web app. Also, some endpoints may have different layouts than the ones available on the Meeting Server, or show different behavior when you try to change the layout. See our knowledge base for an overview:

How will my endpoint layout controls behave when used with Cisco Meeting Server and managed by Cisco Meeting Management

Assign custom layouts

If you have purchased license for customizable layouts, you can apply a customized screen layout that suits your specific needs for the ongoing meetings and/or the participants in the meeting. These layouts are defined in the Meeting Server and hence Meeting Management does not supports adding, deleting, or editing custom layouts.

To apply customized layout for a meeting:

1. Navigate to the meeting you want to change layout for.

2. Click the Set layout button.

3. Use Select a screen layout for new participants drop-down to apply standard or custom layout for new participants joining the meeting.

4. Select the Same as connected participants check-box if you want the new participants joining the meeting to have the same layout as applied for the connected participants.

5. Select the custom layout to be applied from the available list of customized layout.

6. Click the Apply button to apply the changes made while selecting the layout or use the Cancel button to cancel the changes without applying them.

To apply customized layout for selected participants:

1. Navigate to the meeting.

2. Select the participants for applying custom layout.

3. Click Set layout button above the participant list.

4. Use Select a screen layout for new participants drop-down to apply standard or custom layout for new participants joining the meeting.

5. Select the Same as connected participants check-box if you want the new participants joining the meeting to have the same layout as applied for the connected participants.

6. Select the custom layout to be applied from the available list of customized layouts.

7. Click the Apply button to apply the changes made while selecting the layout or use the Cancel button to cancel the changes without applying them.

Meeting Management supports a maximum of 20 custom layouts. Meeting Management displays five custom layouts at a time with a link to view more layouts. Customizable layouts are not supported on triple screen endpoints.

In case there are no custom layouts defined in Meeting Server, Meeting Management will display only the standard layouts.

Points to note

• The layout once selected will be retained till the meeting is in progress unless you modify it.

• If the layout for new participants is not selected or if None option, then the standard layout is applied for the new participants joining the meeting, even if a layout is applied for the meeting.

• If pane placement for new participants and layout for new participants, both are applied to a meeting, pane placement for new participants takes precedence, and the new participants joining the meeting will view the layout selected in the pane placement model that is applied for new participants.

• When pane placement is applied in a meeting, participants who have permissions to change layout can still choose a different layout. The layout selected in the applied model will be overridden by the layout chosen by such participants and they will see the placed participants in other positions on their screen than the ones you defined.

• In a cluster setup with multiple Meeting Managements, the layout applied for participants from a specific Meeting Management will be applied to all participants joining the meeting throughout the cluster.