Speaker View

[Gauranga]

Hi all

I am the host (admin also) of a seminar and I will be introducing a speaker. Then the speaker will take over. I want to record myself in full screen and after I have introduced the speaker I want to hand over to him, also in full screen. In the recording I want to only see myself and then the speaker, no thumbnails etc. What is the best way of doing this. Generally the speaker view switches to whoever speaks. this is quite disturbing. Even in the question and answer session afterwards I only want to see the speaker and hear the questions from participants, but don't want to see their video. Can I only achieve this by muting participants? Is the spotlighting feature the way to go?

[Rupert]

Hi @Gauranga 

Spotlighting would be a way to go. That will go to your recording - and will become the default view for everyone else also. But if they have dual monitors enabled, they will still be able to see Gallery View in one screen and Spotlighted speaker in another. So if you want other people to certainly not see anyone else at all, you may need to give this some further thought.

I can help here, if so.

[Gauranga]

Thank you so much, Rupert. 

I tried the spotlight and it worked like a charm, even seemlesly moving the spotlight from myself as host of the session to  our speaker.  Now a few further questions arose. 

What if there are less than 3 participants with video. Our people are very camera shy. Does this mean the spotlighting feature wouldn't work? It has to be at least 3 participants with video on? Do I have to take part with my mobile too, additionally to my laptop, in order to boost the numbers? Or is it a way to go to have all participants muted on entry to avoid the speaker view switching between participants? This is what I want to avoid at all cost. It really destroys the recording. 

Is there a way to force mute participants so they cannot unmute themselves? And if so, can I lift this 'force mute' once they raise their hand during the Q & A part of the session? Or are there any other ways to achieve this?

I am looking forward to your enlightening instructions. 

[kjhartma]

You should also be able to hide the floating video panel from the meeting controls, and hide non-video participants while sharing a screen.  Those might work, I would test first if possible.