Simultaneous Panelists - 4 speakers on at one time

[Mimili]

i need to have 4 people on for a webinar but can't figure out how to do that with pinning and/or spotlighting. we've tested a few formats and never are able to get multiple people on at the same time when we look at the recording

[bstrelko]

Spotlighting is definitely what you want here - pinning is local-only.

You should be able to spotlight up to 9 participants, as outlined here:

https://support.zoom.com/hc/en/article?id=zm_kb&sysparm_article=KB0066300

You will see spotlighting reflected in the "Gallery View" cloud recording.

Can you also confirm whether you are looking to perform cloud recording or local recording?

[Mimili]

Thank you! we are actually livestreaming which is our first priority, but we can clourd record or local record. Our preference is to be able to simultaneously have all speakers shown at the same time, but have not had any success despite diff tests

[bstrelko]

Got it, so you'll probably want to hard-set the attendee view to follow host-view and then spotlight.

It has been a second since I've used the livestreaming functionality on Zoom (there are many better platforms for this), so if someone knows about a view restriction for the RTMP feed that I'm unaware of, I'm sure they'll chime in here.

[Mimili]

we've done a bunch of testing and despite spotlighting, Zoom will show anyone with their camera on which is really frustrating...even though that person is not spotlighted, they show up in the attendee view

[bstrelko]

Have you tried forcing attendee-view to the various modes available (follow-host, active speaker, gallery)?

If none of them still show the spotlighted view, I would consider this a bug - please report.

It looks like there are several reports of similar bugs on the developer forum, but these are from a few years back. None have resolutions on record:

https://devforum.zoom.us/t/zoom-spotlight-not-working-on-youtube/43422

https://devforum.zoom.us/t/zoom-rtmp-livestream-does-not-match-zoom-screen/33594

[Ray_Harwood]

Welcome to the Zoom Community, @Mimili.

The rules aren't too complicated... they're just scattered over several Zoom Support pages.  Hopefully this will simplify them for you.

Pinning only affects your screen.  Any pins you do don't affect anyone else; consequently pinning isn't the answer.

Spotlighting works, but the terminology is poor, so you just have to learn the rules.  In a Webinar, the Host can control the View used by the attendees, which can be different than the Host view; the Panelists also have control over their own view, which need not match the setting for the Attendees.  In a Meeting, each attendee has control over their own view.

In Speaker View (or when screen sharing is in progress, Side-By-Side Speaker View):

• If there is no spotlighting, Zoom selects the Active Speaker which changes depending on who Zoom thinks is speaking at the time.
• If there is spotlighting, only spotlit panelists, host, and co-hosts will be shown.  Anyone not spotlit will not be shown. Anyone who has their camera off cannot be spotlit, but if they have they are spotlit (with camera on) and later turn their camera off, their camera slot will remain active, with either their profile picture or Display Name shown until they return or are un-spotlit.

In Gallery View (or when screen sharing is in progress, Side-By-Side Gallery View):

• Regardless of spotlighting, any panelist, host, or co-host that has their camera video On will be shown, up to 9 cameras.  Anyone with camera Off will not be shown.

There is also the "Standard View" during screen sharing:

• One camera of an active speaker will be shown, overlapping any screen share in progress.

I always recommend that Webinar producers set Attendee View to Speaker immediately, and ensure that Side-By-Side Speaker is selected upon the first screen share, and to coordinate with any Co-Hosts to NOT make changes to the Attendee View.  Further, I recommend that Hosts and Co-Hosts carefully control the cameras visible to the attendees using Spotlighting at all times -- except in the rare situation where there are a lot of people engaging in commentary, in which case leaving spotlighting off and allowing the "Active Speaker" mode to change to the person speaking; this has the side effect that barking dogs, crying children, and loud TVs in the background may trigger cameras inappropriately.

See this Zoom Support article for additional info:

https://support.zoom.com/hc/en/article?id=zm_kb&sysparm_article=KB0063276 

Unfortunately, this article in it's current state does not describe the Side-By-Side Attendee Views.

[Mimili]

Yah we forced the host view, tried combinations of pinning and spotlighting, to no avail. Thank you!