webinar panelist

[carmelelsie]

Is there a way to freeze the video position of the panelist during a panel discussion so the videos don't keep moving around as the different panelist speak?

[Ray_Harwood]

Yes, @carmelelsie, this is easy to do.  I'll explain my approach.  But please do read carefully through this Zoom Support article; it should help you in a lot of ways.  In addition, this Zoom Support article will explain Spotlighting which I mention below.

The first thing I do is to set the Attendee View to Side-By-Side Speaker.  This way, you as host can change how you are looking at things, but you will keep the attendees always focused on the presenting speakers.

Then, locate your speaker -- either the video on your display, or their name in the Participants list.  Locate "Spotlight for Everyone" and click it.  For attendees, their "Speaker view" will now ONLY include the one speaker.

Suppose you have two speakers who are talking alternately?  Locate the second speaker (usually you'll do this through Participant's window) and click More and locate Add Spotlight.  Now both of your speakers will be shown... in the order they were selected.  So if you have a primary speaker and a secondary speaker, pick the primary speaker first, to they will be in the top video.

If you have more speakers, locate them and click Add Spotlight.  Note you can only spotlight 9 participant's videos.

Sometimes panelists will spontaneously want to jump in and add something.  Locate them, click Add Spotlight;  when they're done, since they will be displayed on your screen, it's easy to right-click on their video and select Remove Spotlight.

Now suppose that session is over, and there's a new speaker.  Locate the new speaker in the Participant window or in their video window and click Replace Spotlight;  the newly selected person will now be the only spotlight shown.

When the presentations are over, if you want Zoom to control who is shown based on who is talking, either click Remove Spotlight on each spotlighted person, or locate the Remove All Spotlights menu item in the View menu (upper right corner).

[carmelelsie]

Thanks for the information.  I am referring more to when you have a panel discussion so there will be anywhere from 6-12 videos of all of the panelists at one time.  The videos are in the grid mode and I want them to stay put instead of sometimes the move around.  For example, when they raise their hand.  Is there a way to keep the videos from moving around on the screen?  Thanks

[Ray_Harwood]

Spotlight them... except you're limited to 9 spotlights.  Beyond that, you'd need something very custom and not cheap.  There are sites out there that might be able to do that for you... but Zoom can't at this point.

The volunteers in the Zoom Community handle feature requests, but you could make a feature request directly to Zoom staff:
https://www.zoom.us/feed