Meetings and web meetings

General

XPhone Connect provides a conference dial-in service for internal and external conference calls. A telephone number from your company number plan is used for this purpose: Value-added premium rate numbers are not required.

Meetings can be easily planned in the appointment overview offered by the groupware interface (e.g. Microsoft Outlook). Participants are notified by e-mail of times and access data. XPhone Connect users are identified directly via their phone numbers. No PIN entry is required.

Meetings can be easily controlled via the Client and extended as required to include multi-user chat or screen-sharing. Thanks to the Active Speaker function, the name of current speaker is always shown in the Client.

Advantages over a standard conference:

  • Participants dial into the meeting - the moderator does not need to call each one individually.

  • Jeder XPhone Benutzer erhält eine grafische Übersicht über die eingewählten Teilnehmer.

  • Series meetings are also feasible.

  • Meeting appointments can be easily planned/cancelled via groupware interface (e.g. Microsoft Outlook).

Tip

In screen sharing (1:1), remote control with the mouse (options in the active meeting, top right) can also be given to the participant. In the meeting options or by using the key combination ALT+Pause the control of the mouse can be retrieved.

The difference between a meeting and a group chat

  • The difference between meetings and purely group chats lies in the additional media channels (audio, screen sharing).

  • Meetings can also include external web participants (web meetings).

  • Meetings can be planned (e.g. in Outlook) or created spontaneously (ad hoc) in the Client (likewise from an ongoing group chat or phone call).

Web meeting

Web meetings allow guest participants to participate in XPhone Connect meetings via a browser. This includes audio, chat and screen sharing (these functions can, however, be deactivated by the administrator or be limited to full HD resolution, for example). The link to the web meeting is in the Options of the meeting planned or already started; accordingly, an invitation to participate can also be sent spontaneously, e.g. by e-mail or text message.

When invited, e.g. via the XPhone Connect Outlook plug-in, the external web meeting participant receives an email with the dial-in data for the meeting and a link to the XPhone web meeting. After accessing the meeting in the browser, the external participant logs in with name and email address. The dial-in number and the meeting ID are displayed on the initial page of the meeting so that the participant can dial in and the system correctly assigns the audio participant to the web participant.

If the meeting has not yet been started by the moderator (i.e. no moderator has dialled in yet or another media channel has opened), the external participant sees a page with all of the relevant meeting data. Dial-in is possible five minutes before the meeting starts. The external contact can participate by phone in an ongoing meeting and be involved in the chat in the browser or see screen sharing - depending on the communication channels enabled by the moderator in the meeting.

Hint

If the presenter uses a higher resolution for screen sharing than full HD (1920 x 1080), it is advisable to clarify with the administrator before the web meeting whether he has configured a restriction of resolution on the XPhone Connect Server for screen sharing in web meetings. In this case, the screen cannot be approved with higher resolution - either the resolution must be reduced to full HD or the server-side restriction lifted. If the presentation involves a higher resolution, presentation on the participant side can be of poor quality due to the requisite scaling; this effect is avoided or mitigated by restricting to full HD.

Meeting (Moderator)

  1. To create a meeting in XPhone Connect Client, click on the menue menu icon at the top right and then on New ad-hoc meeting.

    • Create a meeting planned for the future in Outlook or Notes, for example.

  2. As an option, enter a meeting topic and click Start meeting.

  3. Select a channel to start the meeting with (Audio Conference, Chat, Screen Sharing). You can add more channels later in the current meeting.

    • When dialling into the audio conference, you are usually automatically recognised on the basis of your phone number. If not, click Show login details in the meeting options.

    Hint

    Participants who are not moderators can only join the meeting when a moderator is present - this also applies for participants in the web meeting.

  4. If you wish to add more participants, click rueckfrage.

    Hint

    If you are unable to participate in the meeting, use the participant options (…) to appoint other participants from the list as Moderator.

  5. Small icons are displayed next to each participant. If these are grey, the connection is inactive and the participant has not yet joined the audio conference, chat or screen share.

    • An active speaker is always indicated by this symbol conf-speaker.

  6. In the participant options (…), the moderator can:

    • Appoint participants as moderators.

    • Log out participants from the meeting.

    • Open participant contact cards.

  7. In the Options for the ongoing meeting, the moderator can:

    • Show and copy access data.

    • Mute/Activate participants.

    • Lock meetings for dialling in by other participants.

Hint

If the moderator loses the connection to the meeting, for example because the battery of his cell phone has run out, he can dial in again. By default, the meeting is kept active for 10 minutes in such a case before it is automatically terminated (this can be set by the administrator).

The moderator concept

Permissions in the XPhone Connect moderator concept

Action

Moderator

Participant

Create meeting

-

Start meeting

-

Lock/Unlock meeting

-

Allocate/Change topic

-

Leave meeting

End meeting

-

Appoint moderators

-

Remove moderator status

-

Add participant

-

Remove participant

-

Hang up participant

-

Mute participant

-

End mute

-

Start chat

Share screen

Meeting (participants)

Each participant who has been previously invited by a moderator will receive an email with the required access data (if the moderator has activated the audio channel).

For XPhone Connect Client users, depending on the setting, a toast to the meeting or directly a new conversation (meeting) appears, where the access data is displayed in the upper area under Options.

Depending on the system configuration, several dial-in numbers are available, whereby each dial-in number is allocated to a language. Select the corresponding language and select (or click) the phone number shown.

Your selected device (phone, AnyDevice, Softphone Desktop, or SoftPhone Mobile) establishes a connection to the conference service. Normally, you will be automatically recognized via your phone number. If you are still asked for a participant ID, enter it or click on it (see e-mail or XPhone Connect Client conversation), conclude with #.

Hint

If a participant has lost his connection to the meeting as his mobile phone battery has died, for example, he can dial in again.

When you close the meeting conversation window, it stays active in the background and you continue to receive chat messages and can rejoin the meeting through the Journal. You can end the ongoing meeting via Options > Leave meeting for good, after which you will no longer receive any messages concerning this meeting.

Plan meeting in Outlook

You can schedule a meeting in Outlook just like a normal appointment; the function can also be accessed directly from the XPhone Connect Client (menu icon menue > Schedule meeting in Outlook).

Hint

Your administrator can also configure the use of Office 365. In this case, the button is called Schedule meeting in Office 365. However, the other settings take place in the same way as in Outlook.

The XPhone Connect plugin installed for this purpose offers the button conference New meeting in Outlook.

  1. Click on conference New meeting.

  2. The Appointment window appears with a newly created meeting ID.

  3. Enter the recipient, subject, date, duration and, if necessary, a text.

  4. Using the Meeting options button, you can appoint participants from the invitation list previously saved as moderators, e.g. for the event that the inviting party is unable to participate in the meeting. The participant must be an XPhone Connect user to become a moderator.

    Hint

    For series meetings, moderators can only be appointed in advance for the respective series but not for individual series dates.

  5. Click Send to plan the meeting and send the invitations.

If you wish to cancel a meeting, open your Outlook calendar, find the meeting calendar entry and simply send a cancellation.

Hint

Please note that it is currently not possible to interrupt meetings in progress and resume them at a later point in time. If a meeting is to be interrupted, a completely new meeting must be scheduled for the later date and all participants must be invited again (however, you can transfer the participants of the interrupted meeting to a new, unscheduled meeting via the meeting entry in the journal). Likewise, an appointment of a meeting that has already ended cannot simply be rescheduled, since new dial-in data, such as IDs, must be generated for each meeting.

Hint

When creating meetings as a deputy, the deputy must have the Publishing editor right (Outlook permission) to be able to create the meeting in the foreign calendar. Creator and owner must both be XPhone users. The deputy is always owner and moderator of the meeting, other participants can also be appointed as moderator.

Plan meeting in Notes

You can plan a meeting in Notes the same way as for a normal appointment.

Use the New > Meeting and conference Plan meeting action in the Notes contacts and in the Notes mail data base.

  1. Click New > Meeting or conference Plan meeting.

  2. A meeting form appears with a newly created meeting ID.

  3. Enter the recipient, subject, date, duration and, if necessary, a text.

  4. Click Send to plan the meeting.

If you wish to cancel a meeting, open your Notes calender, find the meeting calender entry, click Reject and send a cancellation.

Hint

Please note that it is currently not possible to interrupt meetings in progress and resume them at a later point in time. If a meeting is to be interrupted, a completely new meeting must be scheduled for the later date and all participants must be invited again (however, you can transfer the participants of the interrupted meeting to a new, unscheduled meeting via the meeting entry in the journal). Likewise, an appointment of a meeting that has already ended cannot simply be rescheduled, since new dial-in data, such as IDs, must be generated for each meeting.

Hint

Series meetings are only possible when Automatic calender synchronisation is activated (which then starts automatically every 1-2 minutes).

Hint

Contact groups can be created in Notes. Meetings can be planned for entire groups here, too.

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