Glossary of Pexip Service terms
The following section contains a list of many of the terms used in the Pexip Service documentation.
Further below is another section dedicated to terms used in the metrics cards displayed at the top of various pages in Pexip Control Center.
General Pexip Service terminology
In relation to hardware video endpoints, activation is the process of getting subscription details and provisioning server information onto your device. Your endpoint then automatically initiates provisioning with the Pexip Service and registers with a PoP server, after which your device is set up to work with the service.
Typically activation is a one-off task and is initiated by a company administrator, whereas provisioning and maintaining contact with a PoP server are ongoing activities that happen automatically.
There are different methods of activation for different makes/models of endpoint.
Activation is the process of getting subscription details and provisioning server information onto your endpoint so that the device can initiate provisioning with the Pexip Service.
An intelligent conference layout with real-time automatic face detection and framing.
address-of-record is a field used in the SIP protocol and is defined within RFC 3261. In general terms it is the video address (SIPS URI / SIP URI) for a hardware video endpoint or for a video conferencing soft client user.
You can customize your meeting screens with your choice of background image and company logo. Including your brand in the meeting interface lets your employees and guests know they’re in the right place and creates a tighter brand experience with other company tools.
Custom branding can be applied to Pexip meetings (except one-time-use rooms) and our Microsoft Teams CVI and Google Meet interoperability screens.
See In-conference branding for more information,
In this documentation, 'call' is used as a generic term to mean two or more participants meeting with each other. Please note that the counts and graphs data in Pexip Control Center are either meeting-based or participant-based and include slightly different scenarios.
Cloud Video Interop (CVI) is a Microsoft Qualified third-party solution that enables third-party meeting rooms (telepresence) and personal video devices (VTCs) to join Microsoft Teams meetings.
See Microsoft Teams integration for more information.
In Pexip Control Center the term 'concurrent' is used when we count multiple participants in a meeting / using the service at the same time. A participant qualifies as concurrent the instant they join a meeting i.e. there is no requirement for a participant to have been present for a minimum amount of time before being counted.
A general term that can be used to refer to a specific instance of a meeting being held in a Virtual Meeting Room.
A conference/meeting that is currently taking place with at least one active participant. It can be in a personal/team VMR or a one-time room. Also called meeting instance.
Datacenter is another term for Point of Presence which is where Pexip Service servers that handle video conferencing calls are located. Here is the list of Pexip Service points of presence (PoPs).
A hardware device or soft client capable of participating in a conference. The endpoint's capabilities can vary from audio-only to full audio, video, and data sharing support.
Enhanced Room Management (ERM) is a separately-installable Pexip product that provides management of your Cisco and Poly devices and room systems. From system monitoring to bulk provisioning of software upgrades, address books, and branding profiles, it provides everything you need to manage your systems from one single management interface.
Each user (also referred to as members) within a company that uses the Pexip Service requires an EUL.
A gateway connection is created when a user joins a Google Meet or MS Teams meeting via Pexip's Google Meet or Teams integration using a hardware video endpoint, the Pexip app or the Skype for Business client. Hardware endpoints may be SIP (and may be registered with the Pexip Service or not) or H.323.
A conference participant who has privileges to control aspects of the conference.
The layout used in a conference determines how meeting participants are displayed when they are connected over video, and how other participants — such as those with an audio-only connection — are indicated.
The Adaptive Composition layout is the default layout for all Pexip meetings, but can be changed during the meeting by Host participants using SIP/H.323 endpoints that support DTMF keypad controls by pressing *8, or on Cisco endpoints via the Pexip Layout Controls macro.
See How do the meeting layouts work? for more information.
If you have a dual screen endpoint you can display conference participants across both screens, allowing you to show more participants than if you have a single screen. This display mode is currently only available for the following meeting, layout and endpoint types:
- Conferences hosted in a Pexip VMR.
- Calls into a Microsoft Teams or Google Meet conference.
- Where the conference layout is 1+7, 1+0, 2x2, Adaptive Composition or Teams-like.
- Available to SIP and H.323 endpoints.
The multiscreen display mode can be toggled on and off by a using a DTMF dial tone command sent from the endpoint: press *9 on the keypad to toggle the mode.
This command can also be used to apply multiscreen display mode to a dual screen endpoint that has dual screens but the additional screen has not been detected.
When toggling the multiscreen mode, it only applies to the endpoint sending the enable/disable command, and not to all participants in the conference.
See Using endpoints to control the layout and manage meetings.
A one-time room is designed to be used once only and has a unique conference ID. Members can choose to use a one-time room when scheduling a meeting in advance, having already installed some optional Pexip software.
Pexip's
A hardware video endpoint user or a soft client user who joins a meeting or a makes/receives a direct person-to-person call. The user:
- may have a Pexip endpoint subscription or End User License, or
- they may belong to a company with an MS Teams or Google Meet interop subscription, or
- they may be a guest from another organization.
In Pexip Control Center a participant is counted once for each meeting or person-to-person call they are in. For example, if there are two meetings with the same five participants in each meeting, that counts as ten participants in total. Please note we currently do not show data for PSTN participants.
The number of participants includes failed attempts to join a meeting. For example, if the same person tries to join a meeting twice the participant count for that meeting is increased by two.
A personal virtual meeting room is created for every Pexip member i.e. for everyone who has an End User License. It has a unique conference ID and is designed for reuse.
A direct call between two participants only. For example, the call may be initiated by one person dialing another person's personal video address either from the directory in the Pexip apps or by entering the dial string directly. Participants may be using a soft client or a hardware video endpoint. Person-to-person calls are not counted in meeting-based
Pexip Control Center (PCC) is the platform we're developing to bring the admin and analytics tasks for all users — company admins and users — into one place. Over time it will replace some features of the Pexip apps.
See What is Pexip Control Center? for more information.
In PCC, Pexip meetings are those held in team and personal virtual meeting rooms only. Pexip one-time meetings are not included, they are counted separately.
In PCC, Pexip one-time meetings are those held in a one-time room.
This is Pexip's managed video conferencing-as-a-service (VCaaS) solution. Key elements of the solution are: video meeting and calling platform; video conferencing endpoint registration; Microsoft and Google Meet interoperability.
A Pexip PoP is where Pexip Service servers that handle video conferencing calls are located. Here is the list of Pexip Service points of presence (PoPs).
Provisioning is the ongoing process whereby a device contacts the provisioning server every 15 minutes (except Poly Trios which can only contact every hour) to fetch configuration updates, including details of the server address that it should register to. This enables the endpoint to switch to using a different Point of Presence (PoP) as required.
The Pexip Service add-in for Outlook lets you easily add a VMR — either your own, or a one-time-use room — to meetings that you create or edit in your Outlook desktop client.
You can also schedule video meetings from your Pexip app.
See Creating invites to send for more information.
Single Sign-On (SSO) is an increasingly common feature of web services and business tools that enables users to authenticate and log into a third-party service or web page, using the same login credentials as the other systems they already use.
The main benefits are:
- Convenience and security: the ability to securely log into multiple tools with the same login credentials.
- Reduced tech support costs and greater efficiency with only one password to remember.
- Faster, simpler user administration.
Pexip's standard Microsoft Teams and Google Meet interoperability solutions allow your own video conferencing endpoints (and your guests) to join Microsoft Teams / Google Meet meetings that you are hosting. The "SIP Guest Join" (SGJ) feature lets you join Microsoft Teams and Google Meet meetings with your own video conferencing endpoints where that meeting is being hosted by an external third-party organization who has not enabled Pexip interoperability themselves.
Note that this is a guest join experience, therefore someone has to be in the Microsoft Teams / Google Meet meeting to admit you from the lobby.
A loopback service that allows users to check the quality of their video and audio prior to joining a conference, and verifies that they can connect to the Pexip Service.
A smaller window at the bottom of the main picture which displays the live video stream from a conference participant. Sometimes referred to as a PiP (Picture in Picture).
A personal virtual meeting space, for example, personal VMR, team VMR or one-time room.
Pexip Control Center metrics
Here are all the terms used in the metrics cards that you see at the top of the , , , , , and pages.
Unless otherwise stated in the definitions below, the data shown in the metrics cards are meetings-based meaning that it covers data from: Pexip meetings (in personal virtual rooms or team rooms), Pexip one-time room meetings, MS Teams meetings, and Google Meet meetings; all the users (except for PSTN users) and devices that joined the meeting regardless of whether they are registered to the Pexip Service. It does not include information from Skype for Business meetings, or direct person-to-person calls. In Teams/Meet interop calls, native Teams/Meet clients are excluded.
Total number of users that are currently idle (online) or in a meeting.
The number of video systems that are subscribed to the Pexip Service and currently registered and powered on. It's the sum of devices that are Idle (online) or in a meeting.
The sum of total call minutes divided by total calls.
Total call data is participant-based and includes data from logged in users and devices that are registered to the Pexip Service only. All supported meeting types and direct person-to-person calls are included.
How long a participant spends in a meeting on average.
Idle status means the service is receiving regular keep-alive messages that tell the service that the user/video system is able to participate in a meeting/call.
For the user, this indicates the user is logged in to the app. For a video system, it means the device is powered on, activated and registered.
Count of those currently in a meeting (users, video systems, rooms). For registered users, it only includes users who are logged in.
Count of Pexip meetings currently ongoing.
Count of participants currently in a Pexip meeting, including participants who have joined as guest.
The highest number of meetings that have taken place all at the same time. Includes all meeting types.
The highest number of participants engaged in a meeting — not necessarily the same meeting — at the same point in time. Covers all meeting types, and includes participants who have joined as guest.
The highest number of participants counted in a single meeting, so far.
Offline status means the service has stopped receiving keep-alive messages that tell the service that the user/video system is able to participate in a meeting/call.
For users, this is usually because the user is not logged in to the app. For video systems, the device may just be powered off, or it may not be registered.
How many participants there are in a meeting on average.
Total call data is participant-based and includes data from logged in users and devices that are registered to the Pexip Service only. All supported meeting types and direct person-to-person calls are included.
This includes all currently supported meetings types such as Pexip meetings, one-time-room-meetings, Teams meetings, and Google Meet meetings.
Total number of minutes spent in meetings by all participants.
The sum of all participants that have attended all meetings. For example, if the same user has attended 15 different meetings, that's 15 participants.
Total number of video systems. These devices have been assigned a license, but may not be registered, activated, provisioned and powered on.
Total number of virtual meeting rooms.