if participants want to speak and be seen, they must request the floor from the chair. the chair has the option of granting the floor, granting audio, or rejecting the requests.

    floor request

    when a participant requests the floor, the raised-hand icon appears in the chair.s multicast control dialog box. also, a floor request icon appears next to the requester.s name.

    · to grant the floor

    select the requesting participant and then press the blue grant floor softkey. if the floor is accepted, the participant.s video and audio is seen and heard by everyone in the conference.

   

    audio request

    when a participant requests only audio control, the raised-hand icon appears in the chair.s multicast control dialog box. also, an audio request icon appears next to the requester.s name.

    · to grant the audio only

    select the requesting participant and then press the yellow grant audio softkey. if the audio is accepted, the participant is heard by everyone in the meeting, although the video remains unchanged.

   

    reclaim floor

    if one of the participants has the floor or only audio, the chair can take the floor back at any time.

    · to take back the floor

    press the green reclaim floor softkey. the floor automatically returns to the chair.

    granting all participant requests automatically

    suppose that you, in your role as the chair, want the interactive multicast to proceed as a free discussion. in auto grant mode, all participants can contribute to the discussion without receiving your permission.

    in auto grant mode, the chair does not see the participant requests because they are granted automatically. the current speaker can be seen (if he/she has video capability) and heard by everyone else in the interactive multicast.

    only one person at a time can have the floor. to avoid conflicts and quick hopping from one request to another, a delay period of several seconds passes after the system grants a request. during this delay period, no other requests are granted.

    the floor can always be requested again later.

    the auto grant mode overrides all participants. willing to accept floor anytime settings. there is no need for a participant to accept or reject the floor.

    · to automatically grant participant requests

    ■ in the multicast control dialog box, select auto grant.

    to exit auto grant mode, deselect this option.

   

    clearing requests from participants

    suppose that you, in your role as the chair, are receiving floor and/or audio requests from participants. however, you want to continue speaking without interruption. in this situation, use the clear requests function to reject and remove all pending requests. participants may make their requests again later.

    · to clear pending requests to speak

    ■ in the multicast control dialog box, select clear req.

    all participants that sent a request receive a message stating that the chair rejected their floor requests.