Video chat and conferencing options

[seeker]

I am interested in exploring some options to provide community members, friends and family on the fly video chat/ conferencing. I have been following this thread here https://forum.cloudron.io/topic/1958/upcoming-apps/32?_=1585231731638
which touched on upcoming applications- for which MANY were interested in expanding their current video capability.

Initially, I am interested in being able to host both 1 and 1 video chats and also group video chats. It would also be nice if others could do the same I am trying to make it so that there is just a single user login. I have liked using rocket chat, but I am open to other options as well (Riot/ next cloud) In the thread about upcoming app's I saw the Jitsi might be able to also replace Teamviewer. I have also heard of Jami, which is open source and very similar to skype. https://jami.net/ I have not heard any mention of Jami here. https://git.ring.cx/savoirfairelinux

So far I am leaning towards Jitsi. I really like BBB but I feel it might require more server strength than I can afford. Being able to create a room and have people invited to that room would be nice. I would rather the people invited to that room not be able to see the other rooms or the other people with accounts.

Single login (or as few as possible)
File sharing (similar to next cloud)
1 on 1 video chat ( single click would be nice to launch)
Group chat ( similar to google hangouts)
Screen sharing , white boars, ether pad integrated in video call
Sharing prerecorded video
Ability to create & join conference from smartphone
Recording web conference ( can use OBS)
Remote Desktop like teamviewer. Had not thought about this, but this would be amazing.

How are others running things? Would really like to hear about people's set-ups. I am new to this, but learning.

I have a Next Cloud installation, and am considering trying talk. But My understanding is that each person would need to have an account and I do not think you can host many people in a conference.

[nebulon]

Nearly all of those apps require a TURN/STUN server to work well across different networks. We are looking into providing coturn as an addon in Cloudron itself, once that is done, packaging those apps can happen properly to make them useful.

[seeker]

@nebulon said in [....nearly all of those apps require a TURN/STUN server to work well across different networks. We are looking into providing coturn as an addon in Cloudron itself, once that is done, packaging those apps can happen properly to make them useful.]

I had Turn/STUN on my list of things to investigate. Having them included in cloudron would certainly be preferable.

[jdaviescoates]

@seeker I'd suggest waiting until Cloudron 5.1 when Cloudron should then include a TURN/STUN server.

Hopefully a Jitsi Meet app will then follow soon after, and hopefully Nextcloud Talk with easily be able to use the Cloudron TURN/STUN too (and hopefully Kopano Meet app will then be updated to use it too, and move from unstable to stable).

In the meantime, if you can't wait and still want to do it on Cloudron I'd say you have two options:

1. use Nextcloud talk and follow these instructions to install and set-up your own TURN server https://forum.cloudron.io/topic/1846/manual-coturn-install-for-nextcloud/10?_=1585310908753

2. use the Jitsi Meet integration Rocket.Chat has (see https://rocket.chat/docs/administrator-guides/setting-up-video-conferencing/ ) - by default this integrates with https://meet.jit.si/ but once Cloudron TURN server addons and Jitsi apps are available it'll be possible to integrate with those instead)

[seeker]

@jdaviescoates said in Video chat and conferencing options:

Thanks. I can likely wait. I would rather host my own video backed, but, Option 2 can suffice for now as I am planning on experimenting with Rocket chat.

When enabling this, do you know how many can conference simultaneously?

[jdaviescoates]

@seeker said in Video chat and conferencing options:

When enabling this, do you know how many can conference simultaneously?

I don't, but I'd guess it depends on how many other people are using meet.jit.si at the same time.

[seeker]

@jdaviescoates Ok. Thanks!

To add another possibility to the mix. I ran across a post on reddit asking about how to selfhost a streaming watch party. https://www.reddit.com/r/selfhosted/comments/fryxkc/advice_for_private_media_stream_rtmp/ Among the comments, a user shared they were using VLC with NDI plugin, OBS with NDI source, Docker restreamer, Restreamer Iframe, Some NGINX voodoo (many of these I am not familiar with)

A solution such as Docker Restreamer and OBS is attractive as a webinar platform as a number of the people I am trying to accommodate already use OBS for Teaching and co-learning. While I have been leaning towards Jitsi, I really like Big Blue Button and this might be a little closer to that.

Restreamer seems pretty mature with a docker image, a number of ways to implement and good documentation.
https://datarhei.github.io/restreamer/docs/guides-obs.html
https://datarhei.github.io/restreamer/docs/guides-embedding.html

[girish]

We usually use the hosted jitsi for our call but yesterday we gave a self-hosted BBB (not on Cloudron) a try. It was flawless. Now, just have to find out what it takes to get it into Cloudron.

[seeker]

@girish said in Video chat and conferencing options:

We usually use the hosted jitsi for our call but yesterday we gave a self-hosted BBB (not on Cloudron) a try. It was flawless. Now, just have to find out what it takes to get it into Cloudron.

Very cool. I am still on the fence about which one would be best. Jitsi seems to have alot going for it, but BBB seems much more robust. My sense is that BBB would require a more powerful server than Jitsi.

[yusf]

I’d be happy to try BBB as well as Jitsi, but Jitsi I can integrate in the Matrix+Riot chat solution, so that’s what I’ll aim for production-wise.

[msbt]

I'm happy to sign up for testing as well to speed things up. Jitsi seems to be more versatile when it comes to other applications that embed it, seen a few lately that use jitsi as their video option.

[girish]

Yup, we are just putting e2e in the CI now with turn support So, I can put you guys for early release. We will probably need quite a bit of testing to make sure things are reliable.

[scooke]

@girish You can add me too! I'll be trying both BBB and Jitsi again.

[NCKNE]

I‘d be available for testing as well if that helps.

[yusf]

Me too. We might as well turn the test sessions into Cloudron community chats, so that we have something to talk about.

[avatar1024]

Anyone got any experience of:

• mediasoup based conferencing app, such as multiparty-meeting (test here). It was reported on Jitsi forum that it uses VP9 and as a result as got a better quality and is more reliable on Firefox
• Medooze

And how they might compare to Jitsi / BBB / Kopano?

Thanks

[yusf]

I have to say, Kopano felt pretty slick for a 1on1 call, even on mobile devices over 3G.
I miss

• a hand-raising function for a larger group talk though.
• userless calls (though I hear this can be configured)
• pre-made user groups from LDAP user groups

[nebulon]

Just wanted to share some update on this. We've published an updated Nextcloud app package which now pre-configures Nextcloud Talk (which is btw based on spreed)

The app update will be available only for Cloudrons already on 5.1

[jdaviescoates]

@nebulon I just tested this with the new updated Nextcloud talk in Cloudron 5.1 and it worked great (I started a call on my laptop on wifi and then joined as a non-logged in guest on my mobile over 4g)

Next to actually test with a real call with multiple users...

[jdaviescoates]

I've just tested Nextcloud Talk on Cloudron 5.1 with myself logged into Nextcloud plus 3 non-Cloudron user guests and it mostly* worked great!

*(one person couldn't see/ hear another, but the rest of us could all see/ hear everyone else ).