{"id":310,"date":"2020-05-12T10:14:11","date_gmt":"2020-05-12T17:14:11","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/opensourceit.org\/blog\/?p=310"},"modified":"2020-10-02T11:06:15","modified_gmt":"2020-10-02T18:06:15","slug":"set-up-video-conferencing","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/opensourceit.org\/blog\/2020\/05\/12\/set-up-video-conferencing\/","title":{"rendered":"Set Up Video Conferencing (beta)"},"content":{"rendered":"\n
\"jitsi-front\"\/<\/figure>\n\n\n\n

NOTE: Unfortunately, after recently testing Jitsi with a ~10 screen call, I am unable to recommend the default configuration for larger conferences, due to both client<\/a> and server issues<\/a>. The only good known alternative that (supposedly) works well with a default configuration is Big Blue Button<\/a>. However, BBB’s minimum server requirements are “8GB memory with 4CPU cores” – on a non-virtualized host.<\/strong> While the cost of such a server shouldn’t be an issue for most businesses in need of video-conferencing, the goal of opensourceit.org is to make sure that open source alternatives are at least on par with the cost of proprietary\/SaaS offerings. To that end, I will continue to test out Jitsi configurations to try to find a setup that can reliably support at least a ~10 screen conference. (See “Set Up Jitsi > Performance Optimizations”, below.)<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Overview<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

Unfortunately, at the current time, both Yunohost and Nextcloud don’t do video conferencing very well. For reliable video conferencing, we’re going to have to set up our own Jitsi Meet<\/a> service. Similar to the Yunohost install, this process also involves several technical steps. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

NOTE: If all you want is video conferencing, then you can use the simple “one-click” services provided VPS hosts like Digital Ocean or Vultr for installing Jitsi. But if you want to have fewer servers and save cost, then running Jitsi alongside Yunohost takes a few more steps.<\/em> This guide assumes you have at least set up your own Debian VPS server<\/a>.<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Install Docker<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

If you’re using Digital Ocean, you can install Docker according to steps 1-2 in the following guide: https:\/\/www.digitalocean.com\/community\/tutorials\/how-to-install-and-use-docker-on-debian-9<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n

NOTE: At the time of this writing, the step in the guide <\/em>
sudo add-apt-repository \"deb [arch=amd64] https:\/\/download.docker.com\/linux\/debian $(lsb_release -cs) stable\"<\/code> <\/p>\n\n\n\n

had an error, and so the Debian release version had to be fetched separately and the line needed to be added manually using a text editor, e.g.<\/em>
lsb_release -cs<\/code>
nano \/etc\/apt\/sources.list<\/code><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Install docker-compose<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

sudo curl -L https:\/\/github.com\/docker\/compose\/releases\/download\/1.22.0\/docker-compose-`uname -s`-`uname -m` -o \/usr\/local\/bin\/docker-compose<\/code>
and
sudo chmod +x \/usr\/local\/bin\/docker-compose<\/code><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Set Up Jitsi<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

Follow the docker-jitsi-meet “Quick start”, here: https:\/\/github.com\/jitsi\/docker-jitsi-meet<\/a>. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Uncomment the PUBLIC_URL<\/code> variable (remove the #<\/code> character at the beginning of the line) in the .env<\/code> file and set this to videochat.yourdomain.tld<\/code>, or whatever subdomain where you would prefer to serve your video conferences.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

You’ll want to uncomment the variables for ENABLE_AUTH<\/code>, ENABLE_GUESTS<\/code> and AUTH_TYPE<\/code> in .env<\/code> so you can add users and passwords for your meeting organizers to avoid getting “Zoombombed<\/a>“. (If you run docker-compose up -d<\/code> before<\/em> setting these variables, you may need to edit ~\/.jitsi-meet-cfg\/prosody\/conf.d\/jitsi-meet.cfg.lua<\/code> and set authentication = \"internal_hashed\"<\/code>.)<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Performance Optimizations<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

The following optimizations are currently being tested. You are welcome to give them a try as well:<\/p>\n\n\n\n