[Request] TurnKey Videoconferencing appliance ASAP!

[JedMeister]

Christian recently commented on an old forum thread that given the current global pandemic situation, a TurnKey videoconferencing appliance would be a really good thing...

I totally agree and in my response to Christian, I noted that Jitsi Meet might be the best one to consider for now? (Although in fairness, my research wasn't exhaustive). Jitsi Meet seems to be fairly popular, doesn't require client side software (uses WebRTC) and as a bonus, provides Debian packages (via their own 3rd party repo). Please note that I have not tested it at all...

FWIW, install instructions are on GH.

As a general rule under normal circumstance, we wouldn't be considering adding new appliances while we're still at the RC stage of a major version release, let alone developing them ourselves. However, I think that we can all agree that these are hardly "normal circumstance"...

I'm open to considering other software alternatives, but IMO at this point, WebRTC support is a requirement (which excludes OpenMeeting until their v5 branch is stable).

[vondrt4]

I'd like to comment that the NextCloud appliance already includes videoconferencing in the NextCloud Talk function, which is enabled by default. I had some good experience with it and some bad, due to the fact that it relies on a WebRTC connection directly between the endpoint browsers. It should be possible to make in more reliable by installing a TURN server (coturn), which I want to try doing in the near furture.

[JedMeister]

Awesome thanks @vondrt4! Great info. I'll post back on the forums...

Completely off topic: I should have a v16.0 Core OpenStack build ready for your appraisal sometime soon. I'll shoot you an email when I have something concrete.

[marcos-mendez]

Jed it is preatty simple to install a JitSi server on a Debian Image, i can send you a snapshot of the system BUT i don't know how to configure yes TKLDev to start making images, i imagine is something very easy. If you want i can do it for you but it is something that probably i'll need help to configure the confconsole and the passwords

[EstebanSalpeter]

Hi! For what I've been reading and trying, NextCloud hasn't documented how to install the turn server, so the video is resolved client-side and doesn't work well with more than 2 participants. I've tried to install Jitsi over the NGINX tklapp, but I'm stucked with the videobridge config. I've reached the point of having the server up, the conference room creates ok, but no video whatsoever. Maybe it was an issue with the use of port 10000 by Webmin (see https://www.turnkeylinux.org/forum/general/20161107/anyone-interested-openmeetings-appliance#comment-47870). I'll investigate further on that. @marcos-mendez maybe you've got the jitsi install procedure at hand to try it over the NGINX app?

[vondrt4]

It is not true that installing CoTURN is not documented. https://nextcloud-talk.readthedocs.io/en/latest/TURN/

I have done it and had very good results with it. The only thing you have to supply is a random secret key which you also enter in NextCloud configuration. The listening TCP port has to be open. If it is forwarded, you have to include the external address in the configuration, as per the doc, as well as the UDP range from 49152 to 65535 for the media streams.

[markwalton1967]

Could I suggest Big Blue Button (BBB) as another very viable option to satisfy the generic need for a video conferencing solution, and at the same time complete the 'holy trinity' of Education infrastructure solutions needed to enable remote learning at this time? BBB has most of the key functionality of the CISCO Webex application, but in open source form and works well with the Moodle server you already offer: https://bigbluebutton.org/

[OnGle]

Moving to 17.0. Rational: 16.0 is over and done with, 16.2 is wrapping up and bullseye is being released very soon.