[kwlug-disc] BBB impressions

[Doug Moen]

I was able to connect with audio and video, but only in listen only mode.
When I initially tried to connect using my laptop microphone, I was informed of some permissions problem.
But no problem, there is also text chat.
I was using firefox on macos.

Everything was fine for the first presentation, then partway into the second, my home internet connection went down for a minute. When I came back up, I could still see the presentation running, but I couldn't hear anything, and I couldn't use the chat feature. My name disappeared from the list of attendees. I wasn't able to reconnect.

I could probably have overcome these problems if I understood the procedures for troubleshooting and overcoming connection problems. BBB is probably fine once you understand it.

If you use Zoom for free, it cuts you off after 40 minutes, and I think there is probably also a limit on # of participants. So to use Zoom for KWLUG would require purchasing a licence, in addition to the privacy concerns. My church is using zoom and our non-techie participants are having their own problems with audio and video. It's not like Zoom is bulletproof, although I must admit it works for me without any problem. There is a group of technies who tutor church members in how to use zoom successfully.

One thing about Zoom: I'm using the native client, which probably violates my privacy worse than a web browser, but it seems to be reliable. Does BBB have a native client?

Doug.

On Tue, Apr 7, 2020, at 1:59 AM, Paul Nijjar via kwlug-disc wrote:
> My impressions: 
> 
> - Some people definitely had issues connecting to audio (and I wish
>   some of them would be willing to run another test with me later)
> - 20Mb upload bandwidth is not enough for screen sharing
> - Phone access was surprisingly useful for people who could not
>   connect to audio
> - Some people seemed to disconnect and reconnect to the server a lot,
>   and I do not know why
> - For voice and presentation the original server was okay
> - I guess we are happier with the other server overall (but it still
>   needs a bunch of fixups)
> - It would be really nice to be able to livestream as we go, but I
>   think BBB does not have that ability directly. (With enough effort I
>   bet we could make it work somehow.)
> 
> Your impressions? Do we stick with BBB for future online meetings?
> What if we are limited to the first server?
> 
> - Paul
> 
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