Video call using Freeswitch

1,795 views
Skip to first unread message

Nemanja Žikić

unread,
Dec 27, 2017, 11:02:58 AM12/27/17
to BigBlueButton-dev
Hello guys,

I am doing University project and need to implement BBB for online learning using our Moodle platform. So far everything went well, but I can't make a video call using integrated FreeSwitch. We have Tandberg with a few cameras and mics and plan is to use them for online lectures, basically to make a SIP call and connect to Moodle conference that is host using BBB. So far we receive only audio from it, but video part is key for us. 

I have found post from 2013, but I hope that this is changed so far.

Happy holidays,
Nemanja

Fred Dixon

unread,
Dec 27, 2017, 1:30:20 PM12/27/17
to BigBlueButton-dev
Hi Nemanja,

Not sure we can get you there with BigBlueButton right now -- currently, the audio goes through FreeSWITCH and the webcams go through red5.  This gives us really good audio (UDP) that is independent of the webcams.  The video takes up a lot more bandwidth than the audio, so if the bandwidth is limited (and is constricting the user's webcams), the audio should still remain good.

The downside is that we don't use FreeSWITCH for video.  It is possible to send a SIP call to FreeSWITCH and then use mod_av (a FreeSWITCH module that wraps around libav) to stream the video portion back to red5 via RTMP.   In face, we experimented with by using the browser's ability to send a WebRTC video call to FreeSWITCH and have a module send commands to FreeSWITCH (using the FreeSWITCH command line interface), which, in turn, triggered FreeSWITCH to stream the video back to red5 whereupon it appeared as a video stream to users.  This worked well for desktop sharing as there was no audio component -- just video.

We are interested in exploring this future.  Are you a developer?  

> but I can't make a video call using integrated FreeSwitch.

Do you need to stream audio along with the video as well?


Regards,... Fred

--
You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "BigBlueButton-dev" group.
To unsubscribe from this group and stop receiving emails from it, send an email to bigbluebutton-dev+unsubscribe@googlegroups.com.
To post to this group, send email to bigbluebutton-dev@googlegroups.com.
Visit this group at https://groups.google.com/group/bigbluebutton-dev.
For more options, visit https://groups.google.com/d/optout.



--
BigBlueButton Developer
@bigbluebutton

Nemanja Žikić

unread,
Dec 27, 2017, 5:46:10 PM12/27/17
to BigBlueButton-dev
Fred,

thank you for your reply. Yes, I am a developer and also I need to stream audio with video. I would like to explore possibilities, but only if you believe that it is possible to do such a thing. Can you give me some more details or link to documentation. 

- This worked well for desktop sharing as there was no audio component -- just video.

Currently, our Tandberg license covers only one call, so it is not possible to make two different calls and stream only video and only audio using them.

Best regards,
Nemanja


On Wednesday, December 27, 2017 at 7:30:20 PM UTC+1, Fred Dixon wrote:
Hi Nemanja,

Not sure we can get you there with BigBlueButton right now -- currently, the audio goes through FreeSWITCH and the webcams go through red5.  This gives us really good audio (UDP) that is independent of the webcams.  The video takes up a lot more bandwidth than the audio, so if the bandwidth is limited (and is constricting the user's webcams), the audio should still remain good.

The downside is that we don't use FreeSWITCH for video.  It is possible to send a SIP call to FreeSWITCH and then use mod_av (a FreeSWITCH module that wraps around libav) to stream the video portion back to red5 via RTMP.   In face, we experimented with by using the browser's ability to send a WebRTC video call to FreeSWITCH and have a module send commands to FreeSWITCH (using the FreeSWITCH command line interface), which, in turn, triggered FreeSWITCH to stream the video back to red5 whereupon it appeared as a video stream to users.  This worked well for desktop sharing as there was no audio component -- just video.

We are interested in exploring this future.  Are you a developer?  

> but I can't make a video call using integrated FreeSwitch.

Do you need to stream audio along with the video as well?


Regards,... Fred
On Wed, Dec 27, 2017 at 11:02 AM, Nemanja Žikić <nec...@gmail.com> wrote:
Hello guys,

I am doing University project and need to implement BBB for online learning using our Moodle platform. So far everything went well, but I can't make a video call using integrated FreeSwitch. We have Tandberg with a few cameras and mics and plan is to use them for online lectures, basically to make a SIP call and connect to Moodle conference that is host using BBB. So far we receive only audio from it, but video part is key for us. 

I have found post from 2013, but I hope that this is changed so far.

Happy holidays,
Nemanja

--
You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "BigBlueButton-dev" group.
To unsubscribe from this group and stop receiving emails from it, send an email to bigbluebutton-...@googlegroups.com.
To post to this group, send email to bigblueb...@googlegroups.com.

Fred Dixon

unread,
Dec 30, 2017, 9:53:28 AM12/30/17
to BigBlueButton-dev
Hi Nemanja,

There are a few pieces to put together.  

First, start with understanding the FreeSWITCH dialplan works (see FreeSWITCH docs).  You want to setup a dialpaln and conference for receiving video.  Install FreeSWITCH Verto to use the built-in video client.

Next, you'll want to have an incoming place for making a video SIP call from Tandberg.  You can do something similar to the work we did to experiment with sending a WebRTC video stream to FreeSWITCH, see


Use the Verto client to join the same session.  If you can see the video from the Tandberg SIP call, your half way there.

Regards,... Fred

To unsubscribe from this group and stop receiving emails from it, send an email to bigbluebutton-dev+unsubscribe@googlegroups.com.
To post to this group, send email to bigbluebutton-dev@googlegroups.com.
Reply all
Reply to author
Forward
0 new messages