Audio Distortion on 2.5.6 new install

[f vlasie]

Hello everyone!

I am getting a significant amount of distortion in the audio component of my BBB meetings. I have attached two recordings, one from Zoom and one from BBB. These recordings were taken in the same room with the same equipment (Mac mini and Meeting Owl camera) but at different times. 

I am sure BBB audio can be better but I am not sure what settings to check.

I will very much appreciate any help I can get in improving the audio quality coming from BBB. If it could at least match the Zoom recording I would be grateful.

Thank you!

[brainwhistler Whistler]

Hello,

You may need to adjust the audio bit rate. Few hits and tries will help. I had the same issue and this adjustment worked for me.

Thanks

--
You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "BigBlueButton-Setup" group.
To unsubscribe from this group and stop receiving emails from it, send an email to bigbluebutton-s...@googlegroups.com.
To view this discussion on the web visit https://groups.google.com/d/msgid/bigbluebutton-setup/bd023487-2a8b-4df2-979b-b26e43fcb2a8n%40googlegroups.com.

[Fred Dixon]

Hi,

We are looking at making some adjustments to FreeSWITCH settings in the next update to BigBlueButton 2.5 to improve the audio.  Can you try applying these changes to your setup and test again -- let us know if you get better audio.

These are shown as ansible script, but you can manually apply the changes in the configuration files and restart BigBlueButton.

- name: adjust audio sampling rate for default profile
  replace:
    path: /opt/freeswitch/etc/freeswitch/autoload_configs/conference.conf.xml
    before: '<!-- Number of milliseconds per frame -->'
    regexp: '<param name="rate" value=".*\/>'
    replace: '<param name="rate" value="48000"/>'
  notify: restart freeswitch

- name: adjust audio bit rate
  replace:
    path: /usr/local/bigbluebutton/bbb-webrtc-sfu/config/default.yml
    regexp: 'maxaveragebitrate:.*'
    replace: 'maxaveragebitrate: "64000"'
  notify: restart bbb

- name: copy bbb_conference.xml
  copy:
    src: bbb_conference.xml
    dest: /opt/freeswitch/etc/freeswitch/dialplan/default/bbb_conference.xml
  notify: restart freeswitch

- name: copy opus.conf.xml
  template:
    src: opus.conf.xml
    dest: /opt/freeswitch/etc/freeswitch/autoload_configs/opus.conf.xml
  notify: restart freeswitch

opus.conf.xml:
<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8"?>
<configuration name="opus.conf">
   <settings>
      <param name="use-vbr" value="1" />
      <param name="use-dtx" value="0" />
      <param name="complexity" value="10" />
      <param name="packet-loss-percent" value="15" />
      <param name="keep-fec-enabled" value="1" />
      <param name="use-jb-lookahead" value="1" />
      <param name="advertise-useinbandfec" value="1" />
      <param name="maxaveragebitrate" value="64000" />
      <param name="maxplaybackrate" value="48000" />
      <param name="sprop-maxcapturerate" value="48000" />
      <param name="adjust-bitrate" value="1" />
      <param name="negotiate-bitrate" value="1" />
   </settings>
</configuration>

bbb_conference.xml:
<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8"?>
<include>
   <extension name="bbb_conferences_ws">
      <condition field="${bbb_authorized}" expression="true" break="on-false" />
      <condition field="${sip_via_protocol}" expression="^wss?$" />
      <condition field="destination_number" expression="^(\d{5,11})$">
         <action application="set" data="jitterbuffer_msec=60:120:20" />
         <action application="set" data="rtp_jitter_buffer_plc=true" />
         <action application="set" data="rtp_jitter_buffer_during_bridge=true" />
         <action application="set" data="suppress_cng=true" />
         <action application="answer" />
         <action application="conference" data="$1@cdquality" />
      </condition>
   </extension>
   <extension name="bbb_conferences">
      <condition field="${bbb_authorized}" expression="true" break="on-false" />
      <condition field="destination_number" expression="^(\d{5,11})$">
         <action application="set" data="jitterbuffer_msec=60:120:20" />
         <action application="set" data="rtp_jitter_buffer_plc=true" />
         <action application="set" data="rtp_jitter_buffer_during_bridge=true" />
         <action application="set" data="suppress_cng=true" />
         <action application="answer" />
         <action application="conference" data="$1@cdquality" />
      </condition>
   </extension>
</include>

These changes are taken from

  https://groups.google.com/g/bigbluebutton-setup/c/3Y7VBllwpX0/m/41X9j8bvCAAJ

with some modifications by Hans-Ulrich (he took Ghazi's settings and reduced the bitrate and used mono instead of stereo.)

Try the above and let us know if you get better audio.

Regards,... Fred

--

You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "BigBlueButton-Setup" group.
To unsubscribe from this group and stop receiving emails from it, send an email to bigbluebutton-s...@googlegroups.com.
To view this discussion on the web visit https://groups.google.com/d/msgid/bigbluebutton-setup/bd023487-2a8b-4df2-979b-b26e43fcb2a8n%40googlegroups.com.

--

BigBlueButton Developer

http://bigbluebutton.org/

Like BigBlueButton?  Tweet us at @bigbluebutton

[fv]

Aha! In the meantime I discovered those settings adjustments from Ghazi and applied them (minus the stereo setting which is not really needed for speech) and the quality greatly improved. Another setting I adjusted was the sample rate which seems awfully low at 8000. I changed it to 16000. If this setting is what it sounds like (audio sample rate), it should be around 40kHz to get full spectrum audio i.e. 20Hz-20kHz. Is that setting what I think it is?

Also I discovered that different browsers result in different audio quality, in my case the hard limiting (clipping) was coming from Firefox. I tested the sound on Safari (bit tinny, distorted initial consonants), Brave (bit broken), Firefox (clipping), Chrome (bit robotic), and Blisk (few blips).

What is the consensus on the best browser to use? I was telling people to use Firefox but now I know it has the worst audio quality I will be changing that recommendation...

I will also test with the settings posted above. 

Audio is the most important component of video so I am very happy to see that BBB will be getting higher quality settings by default!

Thank you!

[fv]

I am back to comfirm that the new settings, fully tested on the field of battle, work very well.

I settled on using Blisk as my browser of choice for BBB. On the Mac, it is the only browser that allows BBB to list all the output audio devices. (Other browsers rely entirely on what is set in the OS.)

Thank you!