BigBlueButton: Share 100+ webcams [Tips]

Now, you can share 100+ webcams during a BigBlueButton class. Check-out the tips to open more webcams and make your online classes more interactive.
28 Oct, 2020

How many simultaneous webcams you can have during a BigBlueButton live session?

Over 100 webcams!

Yes, you read it right.

Don’t believe it?

Check-out the screenshot below of the real-time dashboard showing 85 webcams.

Do note that the CPU utilization is 44%, which means server can easily take more webcams without compromising performance.

Here are the two optimizations that you can implement on your own BigBlueButton server to allow more webcams.

#1 Video Pagination

You can control the number of webcams visible to meeting participants at a single time.

Edit /usr/share/meteor/bundle/programs/server/assets/app/config/settings.yml and set

pagination:
enabled: true

#2 Dynamic Video Profile

aka automatic bitrate/frame rate throttling that controls camera framerate and bitrate according to the number of webcams during a class.

This helps in decreasing server’s and users’ CPU and bandwidth usage during classes with many webcams and significantly improves responsiveness.

Edit /usr/share/meteor/bundle/programs/server/assets/app/config/settings.yml and set

cameraQualityThresholds:
enabled: true

So try out the above optimizations and tell us in comment if you are able host more webcams.

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