[Discuss] Zoom Meeting Alternatives

[Bill Ricker]

During the monthly BLU meeting, we had a side discussion on what besides
the JITSI that we were using were available as Zoom alternatives in a
post-SKYPE world. My notes follow. Additions welcome !

Zoom Meeting Alternatives

   - Zoom, Zoom webinar
   - Jitsi/8x8 - FLOSS, Freemium, Commercial tiers. Cloud or self-hosted.
   - BlueJeans (bought by VZ recently) has webinar model, and 1-100.
   - WhereBy - was formerly FF/Google project
   - G-Meet (in G-suite; free for COVID)
   - Social media live modes - FB Live, Twitter:Periscope, etc. Mastodon?
   - ScreenLeap is more webinar space, screen sharing.

(Many of these require a log-in with the parent app, no anon use,
unfortunately. A full comparison would need to cross ref which allow
account-free joining meetings.)

Front-ends

   - OBS - Open Broadcast Studio - Jabr used for YT from MIT.
   - StreamYard - feeds multiple syndication streaming CDNs, merged chats,
   host/moderator controls
   - Twitch does PiP as content-generator for streams.

Notes

   - in general: Android apps can't share screen/app because security;
   other platforms allow prompt to approve sharing.
   - If doing more people than would fit around a conference room or
   seminar room table,
   you probably want a "Webinar" mode with talking stick and formal
   presenter/attendee difference,
   Even if service will scale BradyBunch mode to 100 it doesn't make UX
   sense to do even tho people used to Zoom think it's desirable.
   - Jitsi has a bad reputation for scaling - see above re sane size of a
   brady bunc NxN video meeting.
   Turn off all cameras but speaker and Jitsi works to larger groups.
   Especially with FF78+ or any Chrome. (FF77- lacks H.264 Simulcast)
   - Jitsi private server can be set to default camera-mute, saves much
   bandwidth, allows more many more folks in meeting. (Jitsi will fall over if
   everyone joins with Camera on which is default on free public meet.jit.si
   server. If they immediately toggle it off it'll be ok.)


-- 
Bill Ricker
bill.n1vux at gmail.com
https://www.linkedin.com/in/n1vux