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Ask HN: If not Zoom. What to use for large group video with breakout rooms?

27 points by evolve2k ↗ HN
So Zoom is getting lots of valid privacy heat. One big issue is that it’s currently the best tool for large facilitated meetings (think 50+ ppl) where the breakout room is the killer feature here and you can auto break people into smaller group chats as part of running a large group session.

The use case is public video meetups, so using say Microsoft Teams would be excessive.

Anything else out there that’s up for the challenge?

(The other killer feature they have is URL based session invites that just makes it much easier to get people on a call)

24 comments

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shams93
Janus gateway + gstreamer is one way to handle this.
evolve2k
Had a quick look. Looks open source but not so clear for people how to self host as other options here.

Can you point to a setup guide and importantly how breakout rooms are supported? (I quickly got lost, admittedly only having a quick search around)

jbd28
BigBlueButton
evolve2k
Ok this looks good.

Open-source web conferencing system.

Focussed around “students” and “teachers”.

But seems to have the needed features; including ability to unlock a session and share a URL for access.

Intro video on host features here: https://bigbluebutton.org/teachers/

As it’s open source I think this means it needs to be self hosted. Not sure on usual expect video experience as you’re relying on own smaller infrastructure but do get back full privacy I imagine.

codegeek
BigBlueButton or BBB is pretty good. We use it for our clients (edtech). If you need any advice on hosting, happy to give some guidance. They have a install script that does everything in one go for you. You just need a decent server with Ubuntu 16.04 (specifically that version) installed on it. Min. requirements for server are 2 core CPU and 8 GB RAM. We use at least 4 cores though and 16 GB per server and that can handle 50-100 users concurrently give or take depending on what you are doing. Completely HTML5 and webrtc based so nothing to install. Runs like a charm.
evolve2k
Great Thankyou. I’ll also add they list breakout rooms as a key feature. How’s that to use as a teacher/facilitator?
codegeek
It works great. You can select a few users from the existing room to create the breakout room.
WhatsInAName78
Twenty Three is a decent option. Breakout rooms, different URL-based invites for both participants and viewers (participants share the video feed and viewers simply view, but also have a chat option).
evolve2k
Thx. Had a quick look..

At $199/month I think it’s too steep to be a drop in replacement. That said it seems a full webinar & marketing platform so maybe worth it for some.

Site: https://www.twentythree.net/

leroyg
https://jitsi.org/

I have used this successfully.

evolve2k
Ok this looks like best yet. Open source and also available as a free hosted service via their .org.

Share URL. Talk of quality video.

Only feature I couldn’t find was breakout rooms (key thing needed)

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Raed667
Google Meet handles our 100+ person persenations no sweat.
danielazhao
It's a good option. All my university classes are holded in Google Meet
evolve2k
Ok obv it’s google so likely no video issues. Shareable meeting URLs.

No breakout rooms though.

This lecturer uses a bit of a work around making rooms & urls ahead of their session, but this won’t scale to 50 people and being able to auto split people into equal groups.

Lecturer video: https://youtu.be/_MeCJgSh-U0

kull
Google hangouts / meet
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totg
BlueJeans https://www.bluejeans.com/ Check it out, Better than Zoom and everything else out there
evolve2k
Looks great! $10-$15/month hosted Saas (like Zoom).

- Shareable URL & calendar integration

- Breakout rooms

“Create up-to-20 small group working sessions as part of an ongoing meeting where participants can be assigned randomly or designated manually.”

If we’re talking hosted SAAS as a zoom competitor, this looks to be the most serious contender.

Anyone able to talk to video quality/user experience from actual use of this product (especially vs zoom)?

cm2012
I always thought that was Facebook's home grown tool since I've only ever seen fb people use it.