I’ve been busy, nestled away in my testing area. Next up to bat is the excellent software OpenMeetings. Openmeetings is free video conferencing software that allows you to chat via video, to do whiteboarding, to convert documents on the fly, etc. It even allows you to share your desktop.
So, what can OpenMeetings do? Let’s start there. OpenMeetings can allow you to do video conferencing for free. It is cross platform and browser independent. That’s because it renders in flash. It’s pretty good at what it does. In those meetings, you can upload office files (word, excel, powerpoint) and it will convert it on the fly using the Openoffice converter plugin. It will then serve those files in the original format, pdf, and flash. It uses flash to present the document to the whiteboard area. You can also upload and share images. You cannot share video. You can, however, share your desktop. When sharing your desktop there is something you need to know. If you keep the OpenMeetings meeting open in the browser, it will mirror your desktop view infinitely. What you need to do is minimize the openmeetings window. No, you can’t see what others see while you’re doing it, but they will. Just ask them.
Let me share some experiences with you in my testing thus far. At first, I ran OpenMeetings on a Windows box with 768 megs of ram. I was just wanting to demo the product and see if it had any viability for a non profit thing I’m doing. This is what I learned on that experience:
Two attendees to a conference were okay in terms of delay and processing. Doing document conversion killed the meeting. The machine spontaneously rebooted. End of meeting! Lol.
For my second test, I moved to a ubuntu linux install on a much better machine with 4 gigs of ram. Now, on Ubuntu there are just a few gotchas. First, make sure you install the openoffice-headless package. This will allow you to run openoffice in headless mode to do the document conversions. You can see this option by running the Synaptic package manager. Just type “sudo synaptic” in the terminal. That will prompt for root password and your off. Then search for openoffice-headless and install it. Easy Enough. Follow the directions on the wiki and you should be fine. I had it up and running in less than 20 minutes once ubuntu was installed. Also, if you are going to be accessing the server remotely, you need to forward at least port 5080. This is what I learned from this test:
What you are going to find is that hardware and bandwidth are going to be your limiting factors (as always!). The router we were testing on did not have QOS. As a result, time lags were horrendous - up to a minute with 5 participants. That made the app unusable. Oh, another note while I’m at it - make sure you use headphones while using OpenMeetings! Using speakers will cause a feedback loop on the audio.
So, my next test will be conducted on a router with Qos. That will be interesting. Here are some screenshots. Click on them for full view.
If you would like to make a comment, please fill out the form below.
Wow. That’s great specially it’s free
Yes, it is a good program. I have not worked with other participants as yet (have tried from 2-3 other PCs). I like what I see with document and images sharing.
Having some problem sharing desktop. Getting “Could not parse launch file” error. I am not sure how to resolve this issue (I have the red5-7.0 on Ubuntu). Any suggestion?
Thanks,
Hi,
Please remove the above comment as the weblink has a typo (sorry!)
I have not worked with other participants as yet (have tried from 2-3 other PCs). I like what I see with document and images sharing.
Having some problem sharing desktop. Getting “Could not parse launch file” error. I am not sure how to resolve this issue (I have the red5-7.0 on Ubuntu). Any suggestion?
Thanks,
Does this software run in Windows plataform ?
Thanks
Yes, it runs on Windows as well and it supposed to be easier to install and run. Unfortunately, I am not finding it easier on Winows platform. Installation part is fine but there is some other glitch in the (my) setup somewhere. I can’t upload any files/images to see the results in a webmeeting.
Still waiting for some response for my desktop sharing issue (Ubuntu Linux).
David L
glad to see others are using this fine product. Windows was definitely an easier install for me. i have found that starting over is easier than troubleshooting some issues.
I use VMukti for my voip open source needs and has been nominated for the CCA 2008.
Haven’t used VMukti yet? Well I bet you have a need for it already. VMukti is a Free, innovative, multi-point total communications, collaboration and conferencing engine with built-in support for access to platform features through Personal Customizable Web Interface, Widgets for 3rd party websites, Desktops, and PSTN/ Mobile/ IP Phones. VMukti has been nominated for CCA 2008.
Help VMukti get the support they need from the user community to continue developing such a great project. You can show your support by recognizing this software in the SourceForge.net 2008 Community Choice Awards. This recognition will help ensure that their software gets the attention it needs to continue to provide a great set of features to the software community.
You can vote for the software on SourceForge.net by going here:
http://www.vmukti.com/latest-news/vmukti-calls-on-community-to-win-prestigious-award.html
Winning this award would mean big things for all the users at VMukti.
Yes, it is a good program