Looking for testers for new Web Meetings implementation
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Hi forum,
over the past months we have been busy with a range of new components, like for example our OpenID Connect provider Kopano Konnect, but also non public components like our new Rest API.
A first client that ties all these new components together (OpenID, RestAPI, Kwmserver, kweb) is our completely reimplemented Web Meetings client called “Meet”. And while we are internally still busy finishing the ui we have already spent time on installation packages and the install manual.
We thought this would be a good opportunity to do a small preview release with interested users, to see if the setup instructions are clear and if these services also work as expected outside of our development and testing environment.
What do I need to get started?
These new services are for the moment only packaged for Debian 9, Ubuntu 16.04 and Ubuntu 18.04, and while they need some features of the current master Branch of Kopano Groupware Core advanced users certainly will be able to set it up alongside of their current 8.6.x environment of Kopano.Interested?
Just send us an email via feedback at kopano dot io (or send me a direct message on Mattermost if you already have an account at https://mattermost.kopano.com). -
Hello everyone,
by now we have enabled public access to the manual and the master downloads.
A few more words about Kopano Meet:
Kopano Meet is a complete reimplementation of our current Web Meeting software (which was based on Spreed WebRTC). One reason for the reimplementation is that the original authors had stopped improving the code base. As a result to this the old product did not use browser functionality that was added in the last two years. Additionally the way Spreed WebRTC was integrated into the Kopano WebApp proved to be not efficient enough to support installations with several hundred to thousands of users.
Kopano Meet is now a so called “Progressive Web App” (PWA for short), which provides several benefits for the user/admin. For one PWAs are by definition “responsive”, which means that it not only works on small (mobile) screens, but also works just as well on large (desktop/laptop) screens on one hand and also “responsive” in the sense that due to local processing also provides quick responses to user input. Additionally by reimplementing a web client we are able to benefit from further improvements in Golang, Javascript and Browsers to benefit from updated codecs and handling of WebRTC calls (really deactivate video/audio streams instead of sending an empty stream).
Integration with data of Kopano is now done through a REST Api and authentication is using the OpenID Connect standard (Rest API is handled through kopano-kapid and authentication is provided through Kopano Konnect, both components are new in Kopano 8.7 and currently available in our pre-final and master repositories). To make it easier for admins to get started with Meet, Kapi and Konnect Kopano now also provides its own webserver (called Kopano Web), that simplifies webserver configuration and provides a secure out of the box installation (with automatic ssl generation through Lets Encrypt).
Functionality currently implemented:
- one to one calls
- group calls (many to many)
- audio only calls (deactivate any outgoing and incoming video streams to preserve data)
- support for mobile devices (Android, iOS)
- mobile optimized and desktop optimized ui (from one codebase/url)
Functionality still in progress:
- external/guest users in calls (users that have no account on the kopano system can join individual calls and group calls)
Functionality where we have a proof of concept:
- mcu/sfu support (instead of doing a peer to peer connection for each user in a call send the audio/video stream to a central point which will then send a reencoded stream back to the participants)
Functionality still open:
- screen sharing
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Hello, Is it correct to say that there is no need for a turn server anymore with the new kopano meetings?
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Hi @mcostan,
no as long as you have users in different networks segments you will still need a turn service.
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ok thanks. That makes sense.
