How Does eduMEET Work

eduMEET is a webRTC based video conferencing system which allows users to dynamically create video conference rooms for either 1-to-1 or multiple user conferences. The major advantage of eduMEET is that there is no need for any client software to be installed as most modern browsers on both laptops and mobile devices support webRTC protocols natively.

The main purpose of the eduMEET platform is to provide easy to use, secure, and affordable video conferencing service for the international research, education and art community as an alternative to commercial solutions. Users in scope of different projects need to collaborate across different organisations and countries and they expect services that are accessible and interoperable. eduMEET simplifies real-time communication and introduces browser-based personal conferencing tool that runs without the need to install any additional clients or plugins. Only the web-browser and simple web-camera are enough to start using eduMEET.

Key Features

In order to create a complete communication and fully functional solution that can meet the expectations of the scientific and research communities, enhanced functional features were designed, in particular:

• WebRTC audio/video communication;
• screen sharing, file sharing and chat feature;
• federated login, including eduGAIN;
• speaker detection (microphone analyser with visual indicator);
• audio and video streams management ;
• full-screen mode, raise hand option, connection testing;
• customizable view layout (democratic and filmstrip);
• high resolution support (tested up to 4K).

The main advantages of eduMEET are:

• Own, open source software
• Secure communication
• Trust - on level of similar organizations
• Trustworthy - Keeping the AV traffic inside our network (GÉNT + NRENs) as long as possible
• Low cost compared with commercial solutions
• WebRTC standards based and easy to use
• No need for installation of custom applications or plug-ins which complicates using VC

International R&E requires the collaboration of many researchers who work for different institutions and may also be spread geographically. Video Conferencing (VC) is an essential support tool and although many commercial solutions exist, the problems of ease of use, cost, reliability and trustworthiness can be barriers to their use within the R&E community. R&E needs a low-cost, open and transparent alternative VC solution that requires no special software to operate and can be operated and supported from within the community.

In the table 1 you'll see how the eduMEET software is compared to other commercial services that the NREN community are using.

Table 1:  Comparison of key metrics for the various offerings

• Research and education society across EU - main target - as a supporting service in daily work and international research cooperation;
• Media and Arts - an easy-to-use collaboration platform for remote education and live art performing;
• NRENs - as a video conferencing service provider for national research and education societies;
• Integrators - creators and developers of integrated solutions (e.g. for education) where the video conferencing tool is an important part of the whole platform (e.g. Moodle).

Use Cases

Here are some examples where to use eduMEET:

• Conferences
• Seminars
• Meetings
• Webinars
• One to one meetings
• Lectures
• Projects
• Part of the LMS
• Remote working (students, employees etc.)

There is also already some use cases that are using the eduMEET technology:

• GÉANT hosted eduMEET instance for project members
• UNINETT hosted letsMeet instance in Norway
• Also some other countries have their own instances like CARNet (Croatia), KIFÜ (Hungary), KRENA (Kyrgyzstan), PSNC (Poland)

Contacts

Table 2: Contact details