Nowadays video conferencing got a high-level demand, and despite the Zoom popularity, its not always the best option due to security, confidentiality and data privacy.
So that people more often choose alternatives that can be privately hosted. And Jitsi Meet open source video conferencing tool is gaining more and more popularity, as it can be installed at the preferred local cloud provider or on-premise.
Why Jitsi video conferencing?
- Free open-source solution provided with a wide community support
- Installation in one click and easy setup
- User-friendly process of arranging video, audio calls, and multi-meeting rooms
- High level of privacy and security (it is deployed inside isolated containers with encrypted traffic)
- Support of all available clients (Windows, Linux, Mac, iOS, Android)
Now we’ll share how to get Jitsi up and running at Cloudlets.com.au Australian cloud hosting provider and achieve full control over your data, secure hosting in local datacenter and meet no need in manual installation with complex maintenance.
Follow the steps below and get your own self-hosted video conferencing application in minutes.
Jitsi Installation
1. Sign in or create an account at Cloudlets.com.au cloud hosting. Check your email for the registration confirmation.
2. Sign in to the dashboard and open the Marketplace
Choose Jitsi Video Conferencing and click Install.
That's all! In a few minutes your Jitsi environment will be deployed. You'll see a pop-up window with credentials as well as receive an additional confirmation via email.
3. Click on Jitsi Server URL or Open in Browser button to get access to the video conferencing admin panel.
SSL CERTIFICATE
- By default the platform issues test intermediate certificates (“Fake LE Intermediate X1”). They are not safe to use for anything other than initial testing.
- Take into account that the Jitsi mobile applications for Android or iOS can connect to the Jitsi server with valid and trusted certificates only.
- For issuing valid certificates please follow the instruction at the Bind Custom Domain section below.
ENCRYPTION
For 1-to-1 meetings audio and video are always encrypted using DTLS-SRTP all the way from the sender to the receiver. In the case of multiparty meetings all audio and video traffic is still encrypted on the network. Data is decrypted while traversing videobridge, but it is never stored to any persistent storage and only live in memory while being routed to other participants in the meeting. Also, since we are running a private instance inside the isolated container, it is under your full control and no third party can access it.
3. Use a meeting name generator to avoid possible coincidences or create your own one and click on GO. Then press I am the host button and enter credentials you got upon Jitsi installation to become the video conferencing service administrator.
The meeting appears once the first participant joins it by the URL and it is destroyed right as the last participant has left it. So, if necessary to maintain some room with a specific meeting all the time there should stay at least one participant. Otherwise, if someone joins the same meeting room again, a brand new meeting is created with the same name and there will be no connection with the previous meeting.
Jitsi can be used to run multiple meetings at a time with a limitation of 75 clients connected per meeting. By default, Jitsi server at Cloudlets.com.au has enough resource capacity to handle a heavy load, but if necessary you can scale it vertically on-the-fly.
4. The next step is to secure your meeting with a password to ensure that somebody uninvited can reach it even in case of coincidence of the names.
Now your meeting is ready to accept connections from the users you shared the link to. Just ensure to send invitations with the meeting’s Link and Password.
Remember that the password is reset once the meeting has left by all the participants. So, while joining a new meeting in the same room, note that the password should be set up once again.
Extra Functionality
Jitsi attracts also with some unique features available in one application:
- YouTube sharing allows playing video from YouTube to all the participants.
- Sart live stream - allows to stream audio and video via YouTube.
- Start recording - provides an ability to record meetings as mp4 video files and automatically save them to the /root/.jitsi-meet-cfg/jibri/recordings folder of the Jitsi container. See below how to reach them:
- Share a YouTube video - allows playing video from YouTube to all the meeting participants.
- Blur my background - detects the speaker's body and displays it with no distortion but blurs the background surrounding it.
In addition, you can Share your screen using the button in the left bottom side of the application panel. It allows you to broadcast screen to all participants:
- Whole computer screen
- Window of a specific application
- Specific web browser tab
Bind Custom Domain
Now your Jitsi server is available by platform’s domain generated upon installation with the test fake certificates. It is enough to get it to work for developing or testing purposes. But for the production, you definitely need to have your own domain available for your video conferencing server.
1. Bind a custom domain name to your Jitsi server via A Record or CNAME. It's a mandatory requirement. You can find provided IP address in the environment topology as follows.
2. Then generate valid Let’s Encrypt SSL certificates. To do this open the Add-Ons tab, find Domain Configuration Add-On and click on Change.
3. Specify your custom domain name in the popup window and apply the changes in order to initiate the certificate generation procedure.
Once it is completed the success window appears.
Now your video conferencing server is ready to serve requests under new custom domain name with valid Let’s Encrypt SSL certificate.
Seems easy, isn't it?
You can follow all the steps from this how-to guide - just register for free at Cloudlets.com.au and enjoy your own privately hosting video conferencing app!