BigBlueButton uses popcorn.js for HTML5 playback of recordings

Two words: popcorn.js rocks.

We've been working on adding record and playback to BigBlueButton 0.8 for months (we're almost ready for a beta). We had originally written our own HTML5 playback client for playback of slides + audio. This way, playback could occur within an HTML5 browser. By using HTML5, the playback would be very lightweight: just a series of PNG images and an OGG audio file.

Near the end of our development of 0.8, we were approached by Ben Moskowitz, a member of Mozilla Foundation, and asked if we were interested in using popcorn.js instead. popcorn.js is a javascript library for synchronized playback of media.

With the support of Mozilla, we converted over BigBlueButton to use popcorn.js (read: ditched our home grown client). The conversion went so well that we were able to add playback of chat messages.

Click the image below to see an example of playback of a recorded BigBlueButton session using popcorn.js.

Thanks to popcorn.js and the Mozilla Foundation, folks can leverage popcorn.js when remixing and creating new output formats for BigBlueButton recordings.

Presentation on Record and Playback with BigBlueButtton

Two of the BigBlueButton developers, Richard Alam and Fred Dixon, gave a talk at SC2011 - Software Developers' Haven, an open source conference held in Ottawa, Ontario, on August 27, 2011.



They presented the architecture and implementation of record and playback in the upcoming BigBlueButton 0.8.

At the time of the presentation BigBlueButton 0.8-beta had not yet shipped, but it will soon!

Short review of BigBlueButton in Classroom 2.0

The website Classroom 2.0 recently posted an article 9 Web Conferencing Platforms for Education and Collaboration 2.0: What Should Your Organization Use?

In the review, Nicholas Carl Martin wrote about BigBlueButton

It offers the basic features described at the beginning of the post and also employs video conferencing between the presenter and viewers. It lacks recording and mobile integration, but is on a good track and is highly recommended for organizations that have a good handle on tech and want a cost-effective and easy-to-use option.

In regards to the missing parts, the GT-Mconf team working on an android client, and we have record and playback coming in BigBlueButton 0.8-beta.

BigBlueButton 0.8 beta is coming soon!

BigBlueButton Developer Summit on Sunday, August 28, 11AM - 2PM EDT

The BigBlueButton developers will be holding a three hour on-line developer summit on Sunday, August 28, 11AM - 2PM EDT.

For information on agenda and registration see this announcement in our developer mailing list.

The on-line sessions will be held with BigBlueButton itself (of course!). A recording of the sessions will be available after the summit.

Video showing record and playback in BigBlueButton 0.8 (internal build)

We've made this YouTube video showing the recording of a presentation (slides + audio) and its playback within BigBlueButton 0.8.

The video was taken of an internal build of BigBlueButton 0.8. It shows the core APIs are in place to record a presentation, get past recordings, publish/unpublish recordings, and delete recordings.

BigBlueButton at Sakai 2011

Omar Shammas and Fred Dixon recently attended the Sakai 2011 User Conference in Los Angeles to demonstrate the latest version of BigBlueButton.

We showed the upcoming integration with Matterhorn 1.1 and an build of BigBlueButton 0.8 with record and playback. We also held a BoF (Birds of a Feather) session to answer questions about the project.

The Sakai community puts on a very good show. This was our second year attending. Last year, we estimate about 20% of attendees had heard about BigBlueButton. This year, the number was around 60%.

The conference was an excellent opportunity to talk directly to universities and colleges who had already deployed BigBlueButton and share our road map. Looking forward to attending the Sakai 2012 conference!

Omar recently created the localization server at http://localize.bigbluebutton.org. See previous blog post. Fred is one of the BigBlueButton committers.

BigBlueButton Android client now supports video

The GT-Mconf team recently demonstrated at Campo Grande-Brazil an updated version of their BigBlueButton Android client supporting video.

Here's a screen shot:


More screenshots available here.

They also gave a presentation of their progress to date. In his post to bigbluebutton-dev, Felipe Cecagno said their plans are to release the next version within the Android marketplace.

Can't wait to see it -- time to buy an android phone!