BigBlueButton: Technical Difficulties

Are you having troubles moderating or attending a BBB conference?

  1. Moderation Issues
      1. Some participants: sound distorted, camera image is not stable
      2. All participants: little or no sound, all camera Images freeze
      3. Connections break, participation is not possible
        1. More than 100 participants
        2. Less than 100 participants
  2. Problems as Participants
      1. Camera release not possible/not displayed
      2. Microphone release not possible / echo test negative
      3. Other Participants: sound is distorted, camera image faltering
      4. Conference is completely dysfunctional: hardly any sound; all camera images freeze
        1. How do I turn off the display of webcams?
  3. Support for All Types of Cases

Moderation Issues

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Some participants: sound distorted, camera image is not stable

What can you do ?

  • Open the connection status. If a red or purple icon (error icon) is displayed for the person in question, ask the affected person to follow the instructions below, one by one:
    • Open the connection status and turn off shared webcams.
    • Stop sharing your own webcam.
    • Reopen the connection status and turn off enabled screen sharing.
    • End the audio connection and join the conference by phone.
      • When you join the conference by phone, you can turn screen sharing back on.
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All participants: little or no sound, all camera Images freeze

What can you do?

  • If the connection status is red or purple
    • Then your own internet connection is not fast enough or is interfering. Follow the instructions for participants.
  • If the connection status is green
    • Follow the instructions for recurring disconnections in the next section.

 

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Connections break, participation is not possible

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More than 100 participants

What can you do?

  • Enable the following options (under restrict attendee rights):
    • If you want the attendees to listen only: Disable microphone sharing.
        • If the feature unlock microphone is disabled, all existing microphones of participants are disabled, but attendees can still listen. The microphones of presenters and hosts are not affected. When you unlock the microphones again, participants remain in listen only mode, but can individually turn on the microphone.
    • Show attendee list to other participants
    • Show other participants’ webcams
        • If other participants’ webcams are hidden, the videos of presenters and hosts, as well as your own image, are still visible and participation in the event is not restricted. As a presenter, you will still see all shared videos
    • Webcam sharing
        • Completely blocking webcam sharing also effects only attendees, leaving presenters’ videos still visible.
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Less than 100 participants

What can you do?

  • Ask all participants to log in again in five minutes
  • End the conference and wait three minutes
  • Start the conference again

Technical background: BBB consists of a cluster of up to 500 servers. Each time a conference starts, it is assigned to the server with the lowest load. If the interruption of your conference was caused by a server-side problem or a targeted attack on BBB’s availability, stopping and restarting the conference will cause it to be reassigned to a different server.

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Problems as Participants

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Camera release not possible/not displayed

What can you do?

  • Close all other programs that are also accessing the camera and then try to unlock the camera again.
  • Check if the camera was accidentally locked in the browser.
  • Make sure you are using the correct device.
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Microphone release not possible / echo test negative

What can you do?

  • Quit other programs that are also using the microphone, and then try to unlock it again.
  • Check that the microphone has not been accidentally locked in the browser.
  • Check that you are using the correct device/microphone.
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Other Participants: sound is distorted, camera image faltering

What can you do?

  • Tell the host of your event.
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Conference is completely dysfunctional: hardly any sound; all camera images freeze

What can you do?

If the connection status is red or violet

  • Make sure that other applications/other people or devices on the same network are not transferring large amounts of data at the same time such as:
    • Software downloads
    • Automatic updates
    • Synchronizing data to the cloud
    • Online or server-based games

If your device is connected to the internet via WLAN

  • Make sure the WLAN connection is of sufficient quality.
  • See if moving closer to the wireless router helps.

If you cannot resolve the problems, follow the next steps.

  • Try the following instructions one at a time to see if the problems are resolved. (Proceed to the next instructions only if the problems persists:)
    • Open the connection status and turn off webcams that are enabled
    • Stop sharing your own webcam
    • Open the connection status again and turn off screen sharing enabled
    • End the audio connection and join the conference by phone as well
      • If you are joining the conference by phone, you can turn screen sharing back on

If the connection status is green

      • Quit other programs on your device to make sure you have enough RAM (working memory)
      • Restart the browser and rejoin the conference.
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How do I turn off the display of webcams?
  • Open the Settings
  • Select Data savings
  • Enable other participants webcams.

Your own webcam is not affected by this setting and will continue to be transmitted.

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Support for All Types of Cases

Members of the University of Mainz with questions regarding the application contact the Digital Teaching Competence Team. Email: digitale-lehre@uni-mainz.de

Members of the University of Mainz with technical questions please contact the ZDV-Hotline. Email: hotline@zdv.uni-mainz.de

Members of different universities from Rhineland-Palatinate please contact the virtual campus Rhineland -Platinate (VCRP).

Members of schools from Rhineland-Palatinate please contact the educational State institution. Email: webkonferenz@pl.rlp.de

In order to process your request better, we need the following information:

  • A phone number for any questions
  • Information about the conference:
    • The name of the conference server (in the form bbb-33.rlp.net, from the browser address field, red arrow)
    • The name of the BBB room where the problems occurred (yellow arrow)
    • If possible, the invitation address (in the form https://bbb.rlp.net/b/sch-rtz-gvv-lsw, green arrow)

 

 

  • The name of the owner of the BBB room
  • Which system you used to join the room (e.g.) directly from bbb.rlp.net or Moodle)
  • The exact time when the problem occurred, if possible
  • Details of the device you used:
    • What type of device you were using (PC, laptop, tablet, mobile phone)
    • What network you were using (“home internet connection”, “residence hall” or “on campus”).
    • How your device was connected to the internet (cable, wireless, cellular).
    • What operating system you are using (e.g. Linux or Windows 10).
    • What browser you were using (Firefox,Chrome,Safari).
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