RCA Communicate: Managed Nextcloud Talk Videoconferencing

When recording is enabled in the instance, the moderator(s) may start recording an active call or video call at any time. Participants in the call will receive a notification alerting them that the call is being recorded. Users who join later will also be able to see that a recording is in progress, and depending on the general configuration, give their consent or not.

Once the call is finished, the recording server sends the recording file (in webm format) to the moderator who can decide either to share it directly in the room or to leave it where it was uploaded in his personal Nextcloud area.

When installing Nextcloud Talk, the internal signaling server is used by default and calls or video calls are made via a direct connection between participants. When making calls with 2-3 participants this type of connection can be effective, but as soon as we go above this threshold it ceases to be so because the incoming and outgoing number of connections on the user's device explodes.

This is why the High Performance Backend is introduced which, in addition to exposing an optimised signaling server, also adds a media streaming server which optimises the quantity and amount of incoming and outgoing streams by managing them centrally. In addition, other components are added that enable the participation in calls to users connecting from networks with particularly restrictive security levels (TURN server).

The NC-Service instances use a fully capable High Performance Engine, also operated by RCA Systems, which enables calls and video calls with up to hundreds participants.

These are the basic components of the system that alllows to do your calls, videocalls and chats in Nextcloud Hub:

• Signaling Server: this is the intermediary between your Nextcloud instance and the core videoconferencing system, that is the media streaming node(s).
• Media Streaming Server: based on Janus WebRTC Gateway, this is the system that receives the media streams (audio, video and screen) of the publishers and sends them to all the subscribers. It is generally deployed in a cluster for scalability reasons.
• TURN Server: this is a media streaming relay service that allows users that connect from behind restrictive firewalls that prevent direct connection to the media streaming system(s). It acts also as a STUN server.
• Recording Server: this is the component that records the calls or videocalls and sends the recording file back to the user who requested it.

RCA Communicate implements all these components and includes them in all the service tiers.

You already have a Nextcloud Hub instance, that you want to start using in its full potential.

Your users collaborate via chat, calls and videocalls and communicate externally with remote customers. You want to make their like easier with an embedded file picker for file sharing, in-chat full text search and possibility to start 1-to-1, group or company-wide conversations very quickly.

You want to avoid your users to use services that lie outside your control, possibly not compliant with company security policy or regulation.

You want them to do group calls with more than 3-4 users and you want to avoid problems that arise with peer-to-peer-based communications.

At the same time you don't want to invest the time and money needed to have a Nextcloud Talk-based videoconferencing system locally on your system (if this is your case, we can still help you: check this service).

If this describes well your situation, please get in touch.

The goal is to put you in the best conditions to try out an advanced and scalable videoconferencing solution, based on Nextcloud Talk.

Depending on your technical preparedness and systems access policy in your company, we can either send you step-by-step instructions to configure your Nextcloud to use RCA Communicate or organize a remote meeting in order to do that together.

To already give you an overview of the configuration, you'll need to open the Talk administration page (https://<your-nc-instance>/settings/admin/talk) and go through the configurations, at least those regarding the STUN Servers, TURN Servers and High-performance Backend (see screenshot).

Yes, we can offer a trial period of 2 weeks for you to test the system. During this period, we will be listening to any question you may have, being it technical or not. At the end of the trial period you'll decide if RCA Communicate meets your requirements.

When user opens an interface to Nextcloud Talk, if the Nextcloud instance that he/she is using is configured with an external signaling server, it creates a device session on that signaling server. With "interface to Nextcloud Talk" we mean any interface allowing interacting with the application functionalities, then including the web browser, smartphone native applications and desktop native applications.

Let's make an example:

• 1 room with 10 participants, 5 of which are currently actively chatting.
• One of the users is also connected to another room from another device, actively chatting with another colleague.
• 1 room with 4 participants, all in a currently ongoing call.

In this case the Signaling Server would count 5+2+4=11 device sessions. There is no difference between device sessions from authenticated users and guests, that is users joining from a public link. Please note that, as this example goes, it is enough that a user enters a room for the session to be created, regardless he/she joins a live call.

To make the system more stable and to avoid misuse, RCA Systems sets a maximum number of device sessions to each Nextcloud instance that uses the system. To have an indication of the maximum value, you can check the following table (the values can be adjusted to the customer's setup).

Once the maximum limit is hit, the end users will experience connection errors and it will be impossible for those that don't have yet a session defined to join Nextcloud Talk rooms.

For the more technically oriented, we are referring to parameter sessionlimit.

Yes, webinars are supported, with up to 100-200 users.

When planning to host a webinar on RCA Communicate, please take into account the following:

• When creating the room for the webinar, it is important to make proper use of Nextcloud Talk advanced permissions assignment. This means that you would need to assign the privilege to start a call, share the video, the audio and the screen just to the speaker(s) and/or moderator(s). This configuration makes sure that the server load stays manageable and that your participants have a proper call experience. If at a given point, a participant needs those privileges, you can assign them selectively and for the time that they are really needed.
• In addition, you have to make sure that the number of available device sessions is large enough to host it. RCA Systems can raise the maximum number of sessions for a limited period of time upon request. 

The technical requirements to use the service are the following:

• to use an up-to-date Nextcloud Hub instance with Nextcloud Talk installed. With up-to-date here we mean a version that is still supported. Please consult here if you use the Community version, or consult the Nextcloud support portal if you are using an enterprise version.
• have access to the administration panel of Nextcloud Talk in the Nextcloud web UI.
• ensure connectivity from your Nextcloud server to all the services that are necessary to use RCA Communicate: Signaling Server, Media Servers, TURN Server and Recording Server (only if used). The IP addresses and hostnames will be provided upon request.
• ensure connectivity from your users devices to the same services as above. If you are not using firewalls or forward proxy-based security there shoudn't be any problem; if you are, then it may be possible that the security rules must be updated.
• ensure that your users use recent mainstream browsers such as Firefox, Chrome, Edge and their derivatives and/or native desktop applications (Windows, Linux, macOS) or smartphone (Android or iOS)