Groups and projects on wechange.de can now activate the Video Conference Pro package for €5 per group per month. This means you can use BigBlueButton to hold video conferences for meetings, presentations, online and hybrid events in the best quality and securely. Stay in regular contact with Video Conference Pro in your groups and projects across the country!
What does the Video Conference Pro package offer you?
Yes, I would like to activate Video Conferencing Pro for a group for €5 per month per group/project (incl. 19% VAT).
We do not have our own tutorial yet, but BBB is used internationally by many and accordingly there are some tutorials, for example this one on YouTube (6:30 min). In the video, some things look a little different than in our BBB, as we are already using a newer version, but it should be close enough to understand the basics. Nothing more than the basics are shown (if you know of a better/more recent tutorial, please let us know!). To get the most out of BBB, you have no choice but to experiment yourself and, best of all, read our FAQ, which gives a detailed insight.
BBB allows you to hold professional video conferences and make use of numerous options without your data being exploited by the questionable business models of large corporations. Instead, you can meet digitally easily and securely to take collaboration in your groups and projects to the next level.
Up to 100 people should be able to participate in a meeting, as long as not everyone shares their camera. The exact upper limits vary depending on the current server load. If you test the limits, please let us know how many participants and cameras your meeting was able to handle and when problems started, we would be happy to hear from you!
In order to use BBB, a person from your group/project must request activation. We have created a form for you that explains all the other points: https://wechange.de/cms/bigbluebutton/
After we have activated BBB for you, it should appear directly in your group/project dashboard. To deactivate it again or change the settings, navigate to the "Embed video conference" item in the group/project settings (requires admin rights).
For the use of BBB, we charge you a monthly flat rate of €5 per group and project in which we want to use BBB. This means you can use BBB in your groups and projects as often and with as many participants as you like.
The reason we do not make BBB available for free for all groups and projects is because the meetings cause a significant server load, which results in higher costs for us. Since not all groups and projects need BBB, we believe it is fair if those who actually want to use BBB pay for it.
After you have filled out the form on https://wechange.de/cms/bigbluebutton/ you will receive two emails from us: one email in which we confirm that we have activated BBB for you and send you some information about it, and an email with the invoice. You simply pay the invoice in the traditional way within 14 days.
Even if you have set up a Pay-As-You-Like post, the post will not collected through this method. Payments for BBB and Pay-As-You-Like run independently of each other.
After activation, you can use professional video conferences. The "Video conference" field will now appear at the top of your group/project dashboard. If you click on this, a BBB meeting will open immediately. All members of your group/project who now click on the "Video conference" field will end up in a meeting with you.
Alternatively, you can now choose whether to include a BigBlueButton meeting when creating an event. If you do this, the "Start/Join video conference" field will now be displayed in the event, which will open a BBB meeting specifically for this event.
There can be various reasons for this. Maybe you are simply muted? Below you will see a microphone symbol. If it is crossed out, you are muted. Click on it and select your microphone if necessary. The same applies to the video icon directly next to it.
This is what it looks like when both microphone and webcam are activated:
If that didn't help: Sometimes it's due to the browser version. Try to see if it works with a different browser.
It could also be due to the audio and video inputs and outputs. In the audio or video settings (click on the small arrow next to the respective symbol) you can select which one you want to use. Try it with or without headphones. If it still doesn't work, you can also dial into the meeting by phone (see below).
You've probably minimized the presentation. Click the presentation button in the bottom right to show it again.
Presentation is displayed:
Presentation is minimized:
If you want to share your webcam: Deactivate webcam sharing by clicking on the camera symbol below. Click on it again to activate sharing. A window should now appear where you can select the quality. Select "Low" and then click on "Start sharing".
If that's not enough: Click on the three dots in the top right and then on "Open settings". Under "Data saving mode" you can choose whether you want to deactivate other people's webcams or screen sharing.
All participants can minimize our standard slide for themselves by clicking on the presentation button at the bottom right.
Alternatively, the presenter (see Question about roles and permissions) delete the slide for the entire room so that none of the participants can see it anymore. To do this, the presenter clicks on the plus button at the bottom left and then on "Upload/manage presentations". Here, click on the trash can next to the current presentation "default.pdf" and then confirm at the top right. The presentation is then gone and cannot be displayed again (unless you have downloaded it beforehand and upload it again).
This deletion of the standard presentation only applies to the current meeting. As soon as the conference is ended (e.g. because all participants leave) and then restarted, the presentation is back.
You can also upload and show your own presentations, see here.
If you are the admin of your group/project, you can navigate to the settings via the group/project menu. In the "General" tab at the bottom, you can select whether the participants' microphone and camera should be activated by default when joining. You can also select whether recordings should be possible (see below for more information on recordings).
You can expand the list of participants using the person icon at the top left. Now click on "Public Chat", write a message and press Enter. Voilá!
You're supposed to be careful during the meeting and not send each other secret messages, but it's still possible. Left-click on one of the people in the list of participants and select "Start private chat."
Above the list of participants is the "Shared Notes" field. All participants can write in it at the same time, e.g. to take minutes of the meeting. If you are familiar with Pad (i.e. Etherpads), this should be nothing new to you.
Watch out: Your shared notes will disappear once everyone has left the meeting, so make sure to back them up beforehand if there was anything important in them.
As the moderator of the meeting (see below for roles and permissions), you can also pin the shared notes to the whiteboard so that everyone can see them large, or convert the notes into a presentation to show the status of the shared notes at that moment (via the three-dot menu to the right above the shared notes). You can then no longer change the text in the presentation, but you can decorate it with the whiteboard tools (see below). The best thing to do is just try it out for yourself.
In BBB, only one person has the role of "presenter" (see below for roles and permissions). Only this person can share the screen. To do this, they will see an additional button below. If you click here as a presenter, you will be asked which window you want to share. Select a window, confirm your entry and you're done.
Participants with the role "Moderator" (see below for roles and permissions) can give (or remove) the role "Presenter" for themselves or others. If you want to present something, ask a moderator to make you the "Presenter".
This is because you do not currently have the "presenter" role. In BBB, only one person can have this role at a time. Participants with the "moderator" role (see roles and permissions below) can give (or revoke) the "presenter" role to themselves or others. If you want to present something, ask a moderator to make you the "presenter".
At the bottom right you will see a button with a hand. If you click here, the moderators will see that you are raising your hand. Click it again to lower your hand again. Moderators can also lower your hand for you.
You can use status icons to express how you are feeling or what you think of something. You can set your own status in two ways:
1. Click on the small arrow next to the hand button at the bottom right.
2. Open the participants bar, click on yourself and select “Set status”.
In the participants bar you can also see the status of the other participants. Moderators can reset the status of individual or all participants.
As a moderator (see below for roles and permissions), you can click on the gear in the participant list and select "Create group rooms". Here you can specify the number of rooms and the assignment. The time you set here is a hard limit. After the time has elapsed, the rooms are closed and everyone ends up back in the main room.
In the public chat, you will always see a message like the following at the top: "To join this meeting by phone, dial: +4930 123 456 789 and enter the following PIN: 12341234123#. Use the 0-key on your phone to toggle mute on/off". You need the phone number and the PIN. If you can't get into the meeting and chat yourself, have someone in the meeting send it to you. Once you're in, you can mute or unmute yourself using the 0 key.
If you have the role of moderator in a meeting, you will see a message at the top of the public chat like: “To invite external guests, share this link: https://wechange.de/bbb/abc-def-hij/". Copy this link and send it to a person you want to invite to the meeting. The other person does not have to be registered on wechange.de. If they are not registered, they only need to enter a name and agree to the terms of use after clicking on the link.
The invited person now has the role of "guest". This means that they cannot be promoted to the role of "moderator". However, they can be promoted to presenter (by a moderator).
As a presenter (see below for roles and permissions), you can click on the blue button with the plus symbol at the bottom left. Select "Upload/manage presentations".
Now you can upload a file and confirm. The file will now be converted to a PDF and displayed to everyone. As a presenter, you can use the arrow icons below to move through the slides. If someone else becomes a presenter, they can continue where you left off or upload another PDF file and display it.
We recommend converting files to PDF before uploading to ensure everything looks the way it should.
As a presenter (see below for roles and permissions), when you share an uploaded presentation (see above), you can add annotations (lines, geometric shapes, arrows, text, notes) to it. You will see an annotation bar at the bottom for this. At the top under "Styles" you can select the color, thickness, line type, size and font of the annotations. If you click on the cursor ("Select") in the annotation bar, you can move existing annotations or otherwise change them.
By default, only the person with the "Presenter" role can make annotations. However, the presenter can activate multi-user mode using a button in the row below the annotation bar.
Now everyone can use the whiteboard tools - until the presenter deactivates the multi-user mode again. As a presenter, you can also give individual participants access to the whiteboard by selecting them in the participant list and choosing the corresponding option. Individual participants can also be denied access to the whiteboard.
By the way, the annotations stay on the slide. When you move to the next slide, they are gone. When you move back, they are there again.
Once you've enhanced a slide using the whiteboard tools, you may want to download it. To do so, anyone can click on the three dots in the top right of the presentation and select "Download current slide." The slide will be saved as a PNG.
In BBB meetings, there are two "classic" roles, namely participants and moderators, as well as the additional role of "presenter". Participants have limited rights, for example, they cannot create breakout rooms or end the meeting for everyone.
However, moderators can do all of these things - similar to how admins in WECHANGE groups and projects have more rights than regular members. For example, they can also mute participants (but not unmute them). Moderators also see a gear icon above the list of participants. Using this additional moderator menu, they can, among other things, restrict participant rights.
In addition, moderators can appoint themselves and others as presenters by clicking on the desired person in the participant list and clicking "Make presenter". Only as a presenter can you share your screen or show an uploaded presentation (see above). In addition, as a presenter you can use the whiteboard tools yourself and also allow others to access the whiteboard in multi-user mode (see above).
We have set it up so that group/project admins are automatically moderators in the BBB meetings within the group/project. All normal members of the group/project are participants in the meeting. In BBB meetings within events, the person who created the event is also the moderator.
Moderators can also promote regular participants to moderators. The exception is “guests”: Participants who joined the meeting via the external invitation link (and therefore have the designation “guest” in the participant list) can not be promoted to moderators.
Watch out: If no admin is participating in your meeting, no one is a moderator. This means that no one can become a presenter to share the screen. Functions such as breakout rooms or recordings cannot be used without a moderator.
As a presenter (see above for roles and permissions), you can click on the plus button at the bottom left and click "Start poll". The prerequisite for this, however, is that a presentation has been uploaded and selected. This can also be the standard slide that is uploaded and preselected at the start of each meeting.
The rest is self-explanatory and is best discovered by trying it out for yourself.
If your webcam is shared, you will see an arrow next to the camera icon at the bottom. Click on this and select "Open advanced settings". You can now select a virtual background.
In order to record meetings, this must be allowed in the group/project settings. As a group/project admin, you can select and save the option “Yes” in the settings below under “Embed video conference” -> “Allow recording”.
Now, when entering a BBB meeting, everyone is asked whether they agree to be recorded. As a moderator (see roles and permissions above), you can click on "Start recording" at the top.
If you click on it again, the recording will be paused, but can be continued later. The recording is only finished when everyone has left the meeting or a moderator ends the conference for everyone. It will appear a little later under "Recorded Meetings", which you can navigate to via the group/project menu. The longer the meeting, the longer it can take for the recording to appear there.
You can use the group/project dropdown menu to switch to Recorded Meetings, where they will appear after a short time. The longer the meeting, the longer it may take for the recording to appear there.