This summer I’ve had the opportunity to experiment with a few H323 open source packages with a few colleagues. In general we had comparatively good luck with these tools. They connected great to my Tandberg MCU too! The only challenge was echo cancellation, but that probably could have been solved with a bit more effort and testing. Each of these worked great with a webcam.
- Ekiga/GnomeMeeting
- OpenPhone
- and Xmeeting for our Mac friends.
So if you’re looking for a low-end solution, this might work for you! Please share any comments on your own experiments & testing with these tools.
June 16, 2009 Update: OpenPhone seems to no longer exist. Updated link to XMeeting.
[…] a higher-end unit, you can start with H.323 desktop videoconference. With a webcam you can use open source H323 clients or Polycom’s PVX for $120ish, to connect to H.323 content like TWICE is showcasing here. You […]
OpenH323 is a defunct site. Go to http://www.h323plus.org for an up to date version of the project
hi, I’d like to know if someone knows of a MCU open source software, I am looking for a Multipoint Control Unit for multiple video conferencing. Thanks for any post that you might provide.
Regards,
Carlos
As far as I know there is no open source MCU software. There’s a reason MCU software is so expensive – it’s hard to make!!
GnuGK is a perfectly fine Multi point gateway.
GnuGK is not a Gateway, it is an H.323 Gatekeeper, there is a big difference
These two terms are used frequently in the field of videoconferencing. Each represents a type of hardware and a specific video conference service. They are very different from one another, but the phonetic similarity can lead to confusion. It is not uncommon for writers of documentation (and even engineers) to inadvertently use the wrong term as a slip of the tongue. In retrospect, having two such similar terms was a bad idea, but it’s too late now to change the vocabulary!
GATEKEEPER
Gatekeeper: a network device that provides addressing service for H.323 (Internet-based) video conference clients. It may also be configured to impose network bandwidth restrictions, but this is not a necessity. Registration by the video conference client usually takes place when the client is started; the address of the gatekeeper is put into the client’s configuration. Use of a gatekeeper allows a video conference device to “dial” another device using the video conference address rather than an IP address (which could easily change due to DHCP). A gatekeeper can be peered with other national and international gatekeepers, allowing the use of the Global Dialling Scheme (GDS) .
GNU Gatekeeper is free and open source
http://www.gnugk.org/h323-faq.html
GATEWAY
Gateway: a network device that allows an H.323 (Internet-based) video conference device to connect to an H.320 (ISDN) video conference device. It is essentially an adapter to allow dissimilar network devices to exchange information. The hardware gateway accepts both Ethernet and ISDN connections. The number of ISDN cables determines the total bandwidth of a video conference that can be accommodated.
A good paper on the subject you can view here :
http://citeseerx.ist.psu.edu/viewdoc/summary?doi=10.1.1.65.2118&rank=1
Thanks for the great information Peter!