This customer story was originally published by AskNicely. Sangoma Technologies Corporation is a trusted leader in business communications, giving companies the flexibility to choose on-premises, cloud, or hybrid unified communications as a service (UCaaS) solutions, combining voice, video, networking, and security for an exceptional, integrated experience. They’ve been working with AskNicely for a year and […]
It’s 2025, and patients expect healthcare to feel as simple as ordering a ride or booking a dinner reservation. They want tools that help them connect, learn, and manage their care, without getting stuck on hold or confused by medical jargon. A recent HIMSS study found that over half of patients use digital tools regularly […]
Running a retail business is hard enough. Managing your phone system shouldn’t make it harder. If you’ve ever struggled to answer every call, connect staff across stores, or reach customers quickly, you’re not alone. Most communication systems weren’t built with retail in mind. That’s why finding the right retail UCaaS provider matters more than ever. […]
Healthcare practices today face growing communication challenges. Staff are stretched thin, patient expectations are rising, and many organizations are still relying on outdated phone systems—tools that were never designed for the speed and complexity of modern healthcare delivery. In many cases, these systems require staff to manually check voicemails, return missed calls, and track down […]
Unified Communications as a Service (UCaaS) brings voice, video, messaging, and collaboration into one cloud-based platform. It’s designed for how modern teams work—whether they’re remote, hybrid, or in-office. With easy deployment, low IT overhead, and built-in scalability, UCaaS helps businesses stay productive and connected without managing servers or juggling apps. What is UCaaS (Cloud UC)? […]
Most clinics don’t need to be told their communication tools are broken—they live it every day. A patient leaves a voicemail that gets buried. A nurse calls back but misses the window. The front desk is juggling calls while trying to check in a walk-in. No one has time to track who said what, let […]
In hospitality, every minute matters. When communication breaks down, it shows fast. A request is missed, a handoff fails, a guest ends up waiting—and they don’t forget. It’s rarely a people problem. Most teams are doing their best with tools that were never meant to work together. Desk phones, radios, personal devices, random apps. Everyone’s […]
For industries with strict compliance requirements or data sovereignty concerns, keeping communication infrastructure in-house can offer added peace of mind. On-Premises Unified Communications (UC) gives you full administrative control over updates, integrations, and data—without sacrificing the collaboration features teams rely on. While cloud and hybrid deployments are secure and scalable (and often the right fit […]
If you’ve ever juggled before, you’ve probably let the balls drop. Now, imagine trying to juggle communication between multiple hotel properties. It’s easy to see how things can get missed, calls can get lost, and guests can end up frustrated. Managing multiple properties means managing a lot of moving parts. But one part that often […]
Unified Communications (UC) usually pushes businesses towards a tough choice: the robust control and security of on-premises systems, or the agility and scalability provided by cloud-based solutions. How about if you didn’t have to choose? Hybrid UC delivers precise control over critical infrastructure while harnessing cloud flexibility to scale effortlessly. In this article, we’ll explore […]
Healthcare communication should be easy. But too often, it’s a struggle. Outdated phone systems create frustration, confusion, and delays. Patients wait on hold, important messages get lost, and staff spend too much time tracking down information. This isn’t just inconvenient—it’s costly, both for practices and patients. The good news? There’s a better way. By upgrading […]
If your hotel brand can’t deliver a consistent guest experience across every property, you’re losing trust—and revenue. Guests expect the same level of service whether they’re checking in at your flagship resort in Miami or your boutique property in Denver. But for most hotel groups, delivering that kind of consistency isn’t easy. Disconnected communication tools, […]
Let’s face it: launching a UCaaS (Unified Communications as a Service) system from scratch is daunting. This type of cloud phone system incorporates many different types of communication/collaboration services to help your business succeed, including voice, video, messaging, meetings, presence, and team-based collaboration. And while the hallmark of a UCaaS environment is its ability to bring […]
Technology has changed how we work—and fast. Teams are spread across offices, homes, and time zones. Customers expect fast responses at any time of day. Meanwhile, businesses are juggling a mess of apps, devices, and phone systems that don’t talk to each other, slow everyone down, and cost too much to maintain. That’s why more […]
Healthcare providers are under more pressure than ever. Doctors and healthcare staff spend long hours, dealing with mountains of paperwork, managing telemedicine appointments, and answering patient calls. It’s a lot to handle—and it takes time away from what matters most: caring for patients. That’s where Unified Communications (UC) and Generative AI (GenAI) come in to […]
In hospitality, the pressure to provide exceptional guest experiences is always high. Whether you run a boutique hotel or a large resort, guests expect fast, personalized service, and any hiccup in communication can quickly lead to frustration and bad reviews. How can you keep things running smoothly and ensure each guest leaves happy? The answer […]
Every missed call, delayed message, or clunky video conference costs your business more than time—it costs opportunities. The average employee switches between 13 different apps 30 times a day, losing focus and wasting hours in the process. Over the course of a week, that’s four hours spent just trying to reorient after toggling between tools. […]
Imagine being a doctor at a busy practice. Your office is packed with patients, your team is juggling phone calls, prescription refills, appointment scheduling, and in-person visits—all at once. The phone rings again, but this time, it’s not answered, or worse, it’s dropped entirely. You’re already buried in paperwork, and the outdated phone systems aren’t […]
With big players like NEC pulling the plug on their on-premises offerings and others cutting support for traditional systems, it’s easy to think the future of Unified Communications (UC) lies entirely in the cloud. However, not all companies are on board with this shift. At Sangoma, we’ve committed to continuing to invest in Switchvox On-Premises […]
International Women’s Day is a time to celebrate the incredible contributions of women worldwide and reflect on the progress made toward gender equality. At Sangoma, we proudly recognize the women who inspire us daily, driving innovation, growth, and success across our company and the broader business world. As a company rooted in values like trust, […]
The communications world is buzzing with big changes, and it’s leaving many small and medium-sized businesses (SMBs) in a tough spot. Avaya, a long-standing player in the space, has announced that starting June 30, 2025, it will no longer support businesses with fewer than 200 seats on its Avaya Experience Platform (AXP). If you’re one […]
We’re excited to share that Jitsi has been accepted into Google Summer of Code 2025! This is a great opportunity to get hands-on experience, collaborate with our awesome community, and contribute to the Jitsi open-source ecosystem.
If you’re interested in participating, check out our idea tracker for some inspiration. If you have your own cool project idea, we’d love to hear it!
To get started, make sure to check out the following resources:
The deadline for applications is April 8th, 2025, so be sure to get your proposal in before then! We’re here to support you throughout the process, and we can’t wait to see what you’ll bring to the table.
Stay tuned for updates, join the community discussions, and let’s make GSoC 2025 amazing!
Say hello to AV1, the new default video codec in Jitsi Meet
The AV1 codec represents the cutting edge of video compression technology. Developed by the Alliance for Open Media (AOMedia), a consortium including tech giants like Google, Microsoft, Netflix, and Mozilla, AV1 is a loyalty-free video codec that was designed to meet the ever-growing demand for high-quality video streaming while minimizing bandwidth usage.
It offers up to 30-50% better compression compared to its predecessors like VP9, VP8 and H.264, enabling sharper visuals at lower bitrates. This makes it an ideal choice for bandwidth-constrained environments, such as mobile networks or rural areas with limited internet speeds. Despite its impressive capabilities, the adoption of AV1 has been slower than anticipated due to several factors. AV1 has higher computational demands as its advanced compression algorithms require significantly more processing power for encoding and decoding. Hardware acceleration for AV1 is still emerging and therefore use of AV1 can result in higher CPU/energy consumption and suboptimal performance on low end devices and those without hardware support.
The path to adding AV1 support in Jitsi was not straightforward. Before we could enable AV1, it was essential to integrate support for the various modes and complexities that the codec offers, both in the Jitsi Meet client and the Jitsi Video Bridge (JVB). Jitsi had to extend JVB’s capabilities to handle AV1 streams, including managing simulcast and SVC modes seamlessly for multi-user conferences. This groundwork laid the foundation for AV1’s eventual inclusion as the preferred codec in Jitsi deployments.
AV1’s RTP encapsulation is unusual, if not weird, compared to RTP payloads for other video codecs – all the information an RTP Selective Forwarding Unit (SFU) like the JVB needs is carried in a “Dependency Descriptor” RTP header extension, rather than in the RTP payload proper. This means that the JVB doesn’t technically need to support the AV1 codec at all – it only needs to support the dependency descriptor header extension.
Decoding AV1’s Dependency Descriptor
This format is unusual in that it was developed not in the IETF, where RTP payload formats are normally defined, but rather by AOMedia itself. The main consequence of this is that the header is encoded very much like a video codec: it’s very parsimonious of bit usage, at the cost of being both annoyingly complicated to parse, and being stateful – information needed to parse the header is sent only at intervals. For more information about this complexity, see Lorenzo’s post from several years ago – https://www.meetecho.com/blog/av1-svc/.
Handling the complex parsing is relatively straightforward once some utility classes are written. However, handling the statefulness is harder, especially given that an SFU always needs to be prepared for packet loss and reordering, so packets that use some state may arrive before the packet that provides it. Thus this work needs to keep track of the state that’s reported in those packets that carry it, and pass it forward to the parser to parse subsequent headers, while handling the possibility that a state update may have been missed.
Because the AV1 DD is a header extension, it can be applied to codecs other than AV1 itself. Notably, this allows us to indicate temporal scalability of an H.264 stream, which is useful because H.264 (without its little-implemented SVC extensions) has no way to indicate temporal scalability of its packets. As a result, the work to support the AV1 DD also allows Jitsi to enable scalable H.264 streams for JVB-mediated conferences as well! (Though there are currently some bugs in Chrome that make this less efficient than it could be – see here and here.) In fact the header can be applied to any video codec, though we still prefer to handle VP8 and VP9 using their in-payload information when that information is available.
Another notable feature of the AV1 dependency descriptor is its concept of “decode targets”, which are a specific layer that a decoder can decode, and thus that an SFU can forward. These usually correspond to a specific spatial and temporal layer, but technically they do not have to. The idea is that a decoder can choose among the various decode targets present in the stream. In most cases it would want to choose the highest-quality one available, but in some circumstances (for instance if it was CPU-constrained, or displaying a source in a small window) it could choose a lower-quality target instead.
This has the consequence that a stream needs to be explicit about what decode targets are actually present. An SFU, by design, forwards only some of the layers in a stream; this is what it means to “selectively forward”. As a result, the ultimate decoder needs to know what layers it can actually expect to receive, vs. which ones it won’t receive, or it can end up waiting forever while it never gets the frames it thinks it should render. To handle this case, the AV1 dependency descriptor contains a decode target bitmask in the AV1 header extension to indicate which layers are still present in the stream. This bitmask then needs to be updated every time the SFU changes its layer forwarding decision, so the decoder doesn’t try to wait to decode a decode target that won’t be arriving any more, or, conversely, so it can know to start decoding a new layer that’s newly started arriving. Fortunately, the logic to do this work is not too complicated, and is similar in complexity to the logic needed to modify the in-payload information for forward VP8 or VP9 streams.
Scalable Video Coding (SVC) Extension for WebRTC
With the release of Chromium M111, significant advancements were made in WebRTC, particularly with the introduction of Scalable Video Coding (SVC) support. This update enabled WebRTC applications to configure encoding parameters for SVC by extending the RTCRtpEncodingParameters dictionary. Around the same time, Chrome also introduced AV1 and VP9 simulcast support. Before Chromium M111, the K-SVC mode (Keyframe-scalable video coding) was the only supported mode for SVC. This update allowed Jitsi Meet to experiment with various scalability modes for AV1 and VP9.
In a Jitsi conference, the client and JVB work in tandem to ensure efficient video streaming. This involves an ongoing exchange of sender and receiver video constraints.
Receiver Constraints: Each participant sends constraints (e.g., desired resolution and priority) to the JVB for the video streams they want to receive. These constraints are influenced by the participant’s current layout (e.g., larger tiles for active speakers).
Sender Constraints: JVB aggregates these constraints and communicates the required video resolutions to the senders. This ensures a participant only sends higher-resolution streams (e.g., 720p) if at least one other participant views them in a sufficiently large tile.
This dynamic coordination minimizes bandwidth usage and optimizes network resources while maintaining the quality of the user experience. Once the client receives sender constraints, it configures its outbound video streams using RTCRtpEncodingParameters. These parameters are tailored based on:
Resolution: The effective resolution determined by JVB constraints.
Video Type: Camera or desktop sharing (further based on content type).
Codec Operating Mode: Whether the stream uses full SVC, simulcast, or unicast.
For AV1 and VP9, three operating modes were tested:
K-SVC Mode: Employs L3T3_KEY and L2T3_KEY scalability modes, focusing on keyframe-based scalability.
Simulcast Mode: Configures each simulcast layer with L1T3 (single spatial layer, 3 temporal layers).
SVC allows a single video stream to be encoded in layers, each layer adding more detail or resolution to the base stream while simulcast involves sending multiple independent video streams of the same content, each at a different resolution and bitrate.
Aspect
Simulcast
SVC
Encoding
Multiple streams encoded separately.
One stream encoded with multiple layers.
Bandwidth Usage (Sender)
Higher (multiple streams).
Lower (single stream).
CPU Usage (Sender)
High (due to multiple encodings).
Lower (single encoding with layers).
CPU Usage (Receiver)
Lower (no need to decode layers).
Higher (decoding layered streams).
Adaptability
Coarser (switching between streams).
Finer (dynamic layer adjustment).
Compatibility
Broadly supported in WebRTC platforms.
Limited support, requires advanced codecs.
Key differences between Simulcast and SVC
After extensive performance testing and careful evaluation of product requirements, Jitsi selected full SVC mode as the default configuration for both AV1 and VP9. This choice ensures optimal scalability and video quality across Jitsi’s deployments. However, this behavior is not rigid; it is configurable and can be easily overridden through config.js settings, providing flexibility to adapt to specific use cases or deployment needs.
Choosing “The One”
To determine the optimal video codec for use in the Jitsi Meet client, Jitsi conducted comprehensive testing under realistic conditions to ensure that codec selection would meet product needs for quality, performance, and scalability. Below is an overview of the methodologies and considerations involved:
Testing Scenarios
Bandwidth Variations – Simulations spanned low, medium, and high bandwidth environments. The goal was to assess how each codec managed network fluctuations while maintaining quality.
Latency and Packet Loss – Varying levels of latency and packet loss were introduced to evaluate codec resilience. Stress tests were performed to observe behavior under severe conditions, such as 30% packet loss or latency spikes of 300ms.
Device Diversity – Tests were conducted on a range of hardware, including Windows and macOS devices and multiple operating systems, to measure CPU load and adaptability. Both high-end and low-end systems were evaluated to cover a wide user base.
Metrics Captured
CPU Usage – Encoding and decoding performance were assessed, focusing on average encode times (in milliseconds). Data was derived from totalEncodeTime stats in outbound RTP streams, with averages computed across test runs.
Bandwidth Efficiency – The minimum bitrate required to deliver acceptable video quality was recorded. Metrics were analyzed for each codec to identify which offered optimal quality for a given bitrate.
Scalability Performance – Tested the ability of each codec to handle spatial and temporal scalability. Metrics such as switch latency (time to adjust to new sender constraints) were captured to evaluate adaptability during resolution and frame rate changes.
User Experience Metrics – Frame drops and jitter were monitored to quantify playback quality. Recovery time after network disruptions or resolution changes was measured, ensuring codecs could handle dynamic conditions effectively.
Results and observations
AV1: Delivered superior video quality at low bitrates but required higher CPU power (but surprisingly on par with VP9 in some cases), making it ideal for high-quality sessions on modern devices. It turned out that it was the best codec for screen sharing on all platforms because of how it uses screen content coding to achieve low bitrates without compromising on video quality and using low CPU, all at the same time.
VP9: Balanced bandwidth efficiency and CPU usage, proving effective for scalable video streams in multi-party calls.
VP8: Demonstrated resilience under suboptimal conditions but lagged in scalability and modern features compared to newer codecs.
H.264: Showed minimal CPU usage only where hardware acceleration was supported. The CPU usage was much higher when it was done in software, especially for higher resolutions like 4K and screenshare. It also struggled with bandwidth efficiency and adaptability in low-bandwidth scenarios.
By rigorously analyzing these metrics, Jitsi optimized its codec selection strategy. While Full SVC modes remained the default for high-performance scenarios, fallback options like VP9 and VP8 were configured for legacy or resource-constrained devices. This comprehensive approach ensures that the Jitsi Meet client provides the best possible video experience across a wide range of devices and network conditions.
Addressing CPU overuse with Adaptive Mode in Jitsi Meet
With the integration of AV1 into Jitsi Meet, users benefit from superior compression and high-quality video at lower bitrates. However, these advantages come at the cost of increased computational demands, especially on low-end devices. To address this, Jitsi introduced a three-fold adaptive quality control mechanism, ensuring a seamless experience even under CPU constraints.
How Adaptive Mode Works
Decreasing the Encoding Load
Dynamic Codec Switching: In adaptive mode, the Jitsi Meet client monitors the WebRTC stats for outbound RTP streams. If the stats indicate a CPU limitation, the client iteratively switches to a lower-complexity codec. This process continues until the lowest complexity codec is reached, based on predefined performance benchmarks for each video type (e.g., camera feed, screen share) thereby reducing the computational demand of video encoding without significantly compromising video quality.
Decreasing the Decoding Load
Requesting Fewer Videos: If reducing encoding complexity isn’t sufficient, the client requests fewer video streams from the server. This limits the number of video decoders active at a given time, cutting down CPU usage.
Lowering Received Video Resolution: For videos already being received, the client requests lower resolutions, further reducing decoding requirements. This helps balance computational load while maintaining an acceptable user experience.
This adaptive approach enables Jitsi Meet to leverage the advanced capabilities of AV1 while ensuring that users with diverse hardware configurations can participate in meetings without disruptions caused by excessive CPU usage.
However, when the CPU spike originates from an external process rather than the Jitsi Meet client, the adaptive mode ensures that quality degradation is minimal. To enhance the user experience, Jitsi Meet also incorporates a recovery mechanism that restores the video configuration once the external constraints are resolved.
Mechanism for Recovery
Continuous Monitoring
The client monitors the CPU limitation statistics reported by the browser through WebRTC metrics. If the browser no longer reports CPU constraints, the client initiates a recovery sequence.
Incremental Recovery Process
The recovery mechanism keeps increasing the number of remote video streams the client requests from the JVB until it reaches the limit set for the conference.
This process is incremental to prevent sudden spikes in CPU usage that could destabilize the client.
Dynamic Adjustment
If CPU constraints reappear during the recovery process, the client halts further recovery steps. This ensures the system does not enter a state where CPU usage exceeds the device’s capabilities.
This gradual approach minimizes the risk of overloading the system during recovery. It also adapts to fluctuating CPU availability, maintaining a balance between performance and quality. The client handles this entire process dynamically without any user interaction, providing a seamless experience.
Browser / device support
Firefox and Safari do not advertise support for the AV1 codec yet. As a result, when users on these browsers join a call, all other participants automatically switch to the next codec in the preferred list, ensuring compatibility across all endpoints.
Additionally, while Chromium-based mobile endpoints are capable of both encoding and decoding AV1, Jitsi has opted to use AV1 only for decoding. For encoding, a lower-complexity codec is used, as encoding typically imposes a higher CPU load compared to decoding. This decision balances performance and device resource constraints, especially on mobile devices.
Eager to start using AV1 in Jitsi?
We have great news for you then!! AV1 support was introduced to Jitsi in June 2024 and has been available in our stable packages ever since. Initially, AV1 had to be manually configured as the preferred codec through config.js settings, allowing users to opt in.
Building on this, AV1 was soon made the preferred codec on meet.jit.si, marking a significant step in leveraging its advanced compression capabilities. Starting with release stable-9909, AV1 became the default preferred codec in our Docker deployments, ensuring out-of-the-box support for users opting for containerized setups.
After thorough experimentation and analysis of real-world performance data, we’re excited to share that AV1 will very soon become the default preferred codec in all deployments, bringing its exceptional bandwidth efficiency and video quality to a broader audience. Stay tuned!
Happy holidays!
Your personal meetings team.
P.S – With contributions from Jonathan Lennox (Jitsi VideoBridge)
Sangoma TeamHub—a user-friendly app designed to simplify team collaboration and boost productivity—is now available to new users of Sangoma's UCaaS platform CommUnity.
Sangoma TeamHub—a user-friendly app designed to simplify team collaboration and boost productivity—is now available to new users of Sangoma’s UCaaS platform CommUnity.
With features like voice calling, real-time chat, SMS, video meetings, and file storage, you get all your communication tools in one place without jumping between multiple apps. Stay connected wherever you are! Access Sangoma TeamHub easily through your web browser or use the desktop app on Mac or Windows. It’s also available on iOS and Android mobile devices.
Key Features:
Talk: Make clear calls using Sangoma TeamHub’s built-in softphone, which features call transfers and rings across all your devices. Enjoy convenient access to visual voicemail and the ability to seamlessly hand off calls, allowing you to continue conversations on another device. Fine-tune your audio settings to fully leverage CommUnity’s powerful voice features, including parking lots, advanced ‘Find Me/Follow Me’ routes, and your own conference bridge.
Chat: Easily share ideas in public or private channels, and send direct chat messages with smart features that save time. AI tools help you quickly catch up on discussions or find information about Sangoma products without sifting through documentation.
SMS: Connect with your customers via SMS using your designated number, activated in a 10DLC campaign.
Video Meetings: Host productive meetings with features like live closed captioning, remote control, and easy calendar integrations.
File Storage: Organize your documents in your personal Sangoma TeamHub Drive, allowing you to access files wherever you go.
Contact Management: Effortlessly manage personal contacts with dial-in options, organize favorites, view ring groups, and sync your corporate phonebook with MS Office 365 and Google contacts for easy access.
Sangoma TeamHub focuses on user satisfaction by providing robust and secure communications, as well as easy customization. Accessible from any internet-connected device, it offers timely notifications whether you’re in the office, working remotely, or on the go, keeping you connected and informed.
Sangoma TeamHub is the ultimate tool for team collaboration and communication, helping you work efficiently from anywhere.
Learn more about mastering teamwork with Sangoma TeamHub today!
Join us on December 12th for the exclusive TeamHub for CommUnity webinar: Register Now!
As businesses increasingly migrate to IP networks, a significant challenge remains: how do you transition from legacy POTS (Plain Old Telephone Service) while maintaining the investment in devices like phones, fax machines, and security equipment?
In a significant shift in the Unified Communications (UC) landscape, NEC announced its decision to exit the UCaaS market, in addition to its earlier announcement to leave the on-prem market. These moves have left many NEC partners and prospects wondering, “Where do we go from here?” NEC in the News Intermedia Cloud Communications and NEC […]
As part of our commitment to innovation and customer support, we are excited to announce the launch of @ASKSangoma, an AI-powered Knowledge Bot. The latest version 3.3 of the Sangoma Teamhub collaboration app introduces a new bot designed to assist our partners and customers with inquiries regarding Sangoma’s product portfolio. Trained on comprehensive product documentation, […]
In the evolving landscape of virtual meetings, seamless connectivity remains paramount. SIP integration enables participants to join meetings from various devices, including hardware phones or softphones such as Bria, video conferencing systems such as Zoom, and traditional telephony systems. This broadens the scope of participants who can connect to Jitsi conferences, making it more inclusive.
Note: Replace pinCode with the specific conference PIN provided for your Jitsi conference
Join a Zoom conference
To connect a Zoom conference to a Jitsi conference, use the Invite via Room System option in Zoom to call out to the provided SIP address
Testing:
Test the configuration by dialing the SIP address. Verify that the call connects to the Jitsi conference and that audio and video is properly routed.
SIP Audio-Only Connectivity: Cost-Effective and Reliable
SIP audio-only connectivity provides a cost-effective and reliable way for participants to join Jitsi conferences. It reduces bandwidth consumption and costs, making it ideal in scenarios where video isn’t really needed, such as webinars. This option ensures users with limited internet access or slower connections can participate without interruptions.
Under the Hood: Exploring the Technical Details
Integrating Voximplant with Jitsi Meet involves several key steps:
Setting Up Voximplant Application:
Create a Voximplant application and configure it with the necessary call handling logic. This involves setting up a scenario for incoming calls, managing call routing, and defining custom IVRs
Add logic in the scenario to validate the conference, select a SIP-Jibri and then forward the call to it
Run a pool of SIP Jibris and use the SIP Jibri selector to select an available SIP Jibri
Setting up a sip domain (Eg. video.8×8.vc):
Define a sip domain and ask VoxImplant to map it to your VoxImplant application
Testing:
One easy way to test the integration is using a softphone to dial in
Note: Voximplant can be replaced with a programmable SIP server such as Kamailio or OpenSIPS.
Wrapping up
While SIP is these days referred to as legacy, it remains the most used protocol for VoIP and acts as the common denominator across many vendors in the industry. Thus it’s a great candiate for connecting anything to everything
The Risks of Sticking with Unsupported On-Premises PBX Systems and Why Switching to Sangoma’s Switchvox is Essential Now You’ve found yourself in a tough spot – change is not just coming; it’s here. NEC has announced its departure from the on-premises PBX market, shifting its focus towards cloud-based solutions. So where does that leave you? […]
The Risks of Sticking with Unsupported On-Premises PBX Systems and Why Switching to Sangoma’s Switchvox is Essential Now You’ve found yourself in a tough spot – change is not just coming; it’s here. NEC has announced its departure from the on-premises PBX market, shifting its focus towards cloud-based solutions. So where does that leave you? […]
As of 2023, a significant portion of businesses still rely on on-premises systems. While the specific percentage of businesses using on-premises UC solutions is not detailed in recent reports, it’s evident that both on-premises and cloud solutions continue to coexist, with each offering distinct advantages depending on organizational needs and priorities. The unified communications market […]
As of 2023, a significant portion of businesses still rely on on-premises systems. While the specific percentage of businesses using on-premises UC solutions is not detailed in recent reports, it’s evident that both on-premises and cloud solutions continue to coexist, with each offering distinct advantages depending on organizational needs and priorities. The unified communications market […]
In the last stable release, Jitsi enabled a new feature called SSRC rewriting that improves the system performance for very large calls. This feature helps reduce the overall load on the system by reducing the number of signaling messages that get exchanged during a large call involving hundreds of endpoints. It also reduces the load on the local endpoint drastically by restricting the number of audio and video decoders created by the WebRTC engine thereby offering a better user experience for large calls.
When this feature is enabled, only a fixed set (let’s say up to 50) of SSRCs are signaled to the downstream endpoints in the call irrespective of the call size. An SSRC is nothing but a unique ID used for identifying a stream of RTP packets that belong to an audio or a video source. When additional media sources are requested by the receiver, the Jitsi Videobridge (JVB) overwrites the SSRCs of the newly requested media streams with that of the ones that were already signaled to the client before and are no longer needed. Therefore, no more than 50 SSRCs need to be signaled to the endpoints even if the number of media sources that will be routed in total far exceeds the set limit.
Moving on to the why – what is the problem that we were trying to solve by implementing SSRC rewriting?
The challenges that we faced when adding support for very large calls with respect to source signaling with the existing approach of signaling every new source to every other participant in the call were two fold.
At the client level, the number of m-lines in the SDP grew linearly with every remote source that got added to the call irrespective of whether media for that particular source gets routed to the endpoint or not. When a new m-line with SSRC is added to the remote SDP, the libwebrtc engine creates a transceiver and does all the plumbing necessary to decode a media stream with the given SSRC if and when it starts receiving it from the JVB. This tied up resources on the local endpoint unnecessarily and introduced delays in renegotiation cycles which resulted in unpleasant user experience. The client can also hit transceiver and SDP parser limits imposed by the browser resulting in unexpected behaviors. These performance issues are more pronounced on mobile endpoints which have fewer resources to begin with compared to the endpoints running on desktops.
On the backend, as the number of participants grew, so did the number of audio and video sources that needed to be signaled to every other participant in the call. This made the signaling traffic from prosody (XMPP communication server) to the endpoints grow quadratically. This was a problem, because Prosody, which is single-threaded, was already the bottleneck when scaling calls. Previously we had to introduce artificial delays in signaling in order to reduce the load. This caused long delays for the media to be established across participants when they unmuted their audio or video for the first time and was very disruptive to large meetings.
The solution to both of these problems was to switch to a demand based signaling mechanism where only a limited number of remote audio and video tracks are signaled to the endpoints depending on what is being needed or requested by them in real time instead of signaling all the known media sources in the call as and when they get added to the call.
Implementation in Jitsi Videobridge
Jitsi Videobridge (JVB) uses a slightly different approach for audio and for video when determining what sources to forward. Forwarding decisions for audio are based simply on the “loudness” of the streams determined from the audio level RTP extension.
With SSRC rewriting, JVB uses a separate SSRC space for each receiver. It maintains a map from an SSRC number to the name of a source. Changes to the map are signaled to the receiver over the direct signaling channel (a WebRTC DataChannel over SCTP), using partial updates:
[modules/RTC/BridgeChannel.js] <e.onmessage>: Received AudioSourcesMap: [{"source":"fc63db0f-a0","owner":"fc63db0f","ssrc":2602882473},{"source":"449360a0-a0","owner":"449360a0","ssrc":1358697798}]
[modules/RTC/BridgeChannel.js] <e.onmessage>: Received VideoSourcesMap: [{"source":"e01f2103-v0","owner":"e01f2103","ssrc":3129389873,"rtx":3219602897,"videoType":"CAMERA"},{"source":"9ac8fef2-v0","owner":"9ac8fef2","ssrc":1542056973,"rtx":1571329554,"videoType":"CAMERA"},{"source":"ed6b60f5-v0","owner":"ed6b60f5","ssrc":550523896,"rtx":2808127984,"videoType":"CAMERA"}]
When a new stream needs to be forwarded, it is allocated an SSRC. Before the limit is reached, JVB simply generates a new SSRC number, and when the limit has been reached the oldest entry is reused. Let’s look at an example to make this more clear. Assume the limit is set to just 3, and the available sources are A, B, C, D, E. Initially the map is empty. When A starts sending packets, we allocate SSRC 101 to it and signal it to the receiver like this:
Now we have reached the limit of 3 SSRCs. When D starts to speak, we’ll find the source in the map that has been active least recently (let’s say that’s B) and re-use its SSRC for D. We’ll signal an update (“SSRC 102 now belongs to D”):
The scheme is identical for video, except the forwarding decisions are made in a different way. Receivers explicitly signal their preferences using video constraints. The source names and their mute status are published in presence when an endpoint signals its source information to the Jitsi Conference Focus (Jicofo) and therefore this information is already available with all the other endpoints in the call. Based on the current layout in the UI and the user’s preferences, the client sends the updated receiver video constraints over the bridge channel.
A bandwidth allocation algorithm in the JVB then decides which streams to forward to a particular receiver, based on its constraints and current network conditions:
[modules/RTC/BridgeChannel.js] <Fa.sendReceiverVideoConstraintsMessage>: Sending ReceiverVideoConstraints with {"constraints":{"ed6b60f5-v0":{"maxHeight":360},"e01f2103-v0":{"maxHeight":360},"9ac8fef2-v0":{"maxHeight":360}},"defaultConstraints":{"maxHeight":0},"lastN":-1,"onStageSources":[],"selectedSources":[]}
Implementation on the receiver side in the client
On receiving an update to one of the maps (audio or video), the client adds the signaled SSRCs to the remote description on the peerconnection. The browser then fires a track event for each of the SSRCs, the corresponding remote tracks are then added to the HTMLElements associated with the remote user.
So when the audio packets with this SSRC arrive, the browser starts decoding the media and plays it through the selected audio output device. If the SSRC is already in use (i.e. the limit on the bridge has been reached) the client updates the owner of the associated track so that it gets attached to the corresponding HTMLAudioElement and the audio switches over to the new speaker seamlessly.
The video track creation process is the same as that of the audio tracks as described above. The client application needs to update the track’s owner whenever there is an updated source map involving the SSRC that is assigned to the track and re-attach it to the corresponding HTMLVideoElement so that the correct video stream is rendered in the remote participant’s viewport.
Challenges
But wait, re-using an SSRC like this is okay for audio because the streams simply get mixed before playback, but what about video, how do we avoid video content being rendered in the wrong viewport when signaling and media race? That’s the elegance of this approach, we simply use a large enough limit (larger than the maximum number of streams forwarded at any one time) and the occurrence becomes extremely unlikely. If the limit is larger by K, then K new forwarding decisions must be made before the signaling arrives at the receiver for the problem to happen.
So how do we choose the limits? We have the constraint just mentioned, but also an interesting trade-off. If the limit is too high we’re using unnecessary resources at the receivers. But if the limit is too low, we’ll be signaling updates more often. We have chosen to set the limits to 50 by default. That’s 50 for audio and 50 for video, which is well above the maximum of 25 tiles that we display at any time.
When SSRC rewriting is enabled, the number of source signaling messages can increase drastically based on the SSRC limits set for the conference and the total number of participants in the call. Imagine a call with 100 participants where everyone has their video on; UI shows a grid of 25 participants and the SSRC limit is set to 25. Whenever the user scrolls to the next grid of 25 participants, existing SSRCs get remapped. This happens everytime the user scrolls back and forth. This results in a lot of signaling messages over the bridge channel. What if the websocket connection for the bridge channel is down at this time? This would result in videos not being rendered or audio from new dominant speakers not being heard which can be very disruptive to meetings. All the sources are signaled immediately after the websocket connection reforms but even minimal disruptions to audio can be very annoying.
To mitigate these issues, Jitsi client switches to using WebRTC’s SCTP data channel for establishing the bridge channel instead of using a websocket. This ensures that the bridge channel is up and running all the time as long as the media connection between the client and the JVB is up. This results in minimal or no disruptions to the signaling messages from the JVB to the downstream endpoints.
Current status of the feature
This feature has been well tested and has been running on meet.jit.si for the past few months now, with limits set to 50. We also enabled it by default in our last stable release of the Debian packages and Docker images. We will be releasing it soon to all our production deployments in the next few releases pending investigation into some SCTP crashes that we are seeing in the JVB .
In a digital age where the Unified Communications (UC) landscape is rapidly expanding, On-Premises UC solutions stand out as the bedrock for businesses aiming to secure, customize, and control their communication infrastructures. With the UC market projected to swell to USD 145.58 billion by 2024 and further grow to an impressive USD 496.30 billion by […]
In a digital age where the Unified Communications (UC) landscape is rapidly expanding, On-Premises UC solutions stand out as the bedrock for businesses aiming to secure, customize, and control their communication infrastructures. With the UC market projected to swell to USD 145.58 billion by 2024 and further grow to an impressive USD 496.30 billion by […]
The rumor mill started churning when cloud-based solutions began gaining prominence. These solutions offer scalable, flexible alternatives to traditional on-premises setups. As more companies migrated to the cloud, a narrative emerged suggesting that on-premises solutions like Switchvox were becoming obsolete. Though popular, this view only captures part of the picture. The Reality of Switchvox On-Premises […]
The rumor mill started churning when cloud-based solutions began gaining prominence. These solutions offer scalable, flexible alternatives to traditional on-premises setups. As more companies migrated to the cloud, a narrative emerged suggesting that on-premises solutions like Switchvox were becoming obsolete. Though popular, this view only captures part of the picture. The Reality of Switchvox On-Premises […]
So you want to have live meetings in Moodle courses. Well, as it turns out, this is quite an easy feat. Thanks to the wonderful work done by UDIMA (Universidad a Distancia de Madrid), you can use their Jitsi Moodle Plugin.
If your use-case doesn’t go beyond 25 monthly individual endpoints, you might want to opt for the JaaS Dev offering which is completely free. For users requiring more than 25 monthly endpoints or desiring premium features like transcriptions, dial-in, recordings or RTMP streaming, there are two options:
1. Add a credit card for overages, paying extra costs as needed, without any discounts.
2. Sign up for alternative plans offering an initial discount of 80% off for the first three months of JaaS usage.
To benefit of the 80% discount you need to use the MOODLE23 JaaS Coupon. The coupon expires on September 2024.
Setting up the Jitsi Moodle Plugin
Before starting the configuration process, you need to download and install the latest Jitsi Moodle Plugin in your Moodle instance and create a JaaS account.
Right off the bat, the plugin tries to use the freely accessible meet.jit.si instance as the backend. This is only going to work for the first five minutes due to the changes announced here. This should be more than enough if you only want to give it a try.
Once you have created your JaaS Account, here are the steps to configure the plugin:
Go to the JaaS API Keys section and create a new key pair. Name it something meaningful. Download the private key and store it somewhere safe.
Open the Moodle Jitsi plugin settings and change the values as follows:
– Domain: `8×8.vc`
– Server type: pick `8×8 Servers`
– App_ID: copy it from the JaaS Console API Keys page, i.e. `vpaas-magic-cookie-xxxxx`
– Api Key ID: copy it from the keys table in the same page, it should be something like `vpaas-magic-cookie-xxxxx/somehex`
– Private key: the contents of the private key you just downloaded from JaaS Console
– Make sure to leave the ID User (jitsi_id) dropdown to Username, the default
With just a few steps, you’ll now have a complete communication solution right within Moodle!
There was a time when cash was king. Today, however, not so much. Paying over the phone for everything from fast food to a holiday abroad has become the norm for millions of consumers who prioritise modern convenience over traditional transacting. Protection from fraud is, of course, paramount, which is why strict rules exist. Phones […]
There was a time when cash was king. Today, however, not so much.
Paying over the phone for everything from fast food to a holiday abroad has become the norm for millions of consumers who prioritise modern convenience over traditional transacting.
Protection from fraud is, of course, paramount, which is why strict rules exist. Phones used by businesses to take payments must be Payment Card Industry-compliant. They must feature ‘pause-and-resume’ functionality for use at the critical point that customers provide their payment card details. Also, all transactional calls and call recordings must be encrypted.
Breaching these rules can lead to seriously big fines capable of dealing a catastrophic blow to profit and reputation. Ultimately, in the most extreme cases, non-compliance can even lead to jail!
Next year, the rules change: an update to the Payment Card Industry Data Security Standard (PCI DDS) which beefs-up protection, but which also places new obligations on in-scope organisations. In a world in which technology plays a vital part in the way over-the-phone transactions occur, it is the perfect time for businesses and their Managed Service Providers to also change things up – upgrading desk and softphones that support that all-important compliance.
Choose Sangoma’s award-nominated P-Series Desk and Softphone, and that-all important compliance also comes with a feature set that ensures the wider desk calling experience is rich and rewarding for both callers and agents. High-definition audio, unprecedented plug-and-play deployment, and advanced IP applications as standard that include voicemail, call log, contacts, phone status, user presence, call parking, and more. Big and bold, yet at the same time stylish and sleek, its ergonomic design leverages the beauty of angles, curves and corners to provide users with brilliant visibility of and access to its bright touchscreen display and lightweight receiver, regardless of where they sit or stand. The audio is crisp and clear, the management and compliance of calls is fast and effective, and overall satisfaction levels are high. For callers, that overall high-quality reflects favourably on the brands or organisations with which they interact.
Importantly, the P-Series’ versatile compatibility with both PBX and cloud-based voice systems also means it can be deployed on different platforms in different spaces whilst maintaining an organisation’s look-and-feel. In addition, the P-Series is the only Desk Phone designed to be fully-compatible with Sangoma’s wider communications portfolio – further enhancing its value to Sangoma customers and enabling its commercial reseller partners to benefit from the efficiency and simplicity of stocking and supporting just one Sangoma phone product line. The P-Series brings yet more added value too. The rarest of combinations: it appeals to all types of user groups, at a price point that suits all types of budgets.
For user organisations and their MSPs, we think that makes for a compelling offer all-round.
The next important date is March 18 when the contributor application period opens. In the meantime, please join me in welcoming the new contributors to our community!
In today’s healthcare landscape, the patient experience hinges on seamless communication. This is where Sangoma Technologies makes an indelible mark. With their unified communications as a service (UCaaS) portfolio, end-to-end solutions are crafted that enhance patient care, streamline processes, and reduce costs.
Sangoma CX stands as a testament to this commitment, magnifying call-handling capabilities and more than doubling call volumes for healthcare providers, as evidenced by the transformation of the Healthcare Physicians Group. The robust reporting suite of Sangoma CX, coupled with its callback features, optimizes patient touchpoints, ensuring no call – and no patient – is left unanswered.
Furthermore, Sangoma’s integrated suite of value-based Communications as a Service solutions allows care organizations of all sizes to maximize productivity. This means healthcare institutions can focus on what they do best – providing top-notch patient care – while Sangoma takes care of the rest.
With the help of Sangoma Apps, outreach initiatives are taken to new heights. From online scheduling to automated reminders, every interaction is personalized, enhancing the patient experience at every turn. Video conferencing is a must for telemedicine, and Sangoma delivers a consistent and feature-rich experience for virtual consultations, becoming a partner to deliver exceptional patient care.
The results speak for themselves. Hospitals, pharmacies, and labs report improved patient care and significant time savings in emergency handling – up to 50% in some cases. The future of healthcare communication is here, and it’s powered by Sangoma.
In today’s healthcare landscape, the patient experience hinges on seamless communication. This is where Sangoma Technologies makes an indelible mark. With their unified communications as a service (UCaaS) portfolio, end-to-end solutions are crafted that enhance patient care, streamline processes, and reduce costs.
Sangoma CX stands as a testament to this commitment, magnifying call-handling capabilities and more than doubling call volumes for healthcare providers, as evidenced by the transformation of the Healthcare Physicians Group. The robust reporting suite of Sangoma CX, coupled with its callback features, optimizes patient touchpoints, ensuring no call – and no patient – is left unanswered.
Furthermore, Sangoma’s integrated suite of value-based Communications as a Service solutions allows care organizations of all sizes to maximize productivity. This means healthcare institutions can focus on what they do best – providing top-notch patient care – while Sangoma takes care of the rest.
With the help of Sangoma Apps, outreach initiatives are taken to new heights. From online scheduling to automated reminders, every interaction is personalized, enhancing the patient experience at every turn. Video conferencing is a must for telemedicine, and Sangoma delivers a consistent and feature-rich experience for virtual consultations, becoming a partner to deliver exceptional patient care.
The results speak for themselves. Hospitals, pharmacies, and labs report improved patient care and significant time savings in emergency handling – up to 50% in some cases. The future of healthcare communication is here, and it’s powered by Sangoma.
Building on the new, powerful AI features introduced to Sangoma CX already in 2024, our cloud contact center solution now expands its automation capabilities and adds other significant enhancements with our 7.5 release. The new version is even more capable, empowering agents, supervisors, and administrators in their day-to-day operations.
New Features in CX 7.5
AI Assist: Agents can now leverage the amazing powers of OpenAI for generating content effortlessly in Digital Channels. Boost response times and improve overall customer service by getting reply suggestions, spelling and grammar fixes, changing message length or tone, and simplifying what you want to tell your customer.
Speech Analytics: Available as a queue configuration setting for CX Premium Users, the novel Speech Analytics feature processes audio recordings to automatically generate call transcriptions, summaries, and sentiment analysis. Call sentiment, which can be positive, negative, or neutral, is provided for both individual call parties and for the overall conversation. The analytics capabilities will help supervisors easily gather valuable insights from audio data to audit agent-customer interactions.
Queue Status Viewer: Agents can now view the status of all queues they are assigned to at a glance, regardless of whether they are logged in to that queue or not. Accessible directly from the Agent Panel, this feature allows agents to easily identify which queues require their attention based on caller volume, and to provide help where their presence is most needed at any given time.
Phone Book Import: Seamlessly add Contacts in bulk to the embedded Phone Book in CX by importing a CSV file in a predefined template format.
Stop call recording on transfers: By default, if call recording is enabled, audio conversations continue to be recorded even after being transferred. However, in certain cases you may need to stop recording, such as when sensitive information is involved, for instance, in the case of a transfer to a doctor’s office. Now, you have the option to halt call recording during transfers for compliance purposes.
Release 7.5 also brings several other minor improvements, like the capability to export the Queue Annual report to a spreadsheet format, and a new simplified implementation for logging agent call flow for phone-only Agents, in simple call center setups. These improvements enhance the overall functionality and user experience for contact center administrators.
If you have any questions, need a quote, or require assistance with these new features, please reach out to us.
Stay tuned for updates on upcoming enhancements and exciting new features in Sangoma CX!
Building on the new, powerful AI features introduced to Sangoma CX already in 2024, our cloud contact center solution now expands its automation capabilities and adds other significant enhancements with our 7.5 release. The new version is even more capable, empowering agents, supervisors, and administrators in their day-to-day operations.
New Features in CX 7.5
AI Assist: Agents can now leverage the amazing powers of OpenAI for generating content effortlessly in Digital Channels. Boost response times and improve overall customer service by getting reply suggestions, spelling and grammar fixes, changing message length or tone, and simplifying what you want to tell your customer.
Speech Analytics: Available as a queue configuration setting for CX Premium Users, the novel Speech Analytics feature processes audio recordings to automatically generate call transcriptions, summaries, and sentiment analysis. Call sentiment, which can be positive, negative, or neutral, is provided for both individual call parties and for the overall conversation. The analytics capabilities will help supervisors easily gather valuable insights from audio data to audit agent-customer interactions.
Queue Status Viewer: Agents can now view the status of all queues they are assigned to at a glance, regardless of whether they are logged in to that queue or not. Accessible directly from the Agent Panel, this feature allows agents to easily identify which queues require their attention based on caller volume, and to provide help where their presence is most needed at any given time.
Phone Book Import: Seamlessly add Contacts in bulk to the embedded Phone Book in CX by importing a CSV file in a predefined template format.
Stop call recording on transfers: By default, if call recording is enabled, audio conversations continue to be recorded even after being transferred. However, in certain cases you may need to stop recording, such as when sensitive information is involved, for instance, in the case of a transfer to a doctor’s office. Now, you have the option to halt call recording during transfers for compliance purposes.
Release 7.5 also brings several other minor improvements, like the capability to export the Queue Annual report to a spreadsheet format, and a new simplified implementation for logging agent call flow for phone-only Agents, in simple call center setups. These improvements enhance the overall functionality and user experience for contact center administrators.
If you have any questions, need a quote, or require assistance with these new features, please reach out to us.
Stay tuned for updates on upcoming enhancements and exciting new features in Sangoma CX!
It’s hard to believe that Asterisk has been around for 25 years. It started in humble beginnings as a phone system for a fledgling company, only to grow and expand to become the purpose of that company itself eventually. While I was not there from the beginning, I was there from the fairly early days.
Back then, it was the wild west. VoIP was still new. SIP was still new, and its problems had yet to be discovered. STIR/SHAKEN was in the minds of no one. The cost of calling people was still high (in comparison to what we pay today). Asterisk swiftly emerged onto the scene and became THE open source phone system. It disrupted the traditional phone system market and gave the power back to the users and deployers to do things the way they wanted at a price they could handle.
As the industry evolved and expanded, Asterisk continued to do so as well. Thanks to the numerous contributions and the community around the project, it expanded in functionality and scope beyond what anyone could have envisioned. Its usage grew and grew in more clever and interesting ways. Every week, by helping individuals and talking to them, I find new ways that Asterisk is used. The flexibility of Asterisk means you are always surprised by what people are doing.
This evolution and expansion continue to happen to this day. While Asterisk started as a phone system, it has also become a telephony toolkit. This has given users even more power and control, especially developers, allowing them to manifest ideas more rapidly in the communications space by providing easy-to-use and understandable interfaces. This is where a lot of the power in Asterisk is these days. This aspect is filled with endless possibilities and untapped potential.
I want to thank everyone who has helped Asterisk get to this point. Those who have contributed code or ideas, filed issues, helped others on forums and other places, and spread the word of Asterisk itself. It’s been a wild 25 years, and we still have more to go. It’s not too late to join me and others on the journey through participating in the Asterisk project and community. You can find us on GitHub or the Community Forums. All help is welcome!
As always, I enjoy sharing extra resources. If you’re intrigued by the history of Asterisk and other related topics, I invite you to check out the webinar I gave on the fascinating “Evolution of Asterisk”.
It’s hard to believe that Asterisk has been around for 25 years. It started in humble beginnings as a phone system for a fledgling company, only to grow and expand to become the purpose of that company itself eventually. While I was not there from the beginning, I was there from the fairly early days.
Back then, it was the wild west. VoIP was still new. SIP was still new, and its problems had yet to be discovered. STIR/SHAKEN was in the minds of no one. The cost of calling people was still high (in comparison to what we pay today). Asterisk swiftly emerged onto the scene and became THE open source phone system. It disrupted the traditional phone system market and gave the power back to the users and deployers to do things the way they wanted at a price they could handle.
As the industry evolved and expanded, Asterisk continued to do so as well. Thanks to the numerous contributions and the community around the project, it expanded in functionality and scope beyond what anyone could have envisioned. Its usage grew and grew in more clever and interesting ways. Every week, by helping individuals and talking to them, I find new ways that Asterisk is used. The flexibility of Asterisk means you are always surprised by what people are doing.
This evolution and expansion continue to happen to this day. While Asterisk started as a phone system, it has also become a telephony toolkit. This has given users even more power and control, especially developers, allowing them to manifest ideas more rapidly in the communications space by providing easy-to-use and understandable interfaces. This is where a lot of the power in Asterisk is these days. This aspect is filled with endless possibilities and untapped potential.
I want to thank everyone who has helped Asterisk get to this point. Those who have contributed code or ideas, filed issues, helped others on forums and other places, and spread the word of Asterisk itself. It’s been a wild 25 years, and we still have more to go. It’s not too late to join me and others on the journey through participating in the Asterisk project and community. You can find us on GitHub or the Community Forums. All help is welcome!
As always, I enjoy sharing extra resources. If you’re intrigued by the history of Asterisk and other related topics, I invite you to check out the webinar I gave on the fascinating “Evolution of Asterisk”.
The healthcare industry is characterized by a relentless pursuit for excellence. The quality of care service directly translates into a substantial impact in people’s lives. In the quest to deliver superior patient experiences, Sangoma solutions are at the forefront of this goal.
For IT Professionals
Connectivity, the lifeblood of seamless operations, is the top priority for the IT team. No more dropped calls or network reach loss. Instead, budget-friendly 5G broadband and satellite options can handle your internet connections, no matter when or where. Sangoma offers SD-WAN too, which boosts your network’s performance by tying together all your connections, making sure they’re always up and running, and offering top-notch security against threats. Make your backbone embody reliability and efficiency thanks to a fully-monitored network infrastructure that meets PCI compliance standards.
For Care Staff
Sangoma’s UCaaS features elevate this connectivity to embrace diversity and dynamism. Video conferencing, instant messaging, mobile applications, and team collaboration tools ensure that communication is not just continuous, but also multifaceted and hybrid-work friendly.
For Patients
The integrated contact center features of Sangoma serve as a catalyst for change. With true omnichannel features, you can deliver an exceptional customer experience and hear out your patients from their preferred method of speaking to you. Every interaction will help your patients feel valued and cared for.
For Administrators
HIPAA compliance is vital to preserve the sanctity of patient data. Trust in the safety of information is no longer a hope, but a guarantee.
For Financial Officers
Sangoma’s Managed Internet Services and Mobility Solutions offer superior communications at lower costs while expanding the talent pool. Secure internal collaboration, compliant documentation, cost-effective operations, and flexible solutions are no longer exceptions, but the norm.
Keep the pulse of your healthcare institution steady and healthy with Sangoma, your one-stop-shop for modern technology solutions. Learn more in our Healthcare eBook.
The healthcare industry is characterized by a relentless pursuit for excellence. The quality of care service directly translates into a substantial impact in people’s lives. In the quest to deliver superior patient experiences, Sangoma solutions are at the forefront of this goal.
For IT Professionals
Connectivity, the lifeblood of seamless operations, is the top priority for the IT team. No more dropped calls or network reach loss. Instead, budget-friendly 5G broadband and satellite options can handle your internet connections, no matter when or where. Sangoma offers SD-WAN too, which boosts your network’s performance by tying together all your connections, making sure they’re always up and running, and offering top-notch security against threats. Make your backbone embody reliability and efficiency thanks to a fully-monitored network infrastructure that meets PCI compliance standards.
For Care Staff
Sangoma’s UCaaS features elevate this connectivity to embrace diversity and dynamism. Video conferencing, instant messaging, mobile applications, and team collaboration tools ensure that communication is not just continuous, but also multifaceted and hybrid-work friendly.
For Patients
The integrated contact center features of Sangoma serve as a catalyst for change. With true omnichannel features, you can deliver an exceptional customer experience and hear out your patients from their preferred method of speaking to you. Every interaction will help your patients feel valued and cared for.
For Administrators
HIPAA compliance is vital to preserve the sanctity of patient data. Trust in the safety of information is no longer a hope, but a guarantee.
For Financial Officers
Sangoma’s Managed Internet Services and Mobility Solutions offer superior communications at lower costs while expanding the talent pool. Secure internal collaboration, compliant documentation, cost-effective operations, and flexible solutions are no longer exceptions, but the norm.
Keep the pulse of your healthcare institution steady and healthy with Sangoma, your one-stop-shop for modern technology solutions. Learn more in our Healthcare eBook.
We are thrilled to share the latest improvements to our Sangoma CX platform in its newly released version 7.4. Focusing on customer service and reporting capabilities enhancements, these updates will make your contact center experience more efficient, intelligent, and data-driven. Let’s dive in!
Omnichannel
Social Channel Support – We have widened our omnichannel support to incorporate additional social messaging channels – WhatsApp and Telegram – so your customers can connect to you directly, using the world’s most popular messaging applications.
Telegram interaction – Agent side
Telegram interaction – End-user side
AI
Virtual Agent Assistant – Integrate a Google DialogFlow FAQ chatbot directly into your Agent Panel, allowing agents to quickly find the best answers to questions, without leaving their interface.
WebChat Chatbot – Easily connect with the Google DialogFlow Chatbot to automate WebChat conversations, helping you to provide a smoother and more efficient customer experience.
Reports
In-Service Rework Detail – Keep track of customer interactions more effectively and conduct root cause analysis per caller ID with a comprehensive list of reworked phone numbers.
Call History – Improved access to specific call data is now available with a new Call History DID filter.
Normalize Report Filters – We have standardized filter options across reports and added an Active Queues Filter for consistency.
Smart Alerts – Be informed about critical pauses with Smart Alerts for Pause Codes.
Automated Data Export
The Automated Data Export now includes detailed information on Agent Hold times, Blind Transfer times and destinations, and an extended Queue Details container with a “Max Wait Time” setting for each queue.
Agent
Enhanced Extension Selection Tool– The extension selection tool now matches the TeamHub look and feel, providing a consistent and user-friendly experience.
Queue Status Banner – Agents can now see call waiting times per queue, with the Queue Status banner displaying the waiting time of the longest-waiting call.
We are committed to continually improving your experience with Sangoma CX, and we know you will find these latest enhancements invaluable to your business operations.
For quotes, questions, or assistance with these new features, please reach out to us.
Thank you again for choosing Sangoma CX for your Contact Center needs!
We are thrilled to share the latest improvements to our Sangoma CX platform in its newly released version 7.4. Focusing on customer service and reporting capabilities enhancements, these updates will make your contact center experience more efficient, intelligent, and data-driven. Let’s dive in!
Omnichannel
Social Channel Support – We have widened our omnichannel support to incorporate additional social messaging channels – WhatsApp and Telegram – so your customers can connect to you directly, using the world’s most popular messaging applications.
Telegram interaction – Agent side
Telegram interaction – End-user side
AI
Virtual Agent Assistant – Integrate a Google DialogFlow FAQ chatbot directly into your Agent Panel, allowing agents to quickly find the best answers to questions, without leaving their interface.
WebChat Chatbot – Easily connect with the Google DialogFlow Chatbot to automate WebChat conversations, helping you to provide a smoother and more efficient customer experience.
Reports
In-Service Rework Detail – Keep track of customer interactions more effectively and conduct root cause analysis per caller ID with a comprehensive list of reworked phone numbers.
Call History – Improved access to specific call data is now available with a new Call History DID filter.
Normalize Report Filters – We have standardized filter options across reports and added an Active Queues Filter for consistency.
Smart Alerts – Be informed about critical pauses with Smart Alerts for Pause Codes.
Automated Data Export
The Automated Data Export now includes detailed information on Agent Hold times, Blind Transfer times and destinations, and an extended Queue Details container with a “Max Wait Time” setting for each queue.
Agent
Enhanced Extension Selection Tool– The extension selection tool now matches the TeamHub look and feel, providing a consistent and user-friendly experience.
Queue Status Banner – Agents can now see call waiting times per queue, with the Queue Status banner displaying the waiting time of the longest-waiting call.
We are committed to continually improving your experience with Sangoma CX, and we know you will find these latest enhancements invaluable to your business operations.
For quotes, questions, or assistance with these new features, please reach out to us.
Thank you again for choosing Sangoma CX for your Contact Center needs!
With the holidays just around the corner we thought it would be a cool to show a perhaps non-conventional use of the Elgato StreamDeck, a gadget I recently acquired that would make a great gift!
The Elgato Stream Deck is a programmable hardware device that allows users to automate virtually any task with the press of a button. It has been around for a while but not too long ago I was at the RTC.ON conference chatting with my buddy Dan Jenkins when he told me there was a library to control these devices using WebHID. I instantly bought one (no, this is not a sponsored post).
The idea here is to use the Jitsi iframe API (you can start using it right away with a free JaaS account!) to map custom meeting controls on your own Stream Deck. Our iframe API provides a bunch of events and commands to interact with the meeting and the WebHID library allows us to program each key individually, inluding the icon on each of the buttons, which is actually a tiny display!
Here is a video demonstrating the integration:
Cool, right! The potential for contextual controls for specific applications right from your browser is virtually boundless, what a time to be working on the Web Platform.
The source code can be found here. It works with 6 buttons by default (the Stream Deck Mini) but it’s easy to adapt to other models.
Starting on August 24th, we will no longer support the anonymous creation of rooms on meet.jit.si, and will require the use of an account (we will be supporting Google, GitHub and Facebook for starters but may modify the list later on). This is a first for us, so users may encounter a few bumps here and there as we are tweaking the experience to make sure there is as little friction as possible on the way into a meeting.
Why make a change?
When we started the service back in 2013, our goal was to offer a meeting experience with as little friction and as much privacy as possible. We felt and still feel that both of these goals are very important and one of the main reasons that justified the existence of “yet another meeting service.” We wanted people to be able to converse easily and freely, without fear of expressing their views and opinions.
Our “one tap and you’re in” experience was a big part of our strategy to eliminate friction. We didn’t want people to have to worry about “creating” meetings in advance, remembering passwords, codes or long complicated sequences of numbers for a meeting ID. We wanted users to be able to think of a name and just go there. Through the years we’ve had to compromise on this a little bit. We ended up introducing a pre-meeting device check screen. We felt that checking your camera and microphone before you entered a room could save everyone some hassle so it was worth the pause.
As for privacy, we previously made sure all communication was always encrypted and we retained no data beyond what is necessary to actually provide a decent meeting service.
Offering the possibility to anonymously use the service felt like a good way to help with both its privacy and the usability.
Our commitment to both goals remains as strong as ever but anonymity is no longer going to be one of the tools we use to achieve them.
Earlier this year we saw an increase in the number of reports we received about some people using our service in ways that we cannot tolerate. To be more clear, this was not about some people merely saying things that others disliked.
Over the past several months we tried multiple strategies in order to end the violations of our terms of service. However in the end, we determined that requiring authentication was a necessary step to continue operating meet.jit.si.
How does this impact user privacy on meet.jit.si?
It is a good time to have a look at our privacy terms. 8×8 will now store the account responsible for creating rooms. Aside from the changes to our privacy terms referenced above, there is no other change to our meetings. We are still very much committed to holding user privacy in the highest regard and we still have no tools that would allow us to compromise the privacy of the actual audio or video content of a meeting, nor do we intend to create any.
That said, it is completely understandable that some users may feel uncomfortable using an account to access the service. For such cases we strongly recommend hosting your own deployment of Jitsi Meet. We spend a lot of effort to keep that a very simple process and this has always been the mode of use that gives people the highest degree of privacy.
If you see content that violates the jit.si terms of service you can always report it.
Flutter‘s initial release occurred in 2017, the same year as the introduction of our mobile apps and mobile SDKs. For those who are unfamiliar with it, Flutter is one of the most popular frameworks for developing cross-platform applications.
Now a few years after their first release, we are thrilled to announce that our mobile SDKs and Flutter cross paths as the Jitsi Meet Flutter SDK. Yes that’s right, after multiple requests, an official Jitsi Meet Plugin for Flutter is now available.
As of now, our family of mobile SDKs is more complete than ever.
Android and iOS are supported, of course. The plugin serves as a wrapper for the iOS and Android SDKs, on top of which a Flutter API was created with functionality similar to those found in native APIs.
Add Jitsi Meet to your Flutter app
The plugin is available on pub.dev under the jitsi_meet_flutter_sdk name. Discover it there, follow the instructions, and you’ll be able to utilize the API to the fullest extent.
Here is a sneak peek of how simple it is to add a meeting to a fresh page.
Here is how that looks like:
In your own Flutter app, you’ll have the same view as the one from the Jitsi Meet mobile apps, with just a few additional lines of code, amazing, right?
Have a look at the sample apps
We developed two apps using the Jitsi Meet Flutter SDK, one of which is the example app in the plugin repository and primarily acts as a tester app by displaying the majority of the plugin’s features in the user interface, and the other of which is an official sample app in the repository that contains all of our samples for all mobile SDKs and is just a straightforward example of integrating Jitsi Meet.
Flutter is new to us, and we hope this new SDK will make it easier for our users and JaaS customers to embed video meetings into their existing Flutter apps we agerly await your feedback!
Ever since we introduced our mobile apps to the world back in 2017 they have been backed by React Native.
Using React Native allowed us to reach feature parity quickly since all logic is shared between our web and mobile codebases, because they are not 2 different things, it’s a single codebase
Later that year, we released our native mobile SDKs to the world. These SDKs werer a thin wrapper over our React Native application, so our users could embed the entire meeting experience into their own mobile apps, with little effort.
This has been our guiding priciple since the inception of the iframe API: to privide a high-level and fully-featured component that can be integrated into other apps.
Today we are taking another step in our mobile jouney by releasing a React Native SDK.
What does this mean? Before today if you had a React Native application we provided you with no way for embedding Jitsi Meet. Now we do!
As mentioned above, our mobile apps are built using React Native and over time we received a number of requests from our community and customers to have an actual React Native SDK. We finally managed to expose it as a React Native library. It’s not that we didn’t have it in the back of our minds, but we focused on native first to cater the needs of our internal consumers.
Exposing a React Native app as a component seems easy on the surface, but being so complex and having so many dependencies made it a lot harder han we had thought. Fortunately, this all changed thanks to Google Summer of Code. We were fortunate to have Filip Rejmus take on the project and kickstart it. After his amazing work, we took over and added the final touches and now it’s available on npm.
In the screenshot below you can see how easy it is to integrate and enable different meeting options into your app, by simply importing the JitsiMeeting component and adding it to your code:
You will have access to the same features as the Jitsi Meet app.
Test the sample app!
We created a sample app which integrates our brand new SDK together with react-native-navigation, check it out!
This new SDK will make it easier for our users and JaaS customers to embed video meetings into their existing React Native apps, we agerly await your feedback!
Your personal meetings team.
It’s hard to believe that Asterisk has been around for 25 years. It started in humble beginnings as a phone system for a fledgling company, only to grow and expand to become the purpose of that company itself eventually. While I was not there from the beginning, I was there from the fairly early days.
It’s hard to believe that Asterisk has been around for 25 years. It started in humble beginnings as a phone system for a fledgling company, only to grow and expand to become the purpose of that company itself eventually. While I was not there from the beginning, I was there from the fairly early days.
