Chapter 3 Moderator Presenter Guest

Camera & Webcam

All participants can share their webcam in a BigBlueButton meeting. Learn how to activate your camera, adjust video quality, set virtual backgrounds, and use advanced setups like a smartphone document camera.

Activating and Deactivating Your Webcam

Click the camera button in the bottom toolbar.

When activating the camera for the first time, your browser will ask for permission to access your webcam. Click "Allow" to proceed.

A preview of your camera image appears along with settings for quality and background. Confirm to start sharing your video.

To stop sharing your webcam, click the camera button again.

Selecting a Camera

If you have multiple cameras connected (e.g. a built-in laptop camera and an external webcam), you can choose which one to use from the dropdown menu in the camera settings dialog. You can switch cameras at any time during the meeting.

Adjusting Video Quality

BigBlueButton offers three video quality levels:

Quality Best for
Low Slow or unstable internet connections. Uses the least bandwidth.
Medium Most situations. Recommended — good balance between quality and bandwidth usage.
High Fast internet connections where the best video quality is desired.

If your video appears laggy or freezes, try switching to Low quality to reduce bandwidth usage.

Virtual Backgrounds

BigBlueButton allows you to change your video background for privacy or a professional appearance. The following options are available in the camera settings:

  • No change — your real background is shown.
  • Blur — your background is blurred while you remain sharp.
  • Custom image — upload your own background image.

Virtual backgrounds are available in BigBlueButton 2.7 and later. Your server administrator may also provide custom branded backgrounds.

Adjusting Brightness

In the camera settings, you can adjust the brightness of your camera image. This is helpful when your room is too dark or the lighting is uneven.

Using Multiple Cameras Simultaneously

You can share more than one camera at the same time. Each camera feed appears as a separate video stream in the meeting. This is useful for showing both your face and a document or workspace.

Meetings can comfortably handle around 20 to 25 simultaneous webcams. When more cameras are active, BigBlueButton automatically paginates the video streams so you can scroll through them.

Smartphone as a Document Camera

You can use a smartphone or tablet as a document camera by following these steps:

Open the guest link on your smartphone or tablet and join the meeting with a descriptive name (e.g. "Document Camera").

Activate the camera on the mobile device and select the rear-facing camera in the camera settings.

Point the device at your desk, document, or whiteboard to share a live video feed.

Give the mobile device a descriptive participant name so other attendees can easily identify which video feed is the document camera.

Virtual Webcam via OBS

Advanced users can use software like OBS Studio to create a virtual webcam. This allows adding overlays, switching between scenes, or applying real-time video effects before the image is sent to BigBlueButton.

Frequently Asked Questions

BigBlueButton comfortably supports around 20 to 25 simultaneous webcams. Beyond that, the video streams are automatically paginated so participants can scroll through multiple pages of video feeds.

Yes. BigBlueButton 2.7 and later supports virtual backgrounds. You can blur your real background or upload a custom image. The setting is available in the camera preview dialog before you start sharing your webcam.

First, check that your browser has permission to access the camera (look for a blocked camera icon in the address bar). Then verify that the correct camera is selected in the dropdown. If the problem persists, try closing other applications that might be using the camera and reload the meeting page.

To change the video quality, you need to stop sharing your webcam and start again. In the camera preview dialog, select a different quality level before confirming.

Join the meeting from your phone using the guest link, give the device a descriptive name like "Document Camera", activate the rear-facing camera, and point it at your document or desk. The video feed will appear as a separate stream in the meeting.