We have our own BigBlueButton (BBB) instance for video conferences.
Unlike other popular solutions like Zoom or Microsoft Teams, BBB uses the concept of rooms instead of calls/meetings. Rooms are usually persistent and can be used for several consecutive meetings. Currently there is no build-in solution to send out calendar invites with integrated room details.
Internal participants (Rekonas) can be invited to the room by giving them direct access and assigning them a role. They can then join the room from their dashboard at https://meet.rekonas.com
External participants can join via invite link. You can generate such a link from the room settings. Optionally you can generate a code to protect the link. These credentials will remain unchanged over the life-time of a room unless you change them. This means they can be shared as part of a recurring calendar invite.
Currently there is no way to automatically send out calendar invites from BigBlueButton. Use the calendar in the Nextcloud Dashboard at http://cloud.rekonas.com instead. To send invites to other participants, create a new calendar entry and add them as attendees by specifying their email address. You can copy the room access credentials into the description of the event. They will then receive an email with an .ics file that they can accept in their email client.
Have a look at the official documentation for detailed instructions: https://support.bigbluebutton.org/hc/en-us/categories/1500000517381-BigBlueButton-HTML5
Presentation slides can be uploaded before the meeting by the owner or managers of the room. You can upload several presentations and switch them during the call. Although BBB can handle presentations in various formats it is better to upload them in PDF format as it is more likely the layout will be preserved in that case. Presentations can only be navigated by the current presenter. Meeting managers can hand off the presenter role to other participants.
The user with the presenter role can share their screen. If you want to show slides, it is better to upload them via the presentations manager. Use screen share only as a fallback.
The build-in whiteboard allows the user with the presenter role to draw onto the slides. The presenter can enable the multi-user whiteboard to allow everyone to participate. Slides including annotations can be downloaded as PDF document.
The shared notes tab exposes a simple text editor that can be used for collaborative real-time note taking. The content can later be exported to various formats.
Polls can be created from the side panel. If you already plan to have a poll during your presentation, you can add it as a slide in the form of a numbered list. BBB will display a quick-poll button under the slide when it is active. This button will create a new poll and pre-fill it with the options from the slide.
If enabled, meeting can be recorded. Users will have to give their consent when joining the room. After the video has been processed by the BBB backend, a link can be generated to access the recording in a web player. Alternatively the video and or the audio files can be downloaded by the owner of the room.
Only the owner of a room can change its settings. It is possible to share the room with other registered users, to allow them to be manager of the room. they will, however, not be able to change settings or access recordings.
You can enable the waiting room for external participants. They will only be able to join the call once a moderator has approved them.
There are several roles in a BigBlueButton room.