RENdez-vous is a web conferencing service that can be accessed directly from workstations, tablets and via a third-party application for smartphones. No special video conferencing equipment is required. The standard WebRTC that RENdez-vous uses allows web conferencing in a web browser without any plug-ins or third-party software (except for smartphones). The service can be accessed in IPv4 and IPv6. The RENdez-vous service allows you to:

• See and talk to your colleagues as if you were in the same room, with the additional options of silent mode or audio-only
• Share your screen
• Make notes in a shared document
• Send instant messages

This service is available to all the organisations connected to RENATER. People from outside the community can participate in conferences, either from within France or from abroad, but only members of the community can start a conference by authenticating their identity beforehand via the identity federation.

Before starting a conference, make sure that you have:

• A microphone and/or webcam connected to your computer.
• A stable Internet connection.
• At least one user with a Federation Education-Recherche or eduGain interfederation account to start the conference.

To start your first conference, go to the RENdez-vous homepage using a browser that supports WebRTC technology (Chrome or Firefox).

Choose a name for your conference or use the random name generated by the platform.

Once you are connected to the conference interface, authorise access to audio and video devices (if you wish to use them), then click “I am the host” to go to authentication via the identity federation.

The request to share your microphone and video will only be displayed the first time you connect to RENdez-vous. You can change these settings later in the browser settings.

To invite participants to your conference, simply send them the conference URL. For example: http://rendez-vous.renater.fr/myFirstConference.

Once you are connected to your conference, you can also access this link from the toolbar or click the share icon:

In the participant invitation screen, you can retrieve the conference link and also control access by adding a password. When you have added the password, click “Add”. All subsequent conference participants will then need to enter the password to access the conference.

Download the Jitsi-Meet mobile application from the ITunes or Google Play stores or go directly to http://rendez-vous.renater.fr in your mobile browser.

Download and launch the Jitsi-Meet application. In the “Enter room name” field, simply enter the full address of your RENdez-vous conference: https://rendez-vous.renater.fr/ThisIsMyRoom.

If you wish to join a conference that you have already accessed with your mobile application, simply click on the name in the conference history menu at the bottom of the screen.

You can also access your conference using the link in your mobile web browser. This link will start the application and direct it to the right conference.

You will find all the tools and functions in the menu at the bottom and displayed below:

Additional functions allow you to customise your web conference experience. You can find these in the menu on the right:

To see all the webcams on the same screen, select the split screen view tool:

To return to the default view, click the split screen view icon again.

Keyboard shortcuts exist for easy configuration and access to different functions, e.g. :

To view these, go to More actions:

Then Display shortcuts 

To share links or any other information with the participants, you can use the chat function integrated in RENdez-vous:

Chat data is deleted at the end of the conference. New users arriving during the chat can see the chat history as far as the last 20 messages.

For collaborative work, you can use Etherpad, the text editor integrated in RENdez-vous :

Each text document is single use only, i.e. a new text document is opened every time a conference is started. The Etherpad interface allows you to a share a direct link to the text without going via the RENdez-vous interface. This link remains active for 3 hours after the latest changes to the text. The content is then permanently deleted from our servers.

RRENdez-vous allows you to share your screen from your browser. To share your screen, click the icon :

The first time you share your screen in Chrome, you will be asked to install a Chrome plug-in. You need to do this in order to comply with the Chrome browser's security regulations.

Once screen sharing has been authorised, choose the source to share:

• Application window
• Browser tab
• Full screen (currently only available in Chrome)

You can share playback of YouTube videos using the following option:

The settings menu allows you to modify your media device selection (audio and video):

You can give us your feedback on the RENdez-vous service at any time during the meeting or when you disconnect:

We welcome your feedback.

If you are authenticated, you can do the following via :

• The video thumbnails screen:
  • Remove a participant from the conference.
  • Mute a participant.
  • Control his or her sound output level in your browser.
• The setting options screen :
  • Mute the microphone sound of subsequent participants.
  • Disable the video of subsequent participants.

NB. Each participant can re-enable his or her microphone or video if disabled by a moderator.

To find out more about your connection status, click the connection status icon for each user thumbnail to access the connection overview: