The latest update to the official operating system of the Raspberry Pi has significantly improved the performance of multimedia applications, especially those that are intended for the use of video and audio calls. Therefore, together with the official camera module or a USB Webcam, you can create an ideal device for holding video conferences .
Raspberry Pi as a video conferencing system
If we have done something on a regular basis, more than we have done a lot during all these years ago, it has been to keep in touch with our friends, family and co-workers through video calls. Hence, services such as Zoom, Google Meets, Microsoft Teams or Skype among others have become so popular.
For all this, those responsible for the development of Raspbian, the official operating system of the Raspberry Pi, have worked focusing on improving performance in these types of scenarios. Thus, now the transmission of both audio and video is much more fluid. Something that, logically, in the most recent models of the popular development board is much easier to see how it has improved.
In addition, the best of all is that together with the Raspberry Pi 4 and Raspberry Pi 400 you can not only use the official camera that the Raspberry Pi Foundation launched with an improved image quality compared to the original model, but also almost any webcam in the market with USB connection. Because these do not usually present problems to be detected almost in the same way as it would in other systems such as Windows or Mac.
How to use a webcam on a Raspberry Pi
At this point, as you may already be imagining, a Rasbperry Pi can be converted with the official camera or a USB webcam that you have in an entire videoconferencing system , for example, not having to also use your mobile phone, tablet or computer . So you could do other things with them while having the conversation, both audio and video, with your friends, family or coworkers.
To use a webcam or the official camera on a Raspberry Pi you just have to connect them. Next, you do have to know that since it is an operating system based on Linux and with ARM architecture, there are usually no native applications, but you can access it through the web versions that offer different video conferencing services.
For example, some of the most used are this easy to use:
- Google Meet requires nothing more than connecting to the service through Chromium, the browser that Chromium offers by default and whose performance has been improved for this action.
- Microsfot Teams and Skype do not need any special configuration process, just simply log in again through the web and that’s it.
- Finally, Zoom does require an intermediate step that consists of canceling the opening of a file that they indicate when accessing. Just clicking cancel will be enough and you can start using the service
There are many more video conferencing services you can use, it’s a matter of trying. All you have to do is access through the web version of them.
