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What are the bandwidth requirements?

Learn about join.me bandwidth requirements for high-quality screen sharing and video conferencing.

join.me bandwidth requirements are discussed in detail in the join.me Architecture Whitepaper.

Actual bandwidth requirements for high-quality screen sharing vary with screen resolution and the content being shared. As a general rule, we recommend at least 1Mbps of bandwidth on both the viewer and presenter side for sustained full-screen animation and shared control (when a participant is remotely controlling the presenter's screen).

Content that changes infrequently (such as a PowerPoint presentation) can be usefully shared on links as weak as a GPRS connection.

Table 1 provides estimates of bandwidth consumption in various scenarios.

Sample bandwith requirements
What's being shared Example Details Bandwidth
Small Video Youtube 360p movie clip, minimal screen block fragmentation ~800kbps
Fullscreen Video   1080p movie clip, minimal screen block fragmentation ~2500kbps
Website with various content Facebook Heavy scrolling ~800kbps
Website with mostly text News Site Mild scrolling ~400kbps
Presentation PowerPoint Many images, colors, animations ~800kbps
Presentation PowerPoint Mainly bullet points and solid background ~400kbps

Video conference bandwidth considerations

For meetings using video conferencing, Table 2 provides an estimate of bandwidth consumption in various scenarios.

Video bandwidth requirements
What's being shared Resolution Bandwidth (at 30 FPS )
Screen shared 320 x 240 100 - 500 Kbps
Screen paused (2 participants) 1280 x 720 1.0 - 2.0 Mbps
Screen paused (>2 participants) 640 x 480 0.5 - 1.0 Mbps

VoIP bandwidth considerations

For best results, VoIP (internet calling) needs at least 100kbps of sustained bandwidth available, preferably on a stable, low-latency connection. Network congestion may result in progressively larger audio dropouts until the link is restored.