Audio/Video Freezing/Connection

My group has been having constant issues with video freezing or losing audio, and it has been ongoing. We play Sunday evenings which I would think would not be a peak time. I understand with the pandemic, there are more users, which could cause connection problems. At the same time, there are more users, which means more revenue to be used to ensure fewer audio/video connection issues. I've heard from other groups, before and during the pandemic, who have similar issues and don't bother with Roll20 audio/video connection but instead will use Zoom, Skype, Discord, or something else for the audio/video. Having access to audio and video of my players is one reason I chose Roll20 for the pandemic lockdown. Why is this an issue?

Ruhar said: At the same time, there are more users, which means more revenue to be used to ensure fewer audio/video connection issues. But with more people off work due to covid issues, less people available to implement fixes to issues.

I believe Roll20's staff are all remote workers/work from home, so COVID should not have diminished Roll20's workforce much if at all (though they certainly have much more work to do...). This problem is more a factor of how Roll20's audio/video (A/V) connections are made. Unlike services like Zoom, Skype, or Discord, where users connect to a centralized server that manages the connections, each A/V connection in Roll20 is peer-to-peer. The more players in your game, the more bandwidth is needed for the A/V connections for each person. If there are 6 players, Player 1 has 5 connections, Player 2 has 5 connections, Player 3 has 5 connections, etc.

I was just about to post my own problems when I saw this.  Maybe someone at Roll20 has an answer: I play on Tuesday nights and Wednesday nights.  On Tuesday night, I have an average of 6 people in the game, and as many as 8 and we rarely have problems.  On Wednesday nights, we have on the average 5 people and we consistently have problems every Wednesday.  One or more players can't hear each other and sometimes can't see each other either. Reconnecting can fix the problem... sometimes.  Sometimes reconnecting multiple times doesn't fix the problem.  What's even more interesting is that the players on Wednesday can almost always hear/see two of us - both of us are listed as "GMs" for the game but they consistently have trouble hearing or seeing each other - the non-GMs. Anyway, I'm wondering what's going on. I've checked ping times (and had others check ping times too), and we've done speed tests and other troubleshooting on Wednesday night but still don't have a handle on why there are problems on Wednesday nights.  As far as I can tell, the load on Roll20 isn't any different on Tuesday vs Wednesday at the times we're playing (Tuesday 6-9:30pm Eastern; Wednesday 7-10pm Eastern). About the only thing that I can figure is that the roll20 servers probably get rebooted on Tuesday before we play because that's when they do maintenance/upgrades. But, that doesn't entirely explain things. Anyone have any clues as to what is going on?

Rabulias said: I believe Roll20's staff are all remote workers/work from home, so Covid should not have diminished Roll20's workforce much if at all (though they certainly have much more work to do...). I figured they probably would be working from home before COVID, so it wouldn't be an issue or hardly an issue once we started quarantine. Rabulias said: This problem is more a factor of how Roll20's audio/video (A/V) connections are made. Unlike services like Zoom, Skype, or Discord, where users connect to a centralized server that manages the connections, each A/V connection in Roll20 is peer-to-peer. The more players in your game, the more bandwidth is needed for the A/V connections for each person. If there are 6 players, Player 1 has 5 connections, Player 2 has 5 connections, Player 3 has 5 connections, etc. This makes sense. I have six players plus myself, so we are definitely pushing the system. Roll20 really needs to look at Zoom and other programs that allow meetings with multiple people. This should have been considered before Covid and definitely after lockdowns started occurring and traffic started to increase. I want some input from Roll20 on this issue. I'm a long-time member, and I have been paying since the pandemic when we could no longer play in person. We all deserve better and a response.

This doesn't make sense. On Tuesday I have 6-8 people.  No problems. On Wednesday, there have been on the average 5 people, and consistent problems.  If the number of players, and the number of peer-to-peer connections were the issue, my Tuesday game would have problems. It doesn't. All of my testing has shown, btw, that the connections on Wednesday are good connections. So, why are there problems on Wednesday, but not Tuesday? Ruhar said: This makes sense. I have six players plus myself, so we are definitely pushing the system. Roll20 really needs to look at Zoom and other programs that allow meetings with multiple people. This should have been considered before Covid and definitely after lockdowns started occurring and traffic started to increase. I want some input from Roll20 on this issue. I'm a long-time member, and I have been paying since the pandemic when we could no longer play in person. We all deserve better and a response.

It also depends on the quality of the connections between the players. I assume the Wednesday group is different people? If so, they will have different connection quality. See the Roll20 A/V Troubleshooting: <a href="https://help.roll20.net/hc/en-us/articles/360039223594-Video-and-Voice-Chat-Troubleshooting" rel="nofollow">https://help.roll20.net/hc/en-us/articles/360039223594-Video-and-Voice-Chat-Troubleshooting</a> for some things you can try.