Does WebRTC need a change in governance?
Is it time to change the governance of WebRTC in order to keep it growing and flourishing?
Read MoreAdopting WebRTC in an enterprise video conferencing setting.
Enterprise video conferencing is a hard nut to crack. You can call it a very traditional market. Interviewing someone from this "old" guard of RTC is something I'd love to do. This is why when the opportunity presented itself with TrueConf I couldn't resist.
What is TrueConf all about?
We develop solutions to organize an SVC-based and MCU-less secure corporate unified communications system with the support of FullHD video conferencing on all popular desktop and mobile platforms on personal devices, workstations, meeting rooms and conference halls in the shortest time possible. The whole idea behind TrueConf is that all modern UC/VC features already included within our software called TrueConf Server. Namely: multi-point video conferencing, recordings, NAT/Firewall traversal, access to VoIP, built-in gateway to join SIP/WebRTC/RTSP devices and endpoints, etc. Moreover, our product works on any regular PC under dedicated or virtualized MS Windows 2008/2010/2012 server, which makes it available for practically everyone. Those are probably the most major distinguishing features of our solutions.
You already have a unified communications deployment. Why add WebRTC?
Customers have needs that can be best fulfilled using WebRTC, namely to:
At what touch points have you decided to place WebRTC and why?
We have once developed a NPAPI/ActiveX web client for Windows, which was sold to partners in order to integrate video conferencing into their websites and intranet systems. Therefore, we always had the need for the web version. Now with the advent of WebRTC, it is possible to make such an application cross-platform and more user-friendly. Moreover, it meets the new customer needs, described in the previous question.
What signaling have you decided to integrate on top of WebRTC?
We are using our own signaling even in our own server (besides that, we have SIP, WebRTC and RTSP interoperability). The reason is that we are using more features which are missing or are not well standardized in SIP, like multiple video streams in a single conference (we are not mixing streams on the server). So we just implemented our own authorization/connection functions, which may be equivalent to signaling in Telco sense.
Backend. What technologies and architecture are you using there?
On backend we are using our own, all-in-one software solution for Windows Server 2003/2008/2012, fully developed within our company. It handles authorization, signaling (our proprietary TCP-based protocol, SIP, RTSP and recently added WebRTC), connects with corporate LDAP (Active Directory), and is able to record conferences, etc. Group conferences are handled on backend using SVC. We are making our own SVC written over the VP8 codec. Currently in group conferences we are mixing all streams in one (unlike non-WebRTC clients), and all clients connect to server. SVC allows each client to receive stream of requested bitrate (thanks for RTCP bit rate feedback standardized in WebRTC, the thing missing in Flash for ages).
Where do you see WebRTC going in 2-5 years?
We believe that in the coming year:
If you had one piece of advice for those thinking of adopting WebRTC, what would it be?
Do not waste time and effort on the invention of your own video conferencing server/bridge, license ours and focus on the application UX and GUI.
Given the opportunity, what would you change in WebRTC?
We are waiting for SVC client support, either VP9 written by Vidyo or at least the ability to code two streams from a single camera.
What's next for TrueConf?
- The interviews are intended to give different viewpoints than my own – you can read more WebRTC interviews.
Is it time to change the governance of WebRTC in order to keep it growing and flourishing?
Read MoreRTC@Scale is Facebook’s virtual WebRTC event, covering current and future topics. Here’s the summary for RTC@Scale 2024 so you can pick and choose the relevant ones for you.
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