WebRTC Expo Demos, Day 2: Live Blog

Rachel Ramsey : Social Spotlight
Rachel Ramsey
Graduated from James Madison University with a B.A. in Media Arts and Design and a minor in Communication Studies
| Welcome to Social Spotlight! When I'm not covering a variety of technology and communications industries - everything from the cloud and VoIP to customer relationship management and data centers - you will find me on social media. Twitter, Facebook, Instagram, Pinterest, foursquare, YouTube, Tumblr... you name it, I'm there

WebRTC Expo Demos, Day 2: Live Blog

The second day of the WebRTC Conference & Expo is coming to a close, but the excitement is nowhere near stopping. We're about to kick off the second round of WebRTC demos, featuring presentations from Alcatel-Lucent, Temasys, TokBox, GENBAND, (Lost network connection, no demo from them anymore) Oracle, Sansay, Zingaya, Mozilla, AudioCodes and many more. The companies only have a few short minutes to wow the panel of judges and audience -- at the end of the night there will be awards given from both. 

For those who are new to this space, WebRTC is all about enabling real-time communications over the Web. There have been a few questions raised this week whether that means just over the browser or embedded within applications. Time will tell how the growth of this ecosystem changes in terms of use cases and deployment.

I'm going to try my best and give you as much information as I can in real-time (it's a WebRTC event, come on! It's only appropriate.) so stay tuned! I'll include live updates on what we're seeing, what we're trying, what we like -- and what we don't. 

Recap: Last night's winners were Weemo (audience favorite), vLine, Requestec and AddLive

If you missed it, you can check out Erik Linask's live blog of the demos last night here.

First up: Temasys

Temasys is taking us on a "trip around the world" and is conferencing with someone in the Arctic Circle. We didn't see what it was like to get to this point in the connection, but we're seeing the screen and conference. It is continuing this trip from last Expo's demo, which ended with a connection in Africa. The idea stemmed from the access to remote locations the Temasys network can provide and the connectivity issues it helps organizations overcome. Temasys announced today its partnership with social and dating app Avalable, which is expanding to 16 languages. 

It also highlighted its partnership with YuuZoo, which provides e-commerce and targeted social media to 163 countries. 

Ericsson/Hypervoice Consortium

Hypervoice is a complimentary concept to WebRTC. It's all about voice -- what you say and how you say it are two different things. Hypervoice links what you say to what you do. Voice and WebRTC go hand-in-hand in the future of communications. 

The company offers VoiceAdvantage, a video and phone interviewing tool. The power of the product is in the backend -- its value lies in what you can do with the voice recordings afterward. Recuiters can go through interviews more than 10x faster and reduce costs by up to 90 percent.

As a demo, Hypervoice brings us to the situation of apartment rentals. Posting a phone number online can open the doors to unwanted calls. So, how does Hypervoice help? It works with Tropo to identify if there's a call from someone you know, who you can answer or send to regular voicemail. If it's an unknown number, you can direct the call to VoiceAdvtange, to regular voicemail or answer and then send them to voicemail a la IVR.

A glance at the Web-based dashboard shows us how voice can differentiate a message. How someone says the exact same words can deliver a different message. Paired with WebRTC helps decipher the message beyond the words themselves. 

Plantronics


Plantronics is demoing its Wearable Concept 1 device. It's the same form factor as its Voyager headset but comes with more sensors. He showed us the gesture-based interface that can detect the movement of his head and is reflected via an avatar (of Scarlett Johansson) on screen. We also got to see the app that goes along with it, that tracks data that includes:

  • heading
  • pitch
  • roll
  • wearing state
  • temperature
  • free fall
  • pedometer
  • taps
  • magnetometer
  • gyroscope
  • packet data
  • app version
  • headset version
We also saw how the headset can be applied to applications like Google Maps with street view. Looking to the left directs you there on the maps, just like if you were standing on the street. 

Alcatel-Lucent

"APIs and WebRTC go together like chocolate and peanut butter."

ALU offers the session border controllers and smart switches that enable APIs. The setup demonstrated is all commercial-grade, including an HD phone, a set top box, TV, phone and tablet. It showed how easy it was to make a VP8 call to H.264, and made a multiparty call. It does all the heavy lifting in the network, so the user experience is seamless and simple.

WordPress, Joomla! and Drupal are all names I had yet to hear at WebRTC before Alcatel-Lucent. The company can enable themes, plugins, components and revenue on these platforms. It demonstrated a WebRTC call from one of these platform-based websites, and showcased how advertising can be implemented in WebRTC applications. The code to enable the call on the backend is just a tab in the system. 

"The moral of the story about the technology we're providing is that it's easy," Alcatel-Lucent said. All of the applications demonstrated were built using its APIs. 

platronicsdemo.jpeg

TokBox

Tokbox makes it easy to put face-to-face video in any website or application. Right now we're seeing three video streams in an application, and are now seeing the code: 30 lines. 

The whole value proposition is taking something hard -- something that takes about 500 lines of code -- and making it simple -- narrowing it down to 30. 

They also showcased the company's recently announced archiving feature -- it took him about 13 lines of code and 75 seconds to get it up and running. 

AudioCodes

What we're seeing: OPUS Codec on one of AudioCodes' IP phones.

There are three main elements of the demo: A laptop, second box (SIP over Web Sockets) and AudioCodes 440HD SIP IP phone. 

Using a click-to-call button on a website, we see both ends of the interaction: the agent using the phone and the user from the website. The "agent" hinted at picking up on some data, such as location, from the user. No video, just voice for this interaction. 

Tropo

Tropo is a telephony API company. He thinks the cool thing about WebRTC is getting things to market quickly. Phono is Tropo's WebRTC client and it used Phono, Tropo and USAA as the enterprise example for the demo.

One of the benefits of WebRTC is avoiding 10 minutes trying to reach an agent via traditional methods like IVR. 

The demo shows four options for contact on the USAA website: checking, credit card, savings or home loans. The application is basically providing a new access channel for organizations. 

Priologic

Priologic has been working on WebRTC for a little over a year. This is its third time at the WebRTC Conference & Expo event, and brings to awards to the table for EasyRTC and tawk.com 

It demonstrated a one-minute installation with EasyRTC. It has a variety of demos for RTC functioanlity, including audio only, video only, instant messaging, screen sending and receiving and simple audio and video that all have code available.

We're seeing demos for audio and video chat and file sharing for a jpeg file. 

Tawk.com offers free, private and secure video rooms. Users can either join a room by name or join an instant room. Settings include changing password and embedding a room on a homepage. 

Crocodile

For Crocodile's demo we are greeted with the message, "Conferencing is a feature, not a service."

We're hearing a brief overview on conferencing and how WebRTC is impacting that. The big change WebRTC brings to media sessions is context -- it enhances your application instead of being the goal itself. Now an overview of the Crocodile SDK and network, which supports ad hoc n-party sessions. 

Attention: we have an interactive demo!

expo


I couldn't get mine to load after I entered the scrum..but they said it could host up to nine people. 

AddLive

AddLive has been working with WebRTC since before the term was coined. They presented last night and are here again because they were one of the three judges' picks. 

It started with a bottom-up approach to deviler a RTC stack based on C/C++. It's also "massively multiparty" and deploys to more than 5,000 businesses and 250,000 users.

It's demonstrating the newest version of its product, v3.0, which can enable WebRTC for multiparty, WebRTC browsers, non-WebRTC browsers, iOS, Android and Google Glass.

It can also uplink and downlink -- it can alter the bandwidth and bitrate and adapt to different environments based on different statistics. 

Requestec

Another judges' winner from last night's demo. It's using Medtronic as an example website for training capabilities using Flash. The platform enables video communication and also the ability to interact with images or files, and can work on mobile devices. Highlighted industries include education and healthcare (it serves the National Health Services in the United Kingdom), and it also powers the click-to-call button for contact centers. Can smooth video for high packet loss; for example, in international calls. 


requestec.jpeg
Zingaya

We're seeing a demo of VoxImplant and coding to create an application, which can be done in just a few short minutes. There are options to integrate with other platforms, such as Salesforce. 

It showcased a H.264 and VP8 real-time video conversion without transcoding. 

Dialogic

Dialogic is demonstrating its PowerMedia XMS software media server. They explain different use cases that require a media server, including multiparty conferencing sessions, transcoding, recording and more. 

We're seeing a four-person video conference from different devices, mixing the different codecs, but also bringing in different elements, like playing a video (such as an advertisement) within the conference, that can be full-screen or in a small section in the conference. There are other interactive features, like moving around screens based on active speakers, recording and replaying that recording and captioning. 

I'm noticing a delay in the audio and video by a few seconds. Just an observation. 

Lots of flexibility and customization options with this platform. 

BrowseTel

We're starting with a demo of BrowseTel's WebPhone. The company can add different buttons and functionality to websites, and offers cross-platform capabilities. It can simply integrate scripts, add business cards and include presence in different offerings.  

It can also make calls straight from a QR code. Other parts of its WebRTC ecosystem include virtual receptionist, international phone numbers and conference rooms. 

list.jpegLast but not least -- Weemo

Another winner from last night's demos with the audience choice award. It offers real-time video functionality for apps, embedding chat and conferencing into apps. 

Weemo does not sell to the enterprise; it works with application developers. 

We're seeing a video interaction from people at Salesforce's Dreamforce event. With the click of a button users can activate video conferencing, displaying some high-resolution, quality video. 


I have to run up on stage to pick the winner of the Plantronics' headphones giveaway! Good luck, and thanks for joining us. Can't wait to see how these demos evolve for the next event in Atlanta in June. See you for pizza and beer (and learning) in a few minutes thanks to Priologic. 
Enhanced by Zemanta


Related Articles to 'WebRTC Expo Demos, Day 2: Live Blog'
youtubecapture.jpg
googleglass.jpg
graphsearch.JPG
facebook-logo.jpg