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WebRTC – a game changing technology for the video-conferencing market

The WebRTC standard solves a very common problem: incompatibilities of real-time communication in web browsers. Therefore today, to conduct audio or video calls from a computer, users need to download proprietary software / applications and create an account (e.g Skype) or download a browser plug-in enabling the service (WebEx, GoToMeeting). With WebRTC this becomes obsolete, as the browser IS the software which enables real-time video communications. Users are no longer required to download plug-ins or installs that have slowed end-user adoption of proprietary video technologies.

WebRTC allows two browsers to connect directly using a peer-to-peer connection (P2P), a connection type which is well known from file sharing platforms. This makes direct video-streams possible between browsers, in most cases without a server in between, except for the initial establishing of the peer-to-peer connection. In contrast, existing well known services like Skype, Google Hangouts, WebEx or GotoMeeting relay the video stream from one end-point to the other through their servers. Especially for video conferencing the peer-to-peer connection has some significant advantages compared to the traditional client-server architecture: latencies. The time a data package needs from one end-point to the other is lower, making a phone connection more real-time.

WebRTC is still fairly new – not all browsers support it yet.

The browsers supporting WebRTC for now are Google Chrome, Mozilla Firefox and Opera. As the technology is fairly new, in addition you need a current version of the browser. Microsoft's Internet Explorer and Apple's Safari both don't support WebRTC yet, but they are expected to come soon. According to Mae Kowalke, a webrtcworld Contributor, engineers from both companies have been attending W3C WebRTC Working Group (https://bit.ly/1dfopta). Therefore support from both giants for their next browser releases is likely.

Why Veeting Rooms has chosen WebRTC

WebRTC facilitates web video conferencing. No more downloads or plug-ins! In our personal experience these software downloads were always troublesome, as most certainly one meeting participant was having trouble installing the software and thereby delaying the timely start.
Veeting Rooms relays on WebRTC for its video & audio capabilities and runs completely in your browser. As the meeting organizer you receive a meeting-link which you send to the other meeting participants. All they need to do, is click on the link to participate, making it really easy. No downloads or registration for them, making Veeting Rooms a very user friendly solution. A business day is already stressful enough, organizing a meeting is not something you want to worry about too. With Veeting Rooms you don't have to.

Furthermore, thanks to the peer-to-peer connectivity, Veeting Rooms can provide high-fidelity video-streams. Video requires a large amount of bandwidth, and with a client-server architecture, all data is channeled through a server which can easily become a bottleneck. With a peer-to-peer connection, the only bottleneck is the user's own connection.

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