Web-based real time communications (WebRTC) is opening up opportunities in collaboration and communications that previously could never have been realized. As this simple yet surprisingly robust technology shows that both voice and video chat, and even file sharing in some cases, can be added to just about any Web app, the number of developers looking to add that extra touch to Web apps only increases. To that end, Crosspeer Cloud is out to give developers an easier way to work with the WebRTC concept in the form of its newly released IP Videocom platform.
IP Videocom can, at last report, serve as both a “private” solution via Crosspeer's own Communications Cloud system, or it can be brought in as a managed service. Currently available in a beta release—with updates and new functions likely to be added later, getting in on IP Videocom can be as easy as just getting in touch with Crosspeer Cloud, either directly or by going to the IP Videocom website. With that in place, users then get access to a variety of new functions geared toward making a communications experience that's hard to beat.
While WebRTC is offering some great possibilities for developers—according to Crosspeer's CTO Patrice Haftman—the problem comes in actually getting the platform to work with most current technologies. WebRTC is often easy to work with on its face, but getting to the back-end server part of the equation can be much more difficult as the various protocols involved all need a little something different in order to make the communications magic, so to speak, happen. With a variety of protocols involved in the back-end server functions—from SIP to STUN, from TURN to ICE, and a host of others—getting it all to gel together in an efficient fashion to allow two people to talk to each other over a Web app can be difficult. But that's where IP Videocom comes in, bridging the gap and giving Web developers a leg up on development by allowing those developers a ready-made way to bring WebRTC functionality to new apps without having to worry about clearing the back-end server stuff.
It's clear that WebRTC is offering major opportunities for communications, and that potential is being revealed with a variety of new apps that feature the technology. Games where users can talk back and forth as they play, productivity apps that allow for easy conferencing while handling documents—and even trading other documents back and forth in the process—and more are coming available as WebRTC catches on and gains ground in the market. That's leaving a lot of both individuals and businesses thinking about how WebRTC can offer improvements in their own operations and lives, and in turn, leaving developers thinking how best to provide those improvements.
Things like Crosspeer Cloud's IP Videocom, meanwhile, are offering these developers a great chance to add WebRTC functionality to just about anything, and when that's available, there are all sorts of possible directions in which to go. Just which will be chosen, however, remains to be seen. But there's a fair chance that IP Videocom will have been involved in some of the action.
Edited by
Alisen Downey
