The world of Web-based real time communications (WebRTC) is one that's constantly offering new developments, especially in terms of products, services, and applications for these. With all these new developments coming out, there's a lot of ground to cover, so now that it's the weekend, let's take a quick look back at the week that was with our Week in Review coverage!
First, we had a look at how WebRTC was impacting the United States' national pastime, baseball. Major League Baseball recently showed off plans to add TokBox to the league website, which would allow fans to talk to both players and the leadership of same in what was described as a kind of much more personalized sports radio. There were several other developments as well, like the “Chatting Cage,” and others that are putting some exciting new twists on an old game thanks to a communications system that goes just about anywhere.
Next we had a look at PubNub, which showed off a demo of its real-time communications network. Having recently come away from the WebRTC Conference and Expo with the “Beyond the Call Award,” PubNub's communication network offered a lot of potential value for users looking to augment collaboration apps with WebRTC, including building an entire file-sharing application on the client side without using any server-side code. PubNub offers a range of cloud services, including a multicast service in PubNub Galaxy, and the single message sending PubNub Pulse, useful in signaling, chat, or similar functions.
Some new upgrades landed for Calliflower Conferencing from iotum, bringing not only some augmentations to the user interface, but also some new functionality as well. More specifically, the updated functionality appears in the form of Calliflower Connect, an SIP client backed up by WebRTC. Basically, with Calliflower Connect in play, those with Chrome and Firefox browsers can launch conference calls direct from a browser with just one button press, though users can still use a standard phone connection to get in on that call.
Then, we took a look at some of the basic design issues involved in video conferencing, particularly as it relates to the user interface. More specifically, the concept of the “Hollywood Squares” layout, in which each participant in a call gets his or her own private box. It's also known as “continuous presence,” and while it certainly has some advantages, it also has its share of drawbacks. Continuous presence functionality works great in small doses, but when it comes to bigger conferences, the productivity gains seem somewhat lacking.
Finally, we took a closer look at the recently introduced AVer room system, the EVC100, which came in with a price tag of just $999. The EVC100 poses something of an interesting conundrum—especially for those who follow WebRTC closely—as it offers up a complete room-grade video conferencing system, but does not support WebRTC. At least, not in its current state, as reports indicate that the EVC100 will likely be incorporating WebRTC into a future design. But for right now, a high-end room-based video system under $1,000 is out, and that's likely got some eyebrows raised.
That was the week that was in WebRTC. With plenty of developments cropping up in the field, our global online community was hard at work to keep abreast of it all and bring it right back here. So be sure to join us back here next week for all the latest in the field, and of course, every weekend for our Week in Review coverage!
