Last week was the third rendition of the WebRTC Conference & Expo, and it covered a range of topics from business implementations and applications to more technical aspects like signaling and the WebRTC data channel. There was also a lot of discussion about the current state of the IETF movement to decide on a video codec standard for WebRTC, mainly between H.264 and VP8. As we brought the event to a close, there were some themes and messages that stood out based on the discussions, presentations and solutions featured in Santa Clara.
Mobile is king
I don’t think I sat in on one session or had one conversation last week that didn’t mention mobile. Many demos included connecting to a WebRTC solution from a laptop as well as a mobile device, and some even featured next-generation technology like Google Glass. It’s a clear indication of the dominance of mobile – almost everything moving forward will cater to the growth of remote workers and mobile devices as a primary source of communicating as well as gathering, sharing and accessing information.
WebRTC is growing – fast
One of the most frequent comments I heard at the event was how much it has grown since the Atlanta conference in July. The Santa Clara event saw an audience of more than 800 attendees engaging in sessions, showcasing products and networking on the exhibit hall. In a closing panel session on Thursday featuring Cary Bran from Plantronics, Phil Edholm from PKE Consulting and UC Strategies, Cullen Jennings from Cisco, Brent Kelly from Constellation Research, Ian Small from TokBox, Tsahi Levent-Levi from Amdocs and BlogGeek.me and Alex Gouaillard from Temasys, the panelists noted that the growth was also highlighted in the quality and types of questions asked throughout the week compared to the ones brought up in Atlanta. Instead of more broad discussion topics, this event saw a transformation to more specific questions and getting into the nitty-gritty of developing and actually working with the technology.
There is a common goal among a variation of WebRTC players
WebRTC is not just for service providers, it’s not just for app developers and it’s not just for the browsers to build; the event attracted a growing audience focusing on different types of WebRTC implementations. Some companies are focused on gateways, some are focused on platforms for development, some are focused solely on conferencing or another WebRTC use case and some are focused on WebRTC complements, but all seemed to ring true the same message: The goal of WebRTC is ease of use and scalability.
While the growth of WebRTC was evident at the Santa Clara WebRTC Conference & Expo, we’re just getting started. There were questions raised about the future of WebRTC: When will it reach mainstream? How long until the growth peaks? What will the future of WebRTC look like? An indication of mainstream adoption will be when companies that aren’t WebRTC companies start implementing the technology and there are more commercial applications. The panelists from the closing panel look forward to seeing services that aren’t in prototype stage – maybe even some that have seen millions of minutes of use – and more uses of the data channel.
We look forward to seeing everyone in Atlanta, Ga. from June 17-19 for WebRTC Conference & Expo IV.
Edited by
Cassandra Tucker
