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October 12, 2016

Agora.io's New Interactive Broadcasting Tool Means Easy Distribution


Midway through “O Brother Where Art Thou,” a shockingly faithful adaptation of Homer's Odyssey set in depression-era America, local politician and flour magnate Pappy O'Daniel comments to his campaign staff outside a radio station that, “We ain't one-at-a-timin' here. We're mass communicating!” That has been in the toolbox for nearly a century now, and though the face of it has changed the basics have remained the same. Recently, Agora.io brought out its new Agora Interactive Broadcasting tool, a system that would provide the means for mass communicating via Internet connection and audio and video presentation.

Agora Interactive Broadcasting is an applications programming interface (API), which allows businesses to better incorporate live video and audio into mass distribution operations. The current setup allows for seven broadcasters to send content to a cluster of 10,000 people, who can in turn interact with the presenter via texting and hosting in. That takes what might have been a one-way operation and converts it to a streaming video with interactivity options.

This brings a whole new life to social media, to gaming options, ecommerce functions, and several others, making even the most bland presentation come alive with possibility. Established as a response to the growth of on-demand services, and the accompanying change in customer interest in receiving content—now, customers want to be able to personalize that content rather than just passively engaging with it—Agora Interactive Broadcasting should help bridge that gap.

Agora.io founder and CEO, Tony Zhao, commented, “With our network spanning over international data centers and HD voice and video capabilities, Agora.io is well positioned to deliver a new paradigm for in-app interactivity. In the last year, we have seen a big uptick in real-time communications being added to applications—the next step is true interactivity with consumers but also between consumers. Broadcasting, as new form of self-expression, can lead to new monetization models for several industries.”

The company was recently seen at the Real Time Communications Expo, with Zhao serving as a featured speaker, and with it brought a slew of new developments for the market to consider. Agora.io's overall plan seems to include fairly frequent updates and new products, so keeping an eye on Agora.io's product line should prove a smart idea in the end. We're already seeing what the company has in mind, and the ability to add external commentary and interaction is a smart idea. A presentation that one just sits and watches almost never has the impact of something that can be interacted with; that's why even most text-based offerings have a comments section of some kind.

Building rapport and connection with users seldom goes awry, though it can and has on previous occasions. The improved value of an interactive presentation, however, only improves the overall picture, and makes Agora Interactive Broadcasting a tool just about anyone who makes presentations should consider adding to bring that one-at-a-timin' emotional connection to a mass communication.




Edited by Stefania Viscusi
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