DEV Community: Kalyani

Free or Premium Video Chat - Which is Better?

Kalyani — Sun, 02 Oct 2022 13:32:30 +0000

Video conferencing provides countless benefits to the businesses. From engaging remote workers, managing suppliers and interviewing job candidates to collaborating across different locations, the video calling technology remains to be cost-effective, efficient and scalable. When you consider video conferencing for your business, it may be perplexing for you to choose between free video call apps and the paid versions. To help you make a well-informed decision, we have clearly explained the features of free and paid video conferencing solutions.

Why Should You Go With Free Video Call Solution?

If you are running a small business, keeping the cost to minimum must be your foremost priority. Instead of traveling directly to the client’s location, you can conduct client meeting, board meeting, etc. without leaving the comfort of your office. Moreover, these free apps will enable you to speak with your colleagues, regardless of their location. In addition, it provides flexibility to call anytime and anywhere without breaking your bank.

Here is the List of a Popular Video Calling Apps:

1. Skype for Business:
With Skype for Business, you can make one-to-one audio and video calls to other Skype users using a web camera and PC. Both the users can send and receive messages in real time over an IP network. You can also have a conversation with your employees by setting up a group. The text messages are encrypted to ensure enhanced security.

2. Zoom:
Zoom is one of the most popular video calling apps and has been preferred by a number of large organizations for its myriad of features. The users can enjoy unlimited one-on-one meeting and group calls with up to 10 participants for forty minutes. Apart from business meeting, it can also be used for webinars, online tutorial and university lectures.

3. Cisco WebEx:
Perfect to be used on desktop devices and mobile phones that are running on Android, Windows, iOS and Mac operating systems, the Cisco Webex is a free video calling app with a number of key features such as auto attendant, team integration, voice & video calling, mobile device integration and call from the desktop.

4. Hangouts Meet:
Google Hangout Meet is a video conferencing app that comes with a number of exciting features such as real time captions, 100,000 live streaming and group calling with up to 250 participants. Businesses using this app can take advantage of secured infrastructure and built-in protection features to safeguard their sensitive information and privacy.

Why Not Custom Build Your Own Video Calling App?

If you would like to custom-build your own video calling app, you can take advantage of 2 protocols that can support voice & video calling.

1. WebSocket

WebSocket is a growing technology that makes it easier for opening a communication session between a server and the user. With the help of this technology, you can send messages and receive responses from the server without constantly checking the server for an answer. Moreover, WebSockets allows establishing a long-held TCP socket connection between you and the server, facilitating full-duplex, bi-directional, messages to be instantly delivered. With WebSockets, you are not required to send any request for the server to respond. Alternatiely, the server will respond to the information it gets, so you will only have to listen to the reply.

2. WebRTC

WebRTC is a collection of protocols that facilitate peer-to-peer communication of data, video and audio between browsers and native apps. Rather than relying on third-party software or plug-ins, WebRTC supports real-time communication, allowing any web app to leverage through simple JavaScript API. While WebRTC is prominently used to enable real-time communication between browsers, it can also be incorporated to existing communication systems such as PSTN, Various SIP clients and VOIP. In simple words, WebRTC not only brings real-time communication to the browser, but also incorporates the features of the web to the telecommunication world.

While WebRTc allows applications or browsers to transmit video and audio streams between each other, there are some additional servers that catalyze the process, and they are as follows:

Signaling:
Signaling involves the process of synchronizing the communication, enabling the clients to send and receive messages. This server allows peers to share service information and begin the peer-to-peer streaming transmission.

1. STUN Server:

Signaling server works perfectly in LAN where each participant has their own IP address with no firewalls and routers between them. However, when it comes to the internet, the participants will be hidden by NAT (National Address Translators) and will not have any details on each other’s addresses. This is when we need a STUN server, which helps detecting the public network address and establishing a connection between them.

2. TURN Server:

While STUN server works fine in most situations, a firewall can prevent direct peer-to-peer transmission. The only way to solve this problem is to rely on a TURN Server. As TURN server features public address, both the peers can communicate with each other behind firewalls. In the absence of direct peer-to-peer connection, TURN server sends out the video and audio streams of both the peers as that of a typical media server.

Why Go to Premium Video Chat?

While free video calling apps are cost effective option, paid apps ensure a robust, feature-rich solution for your business. With premium video chat solutions, you will gain a high-performing platform where you can enjoy maximum video and voice call quality. Moreover, the paid versions come with a lot of features and are available across a wide range of user working environments and devices, including room setting that supports multiple displays, personal desktop hardware, tablets, phones and PC’s.

Where Can You Get Premium Video Chat Solutions?

After conducting an extensive research, we have come up with four websites where you can get premium video chat solution:

1.MirrorFly:

With years of experience in the app development industry, Mirrorfly has been serving businesses with their communication demands by developing customized video chat and calling apps using APIs and SDKs technologies. With their video calling solution, you can make secure conference on websites, iOS, Android, Windows and Mac.

2.Apphitect:

If you are looking for a real-time chat app or video calling solution, you can approach Apphitect for a personalized solution. From small and mediums-sized business to large corporations, the company has been helping businesses of all sizes with their communication needs.

3.Applozic

Applozic is highly recognized for developing Messaging APIs and Chat SDKs for all sorts of hybrid and native platforms. These apps include all the essential components such as rich media, typing indicator, notifications, status indicator and much more. The app developers deploy the highest of coding standards and keep an eye for perfection to make sure that the apps developed by them are technically sound and seamless.

If you are still not sure which one to go with, paid, free or custom-build apps, feel free to leave a message below. We will get in touch with you shortly, advice you on the options available and help you make a well informed decision.

How Can I Create My Own IPTV Channel? (Playlist)

Kalyani — Sat, 24 Sep 2022 11:37:01 +0000

Custom channels or playlists from the provider

An IPTV system can be used to make video content available on a private network in a venture, although such applications are far very less common than subscriber-based models due to the issues, network latency, and scaling issues.

IPTV providers include a vast range of companies from very large network operators, like Verizon with its FiOS video services, and other major companies, such as Netflix, Google, Apple, and Microsoft, to Sony, which also offers video streaming services via smart TVs and internet-enabled devices, and AT&T. Providers of IPTV have also included a wide variety of smaller or calling companies sometimes experts in certain types of content delivered over a broadband IP connection.

To start broadcasting, you need to:

prepare content (video files)
create a playlist for the broadcast
create a stream that will broadcast the playlist.

Then, you can configure how to:

add a logo;
schedule the video's launch.
UDP multicast your channel's content

Making a playlist
The files in our playlist will be used. Refer to Server-Side Playlists for more information on how to add streams to a playlist.

Important. Codecs, resolution, and bitrate must all be identical across files and other sources.

Step 1: Establish a location for storing files.
Place the files in the designated directory after specifying the path to a directory containing video files.

The default directory for files is /opt/flussonic/priv, and it is already present in the configuration file /etc/flussonic/flussonic.conf.

Example of the default path:

# VOD locations:
vod vod {
  storage /opt/flussonic/priv;
}

or:

# VOD locations:
vod vod {
  storage priv;
}

Place the files in the specified directory. In the example, we'll use bunny.mp4 and beepbop.mp4, which already exist in /opt/flussonic/priv/.

A text file called Playlist contains a list of sources' links. We'll use the Linux text editor nano to edit the playlist.

Run the following instructions to set up nano: Create a file after running

apt-get update.
apt-get install nano

The editor opens the file right away.
Create a file playlist.txt in the directory /opt/flussonic/priv/ by using this command:
nano /opt/flussonic/priv/playlist.txt

Add links to the broadcast-ready video files at this time.

vod/bunny.mp4
vod/beepbop.mp4

Step 3. Construct a stream.
The configure file should be expanded. In the UI, you can make a static stream: Click Add under Media > Streams. Indicate the URL and stream name. See Live streaming for details on static streams.

Run the following command on the Linux command line to reload the server configuration:

1) Add to the configuration file /etc/flussonic/flussonic.conf the directive stream NAME:
stream infochannel

 {
  input playlist:///opt/flussonic/priv/playlist.txt;
}

Alternatively, you can create a static stream in the UI: Media > click add next to Streams. Specify the stream name (infochannel) and URL (playlist:///opt/flussonic/priv/playlist.txt).

For information about static streams, see Live streaming.

2) Reload the server configuration by running this command in the Linux command line:

service flussonic reload

The web interface's Media > Streams section will display a new stream that will play the given files repeatedly. You can play it to see how it functions.

Transcoding is used in our example to create a logo, and it is a resource-intensive process. By using this technique, a logo is burned into the video stream. Channels transmitted using IPTV networks can use it.

An image file in PNG format is required to add a logo. Let's utilize it as your video stream's logo. The logo appears in the top left corner of the screen after reloading the server settings.

/opt/flussonic/wwwroot/flu/images/erly-small.png. Let's use it as a logo in your video stream.

Add the transcoder directive to the infochannel stream settings and specify erly-small.png as the logo:

stream infochannel {
  input playlist:///opt/flussonic/priv/playlist.txt;
  transcoder vb=2048k logo=/opt/flussonic/wwwroot/flu/images/erly-small.png@10:10 ab=128k;

Creating the timetable Open the playlist.txt file you previously made.

You can specify the playback duration for each playlist item using the control command #EXTINF. Then shows the first 30 seconds of the first file and the first 60 seconds of the second file, for instance.

The Unix Timestamp of the time you wish to play the playlist item can be set with the tag.

The playlist item's start time, in ISO 8601 format, can be specified using the tag.

Open `playlist.txt` that you created earlier.

With the #EXTINF tag (control command), you can set the playback duration for each playlist item. For example, broadcast the first 30 seconds of the first file and the first 60 seconds of the second file:

#EXTINF:30
vod/bunny.mp4
#EXTINF:60
vod/beepbop.mp4

With the tag #EXT-X-UTC, you can set the Unix Timestamp of the time when you want to play the playlist item:

#EXT-X-UTC:1522839600
vod/bunny.mp4
#EXT-X-UTC:1522843200
vod/beepbop.mp4

Using the #EXT-X-PROGRAM-DATE-TIME tag, you can set the start time of the playlist item, in the ISO 8601 format:

#EXT-X-PROGRAM-DATE-TIME:2018-04-04T11:00:00Z
vod/bunny.mp4
#EXT-X-PROGRAM-DATE-TIME:2018-02-04T12:00:00Z
vod/beepbop.mp4

Channel distribution through UDP multicast

Add a multicast address and the push directive to the stream's settings for local network distribution.

stream infochannel {
  input playlist:///opt/flussonic/priv/playlist.txt;
  transcoder vb=2048k logo=/opt/flussonic/wwwroot/flu/images/erly-small.png@10:10 ab=128k;
  push udp://239.0.0.1:1234;
}

Conclusion
Operators of IPTV can use m3u editors to create a customized playlist on the server and can enjoy it. IPTV channels you want to add to the list should be administered in the same way. Click on the activities first, then on the Library, and then finally Export playlist in iTunes.

Original Source: https://flussonic.com/doc/how-to-guides/how-do-i-create-my-own-iptv-channel-playlist/