DEV Community: ZegoTech

How can interactive whiteboard achieve effective transnational collaboration？

ZegoTech — Tue, 22 Dec 2020 08:31:03 +0000

Based on mature real-time signaling network, ZEGO launched self-developed interactive whiteboard, which has special advantages, including “real-time audio and video synchronization, real-time online collaboration of hundreds of people and undifferentiated experience across countries and networks”.

We provided the pilot app for interactive whiteboard. Scan the QR code below to download the app in iOS, Android, or Web, feeling the using experience of ZEGO interactive whiteboard in person.

In online classrooms, the transnational experience of interactive whiteboards is related to the availability of services, while the security of courseware data is the key factor to the education platform when selecting whiteboards. Then, how to realize the efficient interaction of whiteboard in transnational teaching and ensure the safety of courseware data when whiteboard is shared?

Based on nearly 20 years of technology accumulation in audio, video, and signaling service, we hereby share the solutions and technical practices of ZEGO interactive whiteboard in solving transnational interactive data security.

Optimizing the transnational communication plan to realize global ultra-low latency whiteboard interaction In transnational teaching scenarios, one of the teachers and students is often not in China. If the global node deployment by whiteboard service providers is insufficient, problems such as high instability and latency of transnational network communication are likely to occur, leading to the following problems:

Foreign teachers are easily to be disconnected when they are teaching abroad, which will impact on teachers’ teaching pace and students’ progress in class;

The latency between teachers and students is too high, making it difficult to conduct effective classroom interaction, and to improve teaching quality;

When the network is poor, downloading the courseware is more likely to fail, resulting in the inability to open the courseware.

ZEGO’s transnational communication optimization solution realizes the global deployment of service clusters, and guarantees the high-quality experience of the whiteboard in the transnational teaching scenario through unified access, courseware content distribution, uploading and downloading optimization, etc.

Global deployment
In the transnational scenario of online education users, the geographical distribution of users mainly presents the following characteristics:

The users are mainly in China, with a small amount of them abroad.
The users are mainly abroad, with a small amount of them in China
By deploying service clusters at home and abroad, we support customers to switch between domestic and foreign clusters according to the characteristics of users’ geographical distribution, so that the cluster is closer to most users, enabling them to access nearby and have quickly access.

For a small number of users who need cross-border access to service clusters, we deploy multiple agent centers around the world to achieve users' nearby access and quick access.

Network access optimization
Traditional https requires repeated connection establishment, and each tcp connection requires three-way handshake. In transnational scenarios, the network environment is more complex. Therefore, this disadvantage is magnified, and the transmission latency is increased. For this reason, we have introduced the QUIC transmission protocol in network communication. QUIC protocol not only has the advantages of TCP and UDP, but also has excellent adaptability to the current network environment, especially in a weak network environment, which can ensure the reliability, stability, and efficiency of data transmission.

By adopting the access dispatching service based on QUIC protocol communication at the access layer between the client and the whiteboard signaling service, we improved the transmission efficiency of the last mile, optimized the access quality under the weak network environment, and reduced the network latency. At the same time, through the deployment of network dispatching nodes in many places around the world, precise dispatching is achieved based on user IP information, enabling users to access nearby and optimizing network access as a whole.

Courseware content distribution
Based on the object storage capabilities provided by cloud service provider, ZEGO realized the storage and distribution of courseware. After starting the whole-station acceleration, content distribution can be conducted by using the global CDN acceleration node of the cloud provider, so that customers can download courseware resources nearby, ensuring that teachers and students at home and abroad can open courseware quickly in the cloud classroom.

Uploading and downloading optimization
As the function of courseware becomes more and more abundant, the size of courseware is gradually increasing. In a weak network, the uploading and downloading of large courseware tend to fail. The reason is that the uploading and downloading of courseware generally use the https/http protocol. It is difficult to download the courseware data within a certain period of time under the weak network condition of the client. Re-downloading after the timeout fails will still face the same problem, causing teachers and students unable to open the courseware.

The optimization plan provided by ZEGO focuses on client. The interactive whiteboard sdk uses a set of file breakpoint uploading and breakpoint downloading mechanisms to be compatible with weak network scenarios to ensure the completion of uploading and downloading of courseware so that the classroom can proceed in an orderly manner.

2.Whole link safeguard, escorting the safety of core courseware data
As competition in the education industry intensifies, more and more education platforms invest a lot of manpower and material resources in curriculum development, so it is crucial to protect these core courseware data. When education platforms are selecting interactive whiteboard providers, they tend to pay more attention to courseware security issues in the teaching process, including the ability of protecting courseware from theft, loss, and damage, etc.

According to the overall process of whiteboard file sharing, ZEGO protects data security from file storage, access, and business.

Storage security
We mainly protect the security of storage from the following two aspects:

Encrypted storage
Both original courseware and the transcoded file are encrypted before being stored to ensure that the file itself is encrypted and safe, and the content is not leaked.

Backup & disaster recover
Based on the backup and disaster recover capabilities provided by cloud service providers, ensure the reliability of courseware storage.

Safe access
We use two-step verification to ensure the security of file access:

The document service supports auth key verification for the request to access the courseware. Only when the verification is passed can the relevant information of the courseware, such as storage information, be obtained.

Access to courseware based on authentication provided by cloud service provider.

Business security
By adopting the design of separating transcoding service and storage, storage is turned into an independent module to support third-party storage access. Customers can use ZEGO transcoding service and at the same time use their own storage service, to eliminate the security concerns of customers on sensitive courseware resources.

Through targeted optimization of each key link in the whiteboard interaction, ZEGO has significantly improved the whiteboard interaction experience in the online classroom in practice.

Top 8 Live Streaming Platforms for Businesses in 2020

ZegoTech — Wed, 02 Dec 2020 07:07:02 +0000

There are several live video streaming options for personal use. However, for enterprises where security, reliability and quality are major concerns; you need to have the services of a credible live video streaming platform. For broadcasters planning to enter live video content streaming or enterprises planning to leverage live streaming for internal communication and learning; a capable OTT live streaming platform is crucial.

With the abundance of unverified information present on the internet about live streaming video platforms it might become overwhelming to pick the right option. Here, we have collated the list of top 8 best live streaming platforms with their key features to help you make a more informed decision.

DaCast DaCast offers an end-to-end SaaS approach. The platform is known for its ease of use and offers OTT video streaming and live video streaming solutions across devices and platforms without compromising on quality. It offers China playback accessibility and advanced VOD (video on demand) features.

Key Features:
Monetization: DaCast offers pay per view tickets and allows viewers to make online payments within the video player to gain access to live streaming content. However, it asks the commission of 9.9% + $0.40 per user payment. It also takes up to 35 days to make the payment to video broadcasters.
White Labeling: It comes with white labeling features including the provision to change the color combination of the video player and add a branded logo on videos.
API: It provides the API to video broadcasters to build a custom video streaming solution over the DaCast platform.
Auto Archiving: It automatically records all the live streaming videos and makes them available instantly for later viewing after the live streaming ends.
Audio Only Streaming: It provides the option to deliver audio-only streaming for viewers who don’t want to watch videos or are using the platform on low bandwidth.
Cost:
It offers both annual and monthly subscription plans. Monthly plans start at $19 and annual plans start at $125 with a three months commitment.

Phando Phando is one of the most capable live streaming platforms that offers intuitive end to end online video management to organize, moderate and monetize VOD and live streaming videos. The live streaming and OTT video platform offers an end-to-end solution that is highly secure and efficient to ensure the reliable delivery of high-quality video content.

Key Features:
Monetization: It offers multiple video content monetization tools including pay-per-view, paywall and subscription model. Broadcasters can also leverage custom ads to monetize videos more efficiently.
Analytics: Phando offers real-time intelligent data of viewers to help broadcasters make a more informed decision. Leverage analytics to create content based on viewer preferences and geographies.
Mobile and HTML5 Video Player: Phando offers seamless delivery of video content across devices including desktop, tablet and smartphone. It leverages device detection and mobile-ready encoding flavors to deliver uncompromised video quality.
Video Transcoding: Its video transcoding feature enables broadcasters to deliver adaptive bitrate quality videos without buffering.
Robust Video Management: Through Phando’s intuitive user interface, broadcasters can easily organize content, edit, moderate, create playlists search media, and much more.
Cost:
Phando offers a free trial of its live video streaming service. Its paid plans start from $49 per month. It offers a discount of up to two month’s worth of subscription fees on annual billing.

ZEGO Cloud ZEGO Cloud is a professional audio and video cloud services provider dedicated to providing quality real-time audio and video cloud services, To date,they have service over 200 countries around the globe. With ZEGO's easy-to-use and powerful SDKs, developers can add real-time audio and video capabilities into their applications in just a few lines of code. The ZEGO platform is trusted by thousands of companies and is powering an average of more than 2 billion minutes of real-time communication every day.

Key Features:
Reliable and Stable Streaming Cloud: You can monetize video streaming on IBM Cloud Video by leveraging third party services. It allows the insertion of ads in live video streaming.
Flexible and Accommodating Streaming Engine： Simple SDK integration with 4 lines of codes, easy service access in 20 minutes.
Powerful Backend System for Transparent Monitoring and Reporting: Real-time network quality monitoring, comprehensive stream quality reporting.
Live Interactive Video Streaming: It supports one-to-one video call, one-to-many video broadcasting and many-to-many video conferencing. It can be used in many different scenarios where video interaction is required, such as video social networking, group video conferencing, online classroom, etc.
Real-Time Audio Streaming: It supports one-to-one voice chat, one-to-many voice conversation (up to millions of participants), applicable to VoIP phone services, ganging-up in games, internet radio stations and so on.
Audio/Video Recording and Archiving: The Audio/Video Recording and Archiving service empowers enterprises with on-premises video witness system that can meet various legal and compliance requirements. It can be used for video witnessing of bank account opening, brokerage account opening, in-person interview and other events.
Voice Chatroom: It supports simultaneous speaking in group voice chat, background music and sound effects. It allows users to keep the chat active in the background while switching to other applications.
Cost:
It offers a free trial about 10000 mins per month for developers . And it have different pricing packages. Contact Sales: global@zego.im

IBM Cloud Video IBM acquired UStream in 2016 and has branded it to IBM Cloud Video. It offers multiple cloud streaming and video services including storage and GPU computing. As an OTT video platform; it offers uploading, managing and delivering VOD and live streaming content.

Key Features:
Monetization: You can monetize video streaming on IBM Cloud Video by leveraging third party services. It allows the insertion of ads in live video streaming.
Customization: It offers a channel on which broadcasters can showcase upcoming events, previously live-streamed videos and other events. It allows integrated branding on the page.
Live Chat: Its Live Chat feature allows viewers to engage with other viewers during the live streaming and interact with the broadcaster.
Recorded Video: Live streaming videos are automatically saved as private videos after the end of streaming that can be shared later on broadcaster’s channel.
Cost:
It offers a free trial that allows the broadcaster to stream video content to up to five viewers at the same time without ads. Its starter plan costs $99 but allows broadcast only in 720p HD.

Brightcove Brightcove has segregated its offerings into multiple categories including Video Player, Video Marketing Suite and OTT Flow among others. It comes equipped with industry-standard HTML5 player and complete live streaming capabilities.

Key Features:
Monetization: It doesn’t come with integrated monetization features. However, broadcasters can easily leverage third-party platforms to monetize their videos.
Adaptive Streaming: Brightcove optimizes the bit-rate of video streaming depending on the internet speed of the viewer to deliver a buffer-free video viewing experience.
API: It comes equipped with a developer API to allows broadcasters to develop custom apps and other software around live streaming video content.
Analytics: It comes with real-time analytics capabilities. Broadcaster can gain access to crucial insights including the number of plays, player loads and number of viewing minutes among others.
Cost:
Its pricing plans are not available transparently on its website. You need to contact their sales team for a custom price quote.

Livestream The live streaming video platform has been recently acquired by Vimeo. It is quite popular among enterprises to deliver live events seamlessly in a secure manner through seamless management and centralized delivery.

Key Features:
Monetization: Livestream offers the subscription and pay-per-view sales model. However, the access to monetization functionality is only available with the enterprise plan.
Live Chat: Users can leverage the Live Chat feature to comment on the live streaming video in real-time for greater engagement.
Analytics: Livestream offers real-time analytics to help you gauge the response of videos through engagements and the number of views.
API: It offers the developer API to enable development teams to build a third-party video streaming application.
Cost:
Its premium plan is billed annually at $75 per month. For the enterprise plan, Livestream offers customized quotes depending on your requirements.

Wowza Wowza is one of the leading live video streaming platforms that offers great customer support to its clients. It flawlessly delivers HD videos, audio streams and low latency video to any type of device at multiple scales.

Key Features:
Monetization: It offers a pay-per-view model and supports custom ads to monetize live streaming and video on demand.
VR & 360° Streaming: Wowza offers the capability to stream 360-degree immersive videos in 4K video quality to the global audience.
IP Camera Streaming: It allows developers to embed IP camera streams into mobile applications and websites to stream videos without the need of an encoder.
Customization: Developers can leverage Wowza’s APIs and third-part integrations to build customized live streaming solution that meets specific requirements.
Live Support: It offers live support during live streaming events to resolve issues and provide assistance for the setup. However, this feature is the part of Wowza’s premium support packages.
Adaptive Bitrate: Its adaptive bitrate feature allows broadcasters to deliver buffer-free live streaming and video on demand on slower internet connections.
Cost:
It offers a 30-days free trial. Wowza’s subscription plans start at $45 per month that are billed annually.

Panopto Panopto offers a simple solution for live streaming and delivering video on demand efficiently. Its modern video streaming architecture offers reliable delivery of high-quality videos on desktops, smartphone and tablets. Its highly secure and customizable offering makes it one of the preferred choices.

Key Features:
Monetization: Panopto offers another video monetization tool called InPlayer through which broadcasters can embed a secure paywall, add pay-per-view or offer subscription payment options to monetize videos.
Waiting Room: It offers a customizable waiting room. The virtual waiting room is created to accommodate users who arrive early before the start of broadcast or live streaming.
Analytics: It offers real-time analytics to enable broadcasters to measure the reach of their videos through the number of viewers, minutes of viewing and geography wise stats.
Interactive Live Streaming: Panopto offers viewers to engage with other viewers through threaded discussions, comments and digital notes. Viewers can also submit questions to the broadcaster for a live Q&A session. The entire experience with live conversations is recorded to ensures users can watch it later as well.
Secured Video Streaming: Panopto offers total control over who can watch the videos. Broadcasters can restrict access to departments or even teams. Viewers are required to log-in even while accessing the video through a direct link.
Cost:
Panopto hasn’t shared its pricing plans on the website. It offers customized quotes depending upon the requirements.

Above mentioned live video streaming platforms offer different functionalities and USPs to grab the attention of businesses. However, you should go for an option that offers absolute reliability, data security, features that meet your requirements and cost-efficiency.

Among Us: A Global Mega-Hit Sparks the Revival of Party Games(2)

ZegoTech — Thu, 12 Nov 2020 09:10:58 +0000

Party games combined with real-time voice chat offer players new experience
1.Be it a Werewolf game, script game or Space Werewolf game, the progress of the game totally relies on the online real-time communication among players. Compared to instant messaging, real-time voice chat provides better experience for gamers.

Voice chat is the most efficient way to communicate without holding back gaming progress.

Real-time voice chat with low latency ensures the fast exchange of information among players, achieving the highest communication efficiency. While using instant messaging, players need to type and read the texts, which is time-consuming and therefore will affect the rhythm and progress of the game.

Voice chat can promote plot development, making the game more thrilling.

When chatting with each other, players can base their judgments on the changes of other people’s tones and pitches, which makes the online interaction more realistic. In a beginner round or stranger round, a highly logical speech can lead players to consider the plot more seriously, and therefore players are not likely to vote randomly or vote without thinking. They will immerse themselves in the game.

Combined with games, voice chat guarantees a better gaming experience.

Real-time voice chat is the main communication tool in party games, and in-game voice chat can improve gaming experience to the maximum. For example, there is no in-game voice chat in Among Us. The players can communicate either via instant messaging in the game or a third-party voice chat tool. While using a third-party voice chat tool, players are likely to encounter problems including information leakage and identity theft.

For instance, if voted off, the player can not communicate with others in Among Us. While using a third-party voice chat tool, the player can still speak and may reveal key information.

Therefore, in party games, real-time voice chat not only serves as the main communication tool, but also influences the experience of gamers. The worldwide popularity of party games would not be possible without the support of real-time voice chat. In order to help clients make a quick landing of more creative party games, audio and video cloud service provider ZEGO Technology provides a real-time voice chat solution that can be applied to various scenarios and businesses.

With comprehensive functions and extensive service experience, ZEGO offers an integrated in-game voice chat solution Depending on the sophisticated audio and video technologies that we developed on our own, ZEGO provides an in-game voice chat solution which can easily embed HD voice into games with only four lines of code to access.

All-round in-game voice chat competence

Ultra-Low Latency: With global 200+BGP nodes, ZEGO provides 100ms ultra low latency for in-game voice chat. We support real-time audio and video interaction of up to 32 channels and ensure the smooth interaction with low latency among multiple users, meeting the needs for chat-based interaction among gamers in party games.

Excellent Timbre: Relying on our extraordinary self-developed audio and video engine and 3A audio pre-processing technology, ZEGO’s voice chat solution offers a double-talk interaction and a clear and pure timbre. Meanwhile, we also provide various sound and pitch shifting effects, including Loli and robot voice effects. Different sound effects can be turned on at the same time, which makes the game more interesting.

Low Performance Consumption: Having developed audio and video technologies for 19 years, ZEGO is a global leader in signal processing algorithms, including the encoding and decoding of audio and video files. We provide lightweight integration architecture to optimize the size of installation packages, ensuring the low occupancy, low power consumption and low temperature of CPUs.

Microphone Position Management: ZEGO’s in-game voice chat solution offers various ways to manage microphone positions, including connecting, disconnecting, enabling, disabling and blocking microphones, facilitating the communication among multiple players.

Fast Room Switching: The Switch Room function can be called easily in a single interface and it supports multiple audio equipment. With room switching, the time of stream publishing and playing can be shortened, and therefore players can switch room quickly. After switching, the microphone and speaker continue to work and the voice chat will not be interrupted.

After serving several clients that develop party games, including Werewolf and Who am I, ZEGO has accumulated extensive experience. In addition to all-round in-game voice chat competence, we also provide plans and designs that suit different scenarios.

Anti-Peaking

Based on the in-game voice chat solution, anti-peaking and anti-hacking solutions are also provided. These solutions can prevent certain gamers from exploiting tag-on service or bugs to scramble for seat or connect mic deliberately and also from making malicious remarks in the game, and therefore the gaming process and order can be maintained.

Content censoring

Party games are social interactive products and therefore content censoring is needed in these games to eliminate operating risks. Cooperating with content recognition service provider Nextdata, ZEGO offers both audio interaction and content censoring service to provide our clients with a safe business environment and a stable online operation.

From Werewolf games to script games and to Space Werewolf games, party games no longer copy offline tactics. With diversified content and settings, party games have created new tactics that can combine logical deduction and social entertainment.

As an audio and video cloud service provider, ZEGO is committed to helping more party game-developing clients with our quality real-time audio and video technologies and our extensive service experience. We will facilitate the creation and landing of the products developed by our clients to bring gamers more gaming tactics and entertainment to enrich their lives.

Among Us: A Global Mega-Hit Sparks the Revival of Party Games(1)

ZegoTech — Thu, 12 Nov 2020 09:09:26 +0000

Among Us Is Taking the World by Storm with Real-Time Voice Chat, Sparking the Revival of Party Games.

Influenced by the stay-at-home economy worldwide, this year has seen an unexpected explosive growth of party games.
In August, Fall Guys: Ultimate Knockout exploded in popularity with over 1.5 million players in its first 24 hours and 2 million copies sold on Steam in its first week. The game generated 23 million viewing hours on Twitch in a single week. Following Fall Guys, another party game, namely Among Us, started to gain popularity. Up to now, Among Us has amassed over 40 million viewing hours and become the most-viewed video game on the platform. In August, the game’s peak players on Steam increased tenfold and the number of its daily active players is over 60 million. On mobile platforms, Among Us topped the download charts in Apple’s App Store in 63 countries, ranking among top 10 in over 180 countries.

Mega-hit Among Us boosts the popularity of party games Among Us has been leading the Steam weekly sales chart for weeks. It is also the most popular game live broadcast on YouTube. This indie game was created two years ago. Through influencer marketing via live broadcast in countries including Korea, Brazil, England and America, Among Us marks the beginning of the global revival of party games.

Online party games skyrocketed in popularity in 2018. Multiplayer deduction games such as Werewolf games and script games received considerable attention. Similar to Werewolf games in tactics and style, Among Us is known as Space Werewolf or Space Kill to Chinese players. Unlike werewolf games, however, Among Us requires players to participate the game the whole time. It has more roles and focuses more on logic and strategy, which means it is more exciting and brain-mangling than Werewolf games.

In the game, all players are aboard a spaceship. The crew members must identify the imposter among them. There are two ways for the imposter to win the game, who can either sabotage the ship to stop the crew from returning back to earth or kill the crew members off one by one until the number of the crew is equal to or less than that of the imposters.

After a death of a crew member is reported, players can talk and vote. All players discuss and debate who they think the imposter is with their best logic and acting skills. If voted off, the player cannot chat with others, but he or she will still be in the game to repair or sabotage the ship.
Among Us is not a turn-based game. During the game, completing tasks, chatting and voting take place alternately. There is no regular chatting session and things happen randomly. Compared to Werewolf games, Among Us offers different types of small tasks for players to complete when they are not chatting. These tasks are easy and they serve as a complementary part for the intense chatting and voting sessions, which enables players to reason logically and relax themselves at the same time.

Because of those small tasks, Among Us players are not likely to go AFK or be distracted. It is noticeable that Space Werewolf which is set in a spaceship takes each player’s experience into consideration. The design of adding small tasks into the game can provide players with an immersive gaming experience.

Choosing the Right Audio Codec for Implementing In-game Voice Chat

ZegoTech — Wed, 28 Oct 2020 09:30:39 +0000

For most multiplayer online games, such as online board games and MMORPG games, in-game voice chat is vital for great communication and teamwork among players. With in-game voice chat, players can easily have some chitchat or party up to win the game, taking the fun of the game to the next level.

No matter whether you plan to build an in-game chat feature for your game on your own or by using a third-party real-time voice SDK (e.g., Zego.im, Agora, etc.), the solution must be tailor-made to fit the purpose of having voice chat while playing games. Building in-game voice chat into a game involves many considerations, including audio quality, latency, system resource consumption, etc. Choosing a proper audio codec is obviously a critical decision to make as it affects many of these aspects.

In order to build more innovative practices of "Language Chat + Scenes", some companies have launched standardized package SDKs for the language chat room scenes, such as zego, agora, etc. The platform can realize the core functions of the language chat room by simply coding.

So, let’s talk about how to choose an audio codec that is suitable for implementing in-game voice chat.

voice or music
First, let’s discuss the audio quality.

For in-game voice chat, the audio traffic is mostly human voice. In some cases, music may also need to be included. Talking about audio quality, let’s have a look at the human’s perception of sound. The human ear can nominally hear sounds in the range of 20 Hz to 20,000 Hz. Within this range, there are four sound frequency bands, defined as narrowband, wideband, super-wideband, and fullband.

Therefore, the narrowband sound quality can meet the real-time voice communication requirements of games. Considering that the combination of real-time voice and live broadcast of the game has produced some new gameplay methods, such as playing with the host, or live game broadcasting, the sound quality requirements are relatively high. The sound quality of wideband can meet the needs of games and live broadcast scenes. Here, the bandwidth of the game voice is more determined according to the budget cost of the game operator, because the bit rate is directly related to the bandwidth, and the bit rate is ultimately the cost.

Choosing the Right Audio Codec
The audio codec has an important influence on the real-time voice solution of the game. The type, attributes and quality of the audio encoder determine the bit rate, algorithm delay, bandwidth, and sound quality of the compiled audio stream; the algorithm complexity of the audio encoder determines the consumption of CPU, memory, and power.

Therefore, the audio codec suitable for the real-time voice solution of the game has the following four characteristics:

1) The bit rate is relatively low, meeting the requirements of controllable cost, generally not exceeding 16kbps. A sample can be compiled with 1 bit, then 8kHz sampling rate (narrowband) corresponds to a code rate of 8kbps, and 16kHz sampling rate (wideband) corresponds to a code rate of 16kbps. The essence of bit rate is cost.

2) The delay time should be low enough to meet the interactive needs, generally not more than 300 milliseconds.

3) The algorithm complexity should be relatively low, the system CPU, memory and power consumption should be low, and the impact on the game system should be as low as possible.

The following figure lists a set of mainstream audio codecs, showing how the sound quality changes as the bit rate changes. This is drawn based on the results of the codec listening test, which is of reference significance for selecting audio codecs. According to the above analysis and referring to the figure below, it is found that low-bit-rate speech codecs with a bit rate lower than 16kbps include: Opus (SILK), Speex, AMR-NB, AMR-WB, and iLBC.

The following figure is another set of mainstream audio codecs, showing the corresponding changes in the algorithm delay time as the bit rate changes. According to the above analysis and referring to the figure below, it is found that the algorithm delay time is less than 60 milliseconds, and the speech codecs with a bit rate of less than 16kbps include: Opus (SILK), Speex (NB, WB), G.729 , And G.729.1.

Therefore, the real-time voice solution for games is to match the game application scenarios and technical methods. Only by thoroughly understanding the requirements of game application scenarios can we be able to figure out how to choose voice codecs, how to deploy media server resources, how to configure CDN networks, etc., to polish a set of real-time voice solutions that meet the requirements of game application scenarios.

There are many solutions that can use the language chat room in the game voice scene, such as casual chess and card games. The next section analyzes how to select the appropriate voice codec for the game scene mentioned.

How is the voice chat implemented in the game chat system? (1)

ZegoTech — Wed, 21 Oct 2020 10:54:21 +0000

Should it be developed based on a third-party SDK? Many game developers choose third-party SDKs for development in order to keep up with the progress and get their products to market quickly.

Chat Platform SDK and API Features

There are several features that distinguish a good Chat SDK from a great one. The best Chat SDKs for Android and iOS will have certain features which will set them apart in the market.
There are some of the best API providers for Android, iOS and Web Apps listed below:

Top 4 Chat, Audio & Video Chat API & SDK Providers for Enterprise Business in game chat.
a. MirrorFly — (USA & India)
A Complete Messaging, Video & Voice Calling Solution.
MirrorFly Chat Platforms Highlight Features are Include:
100% Customizable Solution
Data Channel
Screen Sharing
Video Conferencing

b. ZEGO.im——（China)
Building stable and high-quality streaming services for real-time audio and video communications.
Zego voice and video Chat API & SDK Features are Include:
Multi-industry and multi-scenario application, all devices adaptation
100% Customizable Solution
Screen Sharing
Data Channel
Voice Calling
Enterprise Communication SDK
Group Chat
Live Broadcasting API

c. SendBird — (USA)

Leading Chat API & Messaging SDK
Sendbird Messaging API & SDK Highlight Features are Include:

Push Notifications
Typing Indicators
Send & Receive Structured Media
Auto-Thumbnail Generation
d. Smooch — (Canada)

Embeded Chat SDks for iOS, Android & Web
Smooth Chat Application APIs Highlight Features are Include:

Native SDKs
Real-time push notifications
Roles and identities

Teach you to implement web/app voice group chat function from 0 to 1

ZegoTech — Mon, 12 Oct 2020 08:48:49 +0000

Since the second half of 2019, a number of APPs have been noticed due to their excellent performances, like Yinyu on music social media, Zhiya on voice social media and Spot, a combination of music and map functions, showcasing the huge potential of “voice & social networking”. In the spring of 2019, the voice social networking segment evolved to a new stage, witnessing many innovative products.

In supporting multiple customers in live broadcast and social networking, ZEGO has deepened integration of live broadcast technologies and pan-entertainment industry. With deep understanding of customer needs, the ZEGO ChatRoom Solution offers an array of voice chat formats for social networking and pan-entertainment customers based on the subtly different operations of voice social networking via optimized functions and detailed configuration at the low level.

ZEGO Voice ChatRoom Solution
Taking all functions required by voice social networking products, the ZEGO Voice ChatRoom Solution comprises 3 modules:
Mic-to-Mic: group voice chat
Playing music: playing background music or ambient sound effects
Backend optimization: supporting the APP to keep running in the background and in-game voice chatting after switching.

1.Mic-to-Mic: group voice chat
Group voice chat generally depends on the multi-mic to mic technology. It would be difficult for the platform to perform R&D all by itself:
a. need to independently deploy servers and deal with massive concurrency;
b. need to optimize the encoder and decoder to address echo and noise problems;
c. need mature technology plans to reduce latency and improve sound quality;
d. need to guarantee user experience by being compatible with all network environments.
Based on audio and video processing engine developed independently, the ZEGO Voice Chatroom Solution is capable of tackling all difficulties in group chatting, and allows customers to use or integration in a fast and easy manner by building in related APIs in the SDK.
Cooperation with leading network operators, rich node resources and unlimited capacity expansion
Multiple mature pre-processing algorithms, no echo and strong noise reduction
Less-than-100ms latency on a global scale, support 1080P and adaptive to multiple resolutions
Adaptive to multiple complex networks and highly compatible with over 5000 models of Android mobile phones
The ZEGO video calling SDK enables voice and video functions with outstanding capacity for function extension: after activating the video chatroom, customers could enable mic-to-mic video streaming according to their needs. For platforms with interactive live streaming functions, new application formats of the voice chatroom could be developed.

2.Playing music: playing background music and ambient sound effects
In many scenarios, playing background music in the voice chatroom could enhance user experience. ZEGO voice chatrooms support MP3 and MP4 music files, either stored locally, on the internet or in the iOS Media Library. It supports playing one playlist in three modes: in sequence, randomly and loop, and provides well-designed control interfaces.
ZEGO’s music player mixes audios being played into the stream publishing so that all users in the voice chatroom can hear the background music. Inspired by strong beat tracks, slay in the game together with your friends.
In entertainment scenarios, ambient sound effects are necessary, like applauds, whistles and laughter. ZEGO voice chatrooms support playing ambient sounds, which would not interfere with background music, to make the chatrooms more active.

3.Backend optimization: supporting the APP to keep running in the background and in-game voice chatting after switching
The ZEGO Voice ChatRoom Solution supports detailed configuration according to different scenarios, optimizing for the business model in an all-round way. Take playing games for example, ZEGO enables low latency and good sound quality, and reduces its CPU usage through special encoding and decoding schemes to ensure a smooth gaming experience, happy without delay.

Five advantages of ZEGO Voice ChatRoom Solution
The ZEGO Voice ChatRoom Solution comprises multiple functional modules needed by a voice chatroom with a flexible and expandable architecture, facilitating users to develop new uses. In addition, based on its self-developed audio and video processing engines, the solution has following advantages:
1.Business-oriented API design supporting fast connection
The ZEGO Voice ChatRoom Solution adopts business-oriented API, simple and direct. The developer needs a minimum of 4 lines of code to realize voice chat function in the APP. The embedded APIs, simple but functional, and module scenarios allow customers to integrate in an easy and efficient way.
Illustration of the invocation procedures:
2.Scenario-based detailed configuration
Different scenarios, like entertainment live broadcast, games, social networking and education, pose subtly different requirements on sound configuration in terms of bitrate, sampling rate and number of audio channels. The ZEGO Voice ChatRoom Solution provides 4 sets of recommended configurations of the live broadcast for different uses. Therefore, the developer can choose a suitable set as per his requirements without leaning about enormous parameters and their meanings and the debugging process.

3.Mic-to-mic voice chat managment
The ZEGO Voice ChatRoom Solution proposes the conception of microphone position. A user of the chatroom could engage with the live broadcast by taking the microphone position (mic connection) and stop doing so by leaving the position (mic disconnection). Other operation choices include mic shift, connecting others to mic, mic ban and mic closing permanently.
The solution discloses only the concept of microphone position and related operations to outside users, but APIs are designed to the actual business needs of developers. The internal intelligent management controls stream publishing, stream playing and retrying, allowing developers to focus on project design without the need to worry about complex underlying technologies.
4.Decrease in bandwidth and traffic
The ZEGO Voice ChatRoom Solution adopts the mic-to-mic technology that is based on the advanced DTX (discontinuous transmission) and VAD (voice activity detection).
DTX is a means by which signals are not transmitted through the internet when there is no voice input in the mic-to-mic communication in order to reduce traffic and battery usage of users’ mobile phones.
VAD is a means to detect whether there is human speech in the communication. When non-speech is detected, it will avoid unnecessary processing, and when speech is detected, it will compress encoding and transmission, which uses as less bandwidth as possible and reduces traffic costs.
5.Open APIs for multiple functions
The ZEGO Voice ChatRoom Solution supports voice changing, stereo (3D surround) and reverberation. The open APIs allow the platform to customize many sound effects and provide more innovative use methods, enabling users to have more fun in voice-based social networking.
With the ZEGO Voice ChatRoom Solution, the customer is able to develop a voice chat product in a simple and efficient manner. By creating more possibilities for voice social networking, it helps to reduce the dominance by a handful of social giants and diversify the social APP ecology, offering more choices to users.

Live Streaming integration for Developers

ZegoTech — Mon, 28 Sep 2020 09:39:54 +0000

Products:

Live Interactive Video Streaming
Our Live Interactive Video Streaming service supports one-to-one video call, one-to-many video broadcasting and many-to-many video conferencing. It can be used in many different scenarios where video interaction is required, such as video social networking, group video conferencing, online classroom, etc.
Real-Time Audio Streaming
Our Real-time Audio Streaming service supports one-to-one voice chat, one-to-many voice conversation (up to millions of participants), applicable to VoIP phone services, ganging-up in games, internet radio stations and so on.
Audio/Video Recording and Archiving
Our Audio/Video Recording and Archiving service empowers enterprises with on-premises video witness system that can meet various legal and compliance requirements. It can be used for video witnessing of bank account opening, brokerage account opening, in-person interview and other events.
Voice Chatroom
Our Voice Chatroom service supports simultaneous speaking in group voice chat, background music and sound effects. It allows users to keep the chat active in the background while switching to other applications.