I live in NYC and my best friend lives in Los Angeles. Despite the terrible distance, we still make a consistent effort to talk with each other through video calls. We have incredible conversations that transport our laughter from a chuckle to tears of hilarity, but every time we reach this point, without fail, the conversation is suddenly interrupted by “poor connection” or “reconnecting.” It’s almost 2019, why is this still happening? Communicating with those who are far away is essential to the development of a larger community within the modern world. In order to achieve this in a way that is most natural, the video call quality has to be absolutely seamless so as to not disrupt the normative pattern of thought processes that allow us to effectively engage with other people. The technology should also work towards allowing us to be in two places at once. Across history, there has been a growing trend towards achieving this goal and as new technological advancements are met in communication, this is becoming an increasingly possible reality. Lastly, the video call technology should be adaptive to varying environments in which one would communicate. That way, there is a sense of consistency with how the tool is used to effectively minimize the aforementioned disruption. In determining the best video call technology to implement into temi, we chose WebRTC because it’s the best protocol and then Agora as it’s widely regarded as the best RTC (Real-Time Communications) network.
So what exactly is WebRTC? WebRTC is an open source technology that enables the creation of web applications that support real-time video, voice, and data. It does all this by strategically implementing the following three APIs: MediaStream, RTCPeerConnection, and RTCDataChannel. Each API works to provide seamless video calling abilities. MediaStream manages the synchronization of Audio and Video. RTCPeerConnection is a component of WebRTC that ensures stability and efficiency of communication when streaming data between two individuals. Maintaining a consistently clear video call across varying environments is crucial for establishing a robust communication channel. According to WebRTC, “the codecs and protocols used by WebRTC do a huge amount of work to make real-time communication possible, even over unreliable networks: packet loss concealment, echo cancellation, bandwidth adaptivity, dynamic jitter buffering, automatic gain control, noise reduction, and suppression, and image ‘cleaning’.” Lastly, the utilization of the RTCDataChannel API enables a peer-to-peer exchange of data with low latency and high throughput. The aggregate of these technologies allows for video calling abilities that differentiate WebRTC from competing video calling technologies.
A common question about temi revolves around the security of the video calling. Encryption is absolutely mandatory for all WebRTC components and its APIs can be used only from secure origins. We take significant efforts to maximize the security of those within the temi community.
The navigation abilities within temi combined with the crystal clear video call quality make temi the communication tool of the future. In order to effectively communicate that which is nonverbal, the interaction has to be technologically seamless, so seamless to a point where both parties forget that they are on a video call. This leads to a more immersive experience in which it truly begins to feel like you are in two places at once. We’ve incorporated the best video out there to make temi the best video calling machine ever. With temi, I can be sitting at my desk in NYC and roll around my best friend’s home in Los Angeles as if I was there with him.