Among a client’s greatest concerns with Virtual and Hybrid meetings is the video stream. They worry that the stream will be interrupted and content lost. They are also concerned about the quality of the stream and if there will be delays (latency) between a livestream session and a remote attendee that will make Q & A or polling untenable. In the last few months, CTI has made several improvements that should alleviate most of these concerns. The most important include:
Multi-stream. We are using multiple streams when we deliver content to remote attendees. This provides the following capabilities:
– Recording as backup. While we are using Vimeo or another video streaming service to host the content for attendee viewers, we are using a small, efficient WOWZA server instance within our AWS facility to record the presentation simultaneously. This means that if the Vimeo stream is interrupted or if attendees lose their Internet service during an event, we will still have a recording as a backup.
– Overflow. Multiple streams also allow us to deliver media to additional locations inside a convention center, such as an overflow room for those who cannot find seats in the main location.
Alternatives to Real-Time Messaging Protocol. With RTMP, CTI uses a delivery method for both the remote viewer streaming service and the WOWZA streaming service that maintains persistent connections and provides low-latency communication. But even with RTMP, latency for attendees across the world can vary greatly. This latency can negatively impact certain functions, such as polling. An attendee located in a part of the world with a slow internet connection could find that a poll has been closed by the time they see the poll questions. Alternatives to RTMP, such as Secure Reliable Transport (SRT), will be explored as a later work item.