Vidyo Enhances WebRTC Functionality

While some have said that WebRTC is not growing, the trends in the market argue differently. Today, Vidyo announced a new product release, Vidyo Server for WebRTC 3.2, which expands the support of WebRTC. Vidyo Server for WebRTC 3.2 enables guest access for participants in a Vidyo conferencing event to use a WebRTC-enabled browser. This is a clear advantage for using a Vidyo-based solution for external participants as it avoids the complexity and hassle of downloading a specific client. The Vidyo WebRTC solution also enables applications using the Vidyo APIs to rapidly deploy to browser-based participants. While this is not the first Vidyo WebRTC offer, it shows an increasing support and integration of the WebRTC paradigm into the Vidyo solution.

This can be of critical value in a number of vertical applications from health care to finance and beyond. By enabling an internal user to communicate to an extended participant through a combination of a dedicated client for internal use and WebRTC open browsers externally, the capability to deliver vertical applications is increased. While internet Explorer/Edge and Safari users must currently use a plug-in, both browsers seem to be well on the way to direct WebRTC support (or ORTC in the case of Edge). A good example is a health care follow-up video chat. While the health care professional may be on a device with a native client, this new release enables the client to be on a browser with no downloads or complexity. In enabling simple video conferencing, this is a clear advantage in a number of use case scenarios.

Vidyo sees the advantage of WebRTC in a range of applications. In discussions about the new release, they clearly see the functionality driving into both hosted and PaaS cloud offers from the company. Nicholas Reid, Vidyo Senior Vice President of Product Management said, "Vidyo's WebRTC-enabled products offer customers even more flexibility and choice in their Vidyo deployment. From our partnership with Google to co-develop scalable VP9 for WebRTC to the release we are sharing today; Vidyo is bullish on the potential for WebRTC to make face-to-face communication as ubiquitous and hassle-free as texting or calling."

Existing Vidyo customers with a service contract can get the Vidyo Server for WebRTC 3.2 for free and it is available for all existing Vidyo customers. It will be interesting to see if Vidyo begins to focus on the WebRTC platform space as an extension of their existing platform/API business. As WebRTC and the Real Time Web become more ubiquitous, the need for a majority of web servers and web apps to include real time services including video conferencing is clearly becoming a requirement. With 900 million Facebook users using Messenger and over 100 million using it for some form of casual video conferencing, the web community is rapidly expecting real time communications to be natively integrated into the application. Clearly Vidyo is focused on enabling this as part of their overall strategy in the market.