Subject: [rtcweb] Status of realtime/live streaming to large audiences

From: Basil Mohamed Gohar <[email-masked]>
Date: Thu, 15 Aug 2013 11:10:24 -0400

This question may be naïve relative to others' knowledge to how rtcweb
is intended to work, but I would like to bring up the issue so that a
discussion exists on this list exists that unambiguously addresses the
question, and can be referred to at a later date when the topic comes-up
elsewhere.  My apologies if this, too, has already been done!

My question involves the usage of rtcweb in single-broadcaster/multiple
listener scenario, such as streaming a real-time/live event that
includes either audio or audio/video content, with a large audience.
Imagine, for example, a setup that is related to distance learning, with
one teacher and many students.

I know that theoretically, rtcweb should support this, but I wanted to
make sure that such a setup is actually explicitly allowed and even
designed for, because it is a usage case that is currently unavailable
to a large portion of users that would like to use a free software-only
solution.

The previous best case was Icecast, but that is not meant for
low-latency streaming by design.  rtcweb, I understand, is exactly for that.

With that out of the way, I am also interested in knowing what solution
implementing rtcweb already exist that can manage and/or handle this
usage scenario (one broadcaster, many listeners).  The previous
solutions seem to use almost exclusively a Flash client using rtsp-based
solution.  The quality is variable and late packets are usually dropped
so as to ensure the user is only seeing real-time data, even at degraded
quality momentarily.

I am interested in further discussion on this topic, so I welcome any
insight anyone may have into using rtcweb in this manner.

Thanks for indulging me!
-- 
Libre Video
http://librevideo.org

---

From: Lorenzo Miniero <[email-masked]>
Date: Thu, 15 Aug 2013 19:57:43 +0200

On Thu, 15 Aug 2013 11:10:24 -0400

> insight anyone may have into using rtcweb in this manner.

Hi Basil,

we've been working exactly in that direction lately, that is a large scale streaming solution based on WebRTC called SOLEIL. I personally believe that WebRTC is perfect for the purpose, as, making use of RTP, it is absolutely suited for an as-real-time-as-possible feed. Besides, it is integrated in the browser as existing streaming solutions based on Flash/Silverlight are, which can be seen as a "selling point" as well. About your question, I think this is a scenario the current WebRTC spec is already designed for as it is, at least from a specification point of view that is.

We don't have anything usable yet, as we've mostly focused on the backend (topology, statistics, etc.) so far, but we hope to have something ready soon.

Lorenzo

> -- 
> Libre Video
> http://librevideo.org
> _______________________________________________
> rtcweb mailing list
> [email-masked]
> https://www.ietf.org/mailman/listinfo/rtcweb

-- 
Lorenzo Miniero, COB

Meetecho s.r.l.
Web Conferencing and Collaboration Tools
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