Eyeson Blog

Programmable Video Conferencing – A Short Explanation (with video)

Written by Thomas Stenitzer | August 29, 2022

A short introduction to what you can do with eyeson API to create the kind of experiences in live video communication you need for your use case.

eyeson API allows developers to build dynamic graphics, layouts and event-driven components and merges them live into a video conference.

 

Video: a short introduction to how programmable video conferencing with eyeson works.

eyeson API is a developer toolkit that lets you build video conferencing and video communication your way. Software developers can turn video calls into high-quality experiences complete with dynamic graphics overlays or embed custom video streams, offsite devices, and live data overlays within their apps with all the complex processing handled in the cloud.

With eyeson developers can easily build:
  • Dynamic text and graphic overlays
  • Text and graphic backgrounds
  • Programmable layouts
  • Event-driven layout changes
  • Event-driven graphic or video inserts
  • WYSIWYG recording or output to RTMP

eyeson API creates programmable video conferencing for a collaborative world. It all starts with the assumption that each participant should receive and send just one video stream to keep resource requirements low and video/audio quality high. Everyone sees the same video stream and is therefore present in the same meeting.

Multiple video feeds are displayed as a single stream

eyeson API is a cloud-native architecture for video conferencing. Use a set of API calls to change the layout and set a background and a foreground layer to completely control the look & feel of your meetings. 

The calls are executed on eyeson’s cloud server and instantly sent to every participant. This patented Single Stream Technology allows you to merge any live media, data and participants in real-time to design your own video composition. No need for extra software or powerful hardware on the client side.

And thanks to eyeson’s world-class video infrastructure, it scales seamlessly, whether your meeting has one active participant or hundreds, whether you are starting one meeting or hundreds in parallel. You can simultaneously record the video conferences to cloud storage and stream it via RTMP to live video platforms.

Cloud rendering is a distributed experience

If your use case, solution or product needs to display video and graphics not only in cloud recordings or as a live stream, but also in each participant’s UI, then latency is very important. The common solution these days is to build these features into custom UI code, that's not very efficient as your video streaming needs become more complex and customer platforms increase. eyeson allows you to take client-side code and process it in the cloud. We call this “Single Stream Technology”. This is a big difference from other video conferencing providers, as each participant receives the same video stream.

As video conferences and meetings are growing more engaging and complex, the tools and techniques must also evolve. New experiences may require multiple roles coming together in a video meeting: hosts, guests, agents, doctors, and clients, all of whom may need a personalized user interface with the exact same view of the output.

Let’s talk about potential use cases

Medical Management 

  • Live Media: Ultrasound, MRT, Live Monitoring
  • Live Data: Patient Records, Test Results, Insurance
  • Live Participants: Medical Staff, Doctors, Patients

Multiplayer Gaming

  • Live Media: Up to 9 parallel Screencasts
  • Live Data: Team Ranking & Results, Player Informations
  • Live Participants: Gamers, Tutors

Command & Control for Public Safety

  • Live Media: Live Drone Video, IP surveillance camera
  • Live Data: GPS Map, Weather Information, Local Information
  • Live Participants: Remote Team, Local Firefighters, ...

Customer Support

  • Live Media: Live Mobile Video, Tutorial Videos, Recorded Sessions
  • Live Data: Instructions, User Manuals, Technical Data Files
  • Live Participants: Support Agents, Clients

Your use case – your video conferencing

We always hear from customers that video conferencing and video meetings should be more dynamic and engaging, with options to create custom branding, titles, animated reactions, and so on — all this without taxing end-user device performance.

Show any content inside your video using the eyeson API or eyeson JS. 

  • Show simple text message inserts using the insert parameter. For example, listen for tweets in a separate service and display them in the stream.
  • Generate an image and either upload the image or provide a public URL. For overlaying images just use a PNG with transparent background.
  • Insert MP4 videos that are available through a public URL. The video can replace the current stream of a specific user or the full screen.
  • Use eyeson-js to inject your own media stream. Draw on a canvas & capture its stream. This can be a simple drawing board or even an online game.

 

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