Media Streaming Software Development

Video streaming app: overview Video streaming refers to the method of displaying the content directly over the Internet. It saves the need of downloading a media piece on the device. The user can begin watching while further content is being constantly transmitted to them. The numbers speak for themselves. The online video market is growing at the pace to be envied by other industries. According to Statista, the revenue generated from online video content will more than double from 2016 to 2027. Online video revenue worldwide from 2016 to 2027 (in billion U.S. dollars) Ovum estimates that video will amount to 70% of all mobile data traffic by 2020, an increase from 56% in 2014. Pew Research Center found out that about 6 out of 10 young adults in the US will choose online streaming services to watch TV. But before plunging into the mobile digital video world, one should make sure to distinguish between these two functional types of video streaming: On-demand video streaming. These apps allow users to select and watch preloaded content such as movies or TV shows anytime and anyplace. The data is stored on the server. The sector is dominated by big-league vendors like Netflix, Amazon Prime, and Hulu. Live video streaming. This type of apps is meant for simultaneous media recording and broadcasting it in real time to the viewer. The videos can be either stored on a server and be accessed by other users for a certain time or broadcasted directly to a user without storing. The latter means the content is available only in online mode for the time of streaming.    In fact, 80% of users said they would rather watch live video from a brand than read a blog, while 82% prefer live video from a brand to social posts. Live video streaming is mostly represented by Facebook Live, YouTube, Snapchat’s Live Stories, Periscope, Twitter and YouNow. Belitsoft has successfully developed a live video streaming application for our Client who owns a video surveillance system company. The app allows multiple users to connect to the cameras and get the real-time image on their devices. The functionality of the app also includes viewing of the videos recorded earlier. The app is available on Windows Client as well as iOS and Android platforms.   Video streaming app: technical challenges Everyone wants a video in high resolution and no one wants it with “loading” screens showing up. As Limelight Networks’ “The State of Online Video 2017” states, 21.6 % of people will quit a video page if it stops and rebuffers during playback. The second occurrence will lead to 61 % stop watching, while rebuffering for the third time means 84.7 % of the audience is lost. 23% of people who have been presented with a poor quality video experience said they would hesitate to purchase from that brand. The quality of a video stream largely depends on the available bandwidth. Generally, a higher bitrate means a higher image quality in video output and the more bandwidth required. Yet, original-sized media is generally too big for the common Internet connection speeds. This is one of the reasons any video goes through encoding. Video codecs - software or hardware tools - are used to compress and decompress digital data. Compressed files have fewer bitrates and require less bandwidth while preserving approximate video quality after decompression. For end-user, this means flawless streaming experience without any buffer issues. Today, H.264 or AVC (Advanced Video Coding) is the most commonly accepted format for high quality streaming over the Internet. In a chart below you can check out the bandwidth for your own mobile streaming app with H.264 codec. Source: technet.microsoft.com This matters because if the user’s download speed is lesser than that of a stream, the device will compress the file and the video will be choppy. H.265 or HEVC (High Efficiency Video Coding) brought about a format that can deliver equal to H.264 image quality at approximately half the bit rate required compared to H.264/AVC. ‘Compression is key to streaming video. With good compression, you can avoid blocky or blurry artifacts, shorten waiting times for video to start, pare back your network usage and sometimes upgrade to higher-resolution video, like 4K, without having to upgrade your broadband connection’ Stephen Shankland, senior reporter at cnet.com The price is more computer and memory intensiveness. As a result, it is compatible with fewer devices and reaches a smaller audience. In fact, it wasn’t until 2017, that Apple announced H.265 support for iOS 11. There is also VP9, a royalty-free codec developed by Google. Netflix, however, has found out it performs worse than H.264 in the most resolutions and quality metrics. One can also check out currently supported video codecs for Android and iOS. Another important thing to consider is that variable bitrate (VBR) will give a better image quality than constant bitrate (CBR) in most cases. The main difference is that the former adapts the data stream depending on the complexity of each video segment. CBR, on the other side, does not optimize media files for quality. Issues like latency and buffering are heated up in high-stress scenarios, such as an increase in user demand. To prevent users from frustration, content delivery networks are implemented. This type of network service allows keeping important content in multiple globally distributed data centers. It makes it closer to end-users and faster to download. Source: technig.com Redirecting the visitors to edge services can also help to reduce the strain on the network and solve the issue of scalability. ‘Сonsider a CDN like a flexible water main with a variable diameter and any number of drinking fountains. Instead of water, you are sending data. Scalability is the ability of the CDN to push just the right amount of data to all the spigots so everybody drinks just the right flow.’ suggested George Avgerakis, a newtek.com blog contributor The networks are also effective against DDoS attacks since the large distributed server infrastructure can absorb the scale of the attack. Do you already know what your app should look like but need developers for your product? Contact us to hire a dedicated team! Or read on for some more ideas. Video streaming app: features What should a successful video streaming app offer to gain the interest and love of users apart from high-quality content? There is a certain set of basic functionalities that any decent app should have such as a registration screen (either via a social network or e-mail), personal profile, onboarding screens, push notifications, inbuilt feedback forms. We’ve touched them upon in our previous articles, where we’ve described how to develop a smart home app and a language learning app. We have also talked about the best Android and iOS design practices, as each platform has a set of defined rules to reckon with. Yet, for video streaming, there are some engaging features that have already proved their success with the industry-leading apps. Content search Users should have a chance to search for preferred content with filters for a genre, actors, user ratings and comments, ownership, movie or TV show, etc. For those hesitant to choose, Netflix came up with Netflix Roulette. Based on a short list of criteria the service will return its random choices. One can then watch the suggested content or spin the wheel again, adjusting the criteria.  Enabling geolocation tracking can help users discover trending broadcasts in their vicinity or at a certain location worldwide. Conversely, a geo-blocking feature should exist to restrict content visibility in a particular area because of privacy issues. Comments and sharing Comments are especially vital for live streaming apps. As Facebook said, they get "more than 10 times more comments on Facebook Live videos than regular ones." After all, part of the attractiveness of live videos is real-time communication with reactions, questions, and opinions. With 92% of mobile video consumers sharing videos with others and 55% of people watching videos online every day, the potential of the sharing function for audience reach is huge. Allowing integration with contacts and social media platforms will drive the engagement. Source: www.smartinsights.com Watchlist Watchlist or My Stuff like it is called in Hulu is a place to store the things you want to keep track of. The users can add to the list content they are interested in like TV shows, movies, networks, sporting events, etc. The app also sorts the videos that one has already watched and that are yet to be finished. Clicking on the “expiring” category shows the content which will be deleted from the server soon. Source: https://itunes.apple.com 360-degree streaming. Video immersion is a new trend. Such brands as Youtube, Facebook and Periscope already offer its support. However, some additional hardware is required. Periscope, for example, natively integrates with Insta360 Nano for iOS and Insta360 Air for Android. Video monetization. Except for making the world a better place, every app seeks to get financial returns. Statista conducted research to find out which app monetization models worked best in 2017. As seen from the chart, the top way to gain profits is implementing in-app purchases in freemium-based apps. In that kind of apps, users do not pay any money to download it but are offered to purchase additional features. Subscribing to YouTube Premium, for example, gives access to background video playing, offline mode, original content an ads-free experience. The strategy is opposed to paid apps. However, most apps like Hulu still offer some free trial period. Moreover, in Hulu, a user can buy a subscription to No Commercials plan. About 40% of Hulu subscribers pay extra $4 extra to eliminate adverts from the service. Netflix has long been famous for its categoric stance on ads and belief in subscription, ad-free model: ‘Internet TV is divorced of the need of advertising revenue because we can develop direct relationships with the consumer. Marketers need to find a different place to advertise.’ Neil Hunt, Netflix chief product officer However, recently the company may seem to have changed its mind and introduced trial ads to the unanimous frustration of its users.  ‘In this particular case, we are testing whether surfacing recommendations between episodes helps members discover stories they will enjoy faster. It is important to note that a member is able to skip a video preview at anytime if they are not interested.’ Netflix’s official statement Final Thoughts Users love glitch-free video streaming apps. Developing one of your own always implies deep technical knowledge and a pinch of creativity. At Belitsoft, we have talents and expertise to build an app tailored to your specific requirements. Check out our mobile development portfolio and feel free to ask us any questions!

What is Telemedicine Software Telemedicine refers to remote clinical services using telecommunications infrastructure to deliver care at a distance. There are different definitions and types of telemedicine software, but in this atricle we focus only on applications through which patient-doctor virtual appointments are held. Such software enables video or phone appointments between patients and medical providers. In light of COVID, telemedicine became crucial for providing remote medical services to patients. The global telemedicine software/hardware market is expected to reach USD 460 billion in 2030. Many people, who have isolated themselves in the COVID pandemic, had trouble accessing face-to-face appointments with a doctor. It made “telemedicine app download” one of the most googled queries. Since then telemedicine has become more widespread standard of healthcare services. Video conferences, live chats, and app texting - there are plenty of ways to set up online doctor visits. Since the 2019 pandemic, the healthcare industry has experienced the rapid implementation of telemedicine, and nowadays many people prefer online doctor consultations over a meeting in person. Telemedicine software development opens doors for new possibilities, where more specialties can successfully expand their practice and make a meaningful impact on a patient care. As a result of the continuous advancements in healthcare software, telemedicine platforms and apps made healthcare even more affordable and accessible. Telemedicine provides better access to healthcare services, turning telehealth platforms and telehealth apps into an essential part of the healthcare industry. Benefits of telemedicine for patients The implementation of telemedicine helps health care providers to examine a patient and monitor health conditions on a spot: no more commute times while completing an in-person appointment. The adoption of telemedicine removes the locational gap for those, who live far away and supports patients with chronic diseases. A telemedicine app allows for treating patients more efficiently because it is a comfortable way of communication between doctors and their patients; Quick reaction to emergency care. Benefits of telemedicine for doctors Healthcare professionals benefit from telemedicine opportunities. The most common benefits of telemedicine are: Flexible work-from-home opportunities for doctors; The additional revenue model for doctors, for example by offering on-demand off-hours telemedicine visits. By using a modern telehealth app, it is possible not just to conduct virtual doctor appointments from a mobile device, but also to view patient appointment scheduling, e-prescribe treatments and medications, and more. Top 10 Features of Telemedicine Being recognized as a time-efficient and cost-effective means for delivering quality healthcare service, telemedicine applications need to have advanced telemedicine app features. Here are the top 10. The features are listed in the order as it is convenient for patients (patient registration, profile fulfillment, doctor selection, making a virtual appointment, payment and leaving the review) and for doctors (integrated patient profile, integrated EHR, integrated practice management, and integrated e-prescribing). 1. Patient Registration/Authentication A patient needs to complete consent forms before scheduling an online appointment: a registration form to provide a medical worker with demographic and insurance information, a health history, and information about allergies. a HIPAA compliance patient consent form that describes patients’ rights under the law. By signing this form a patient allows for using of protected healthcare information (only a necessary minimum) with medical workers to prescribe treatment, process payment, or healthcare operations. a telemedicine consent form explaining that a conferencing technology is not the same as a direct patient/health visit because a patient will not be in the same room with a healthcare provider, hence the specialist’s responsibility concludes upon the termination of a virtual health care provider visit. A registration form should be supported by an easy yet secure authentication process. Usually, it is required to enter an email address and a password and verify it when a patient first creates an account. Some added features here to be considered as a must-have: to upload medical records a patient has received from previous consultations, an insurance verification form, billing information, photos, pictures, dental insurance cards, or other papers; to schedule and track an online appointment; to select the patient’s preference for text or phone notifications before the virtual appointment; to receive appointment reminders (via text or phone number specified during registration) to attend your virtual visit and a notification that the doctor is on the call; to mute your video or audio, send photos and messages, and share the screen during the visit; to give feedback on the video and audio quality of the call / to review and download the visit summary. 2. User-friendly Dashboard A useful feature for medical workers to evaluate and elaborate quickly on a treatment plan. The dashboard indicates an outline of a patient's personal and medical records, so it is possible to diagnose faster. The main advantage of a dashboard is to highlight details of patient’s medical issues, such as: Latest information on the patient's medical state; Doctor’s prescriptions; Health complaints; Healthcare insurance information; History of appointments; History of medical management; Information from remote patient monitoring (RPM) devices, such as glucometer, pulse oximeter, wearables, etc. 3. Telemedicine Specialists Catalog A specialist catalog allows for choosing a specialist to make a perfect patient/doctor match. An administrator is able to access and manage doctors’ profiles allocating healthcare specialists for online visits. Just like a patient’s medical profile integrated into a telemedicine app specialist profile should also contain basic and detailed information about a healthcare professional as follows: Communication ways: doctors can connect through in-app calls, video sessions, or in-app chat; Doctor’s qualifications; Area of expertise; Medical experience; Online appointment schedule; Payment modes. 4. Schedule tracking Schedule tracking with an integrated calendar is designed to send push notifications and remind of upcoming medical visits. By using the app-integrated feature to track online appointments doctors can: Be up-to-date with their daily schedule; Preview a patient queue; Browse and filter patient records. Cancel appointments, if necessary 5. Consultations via video, audio, or text messages The most common telemedicine platforms enable video consultations and in-app chats. Telemedicine service providers use cloud-based telehealth solutions to keep medical data for as much time as it needs, protect HIPAA-compliant data transmission, and make it easily accessible to any physician or any other medical worker who works with patients Advantages included: Teleconferencing allows patients to ask questions; Online assessment is available; App integrated features and cloud-based solutions designed by telemedicine app developers enable live communication, remote medical examination, and virtual diagnostics. 6. EHR Integration EHR integration elevates the practical application of telemedicine apps. While EMR contains the patient’s medical and treatment history from one practice and usually is not shared beyond the doctor’s office (meaning that EMR is unlikely to follow if a patient switched health care providers), EHR stores patient's records from previous attending doctors and contains laboratory test results, medical history, x-ray images, and medications. So EHR provides a more profound and long-term view of the patient’s health progress. The telemedicine app integrated with EHR enables quick health record processing, saves time when monitoring a patient’s condition, has medical records collected in one place, and prevents health data duplication from different doctor’s appointments. Telemedicine software with integrated EHR ensures fast and coherent online invoicing and provides: Streamlined data collection: all patient information is already integrated; Swift healthcare data processing during a telemedicine appointment; Integrated online payment systems. 7. Geolocation A telemedicine app should geographically link patients to doctors in the same area. This feature helps to locate medical organizations and pharmacies in the surroundings, in case of emergency and provides the shortest route and estimated arrival time. 8. E-prescription Allows pharmacies and doctors to provide healthcare services faster. Telemedicine apps with integrated e-prescription should meet the requirements of the following telemedicine regulations: Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act (HIPAA); EPA (Electronic Prior Authorization); Food and Drug Administration (FDA); U.S. Department of Health & Human Services (HHS); HITECH Meaningful Use Stage 1 (MU-1) and Meaningful Use Stage 2 (MU-2). The e-prescription provides access to medical insurance records that can be shared with electronically connected pharmacists. E-prescribing enhances patient/doctor communication and improves both patient and doctor satisfaction, plus it has other advantages: Includes a complete list of medication and recommended dosages; Lowers prescription drug and pharmacy errors; Simplifies prescription process and speeds up prescription renewals; Safe for patients: by alerting physicians of risks related to drug interactions and other possible medical complications; Convenient to study a patient’s anamnesis; Reduces drug costs for patients by informing healthcare providers of more cost-efficient therapies, suggesting to cease avoidable high-cost medications, and recommending optimization of current therapies before sending prescriptions to a pharmacy; Decreases re-hospitalization cases by preventing adverse drug events and drug allergies; Enables systematic track of medication intake. 9. Online Payment A much-needed telemedicine app feature is to pay medical bills right from a mobile device. Integrated payment systems are a must for telemedicine service providers not only because it is convenient but also because it helps to reduce processing costs. Fast and easy online payment systems have some other significant advantages and offer: Automated invoice processing; Automated adherence to appointments by sending automated alerts and reminders directed to patients; Various payment methods; Assistance in pay-slips creation; Payments record storage; Payment processing compliance; Secured payment processing. 10. Reviews and Rating Patient feedback and the opportunity to evaluate the attending physician is a primary telemedicine app feature. Patients' ranking might help to improve healthcare outcomes and the professional growth of treating doctors. Doctors’ scoring enables patients with similar diseases to find the medical specialist suited for their health issues the best. The scaling option contributes to the healthcare system development. As telehealth apps are booming, telemedicine software development will be on the rise in the coming years. Telemedicine is the perfect example of on-demand healthcare that can be provided from a smartphone, tablet, or computer regardless of location, that is what makes it cost-effective and time-efficient. Thanks to the benefits of telemedicine, which are to provide better care to patients, expand the healthcare industry and build more profitable practices, many healthcare providers implement telemedicine applications in their practice. Telemedicine is changing the healthcare landscape: virtual care is being used now by all generations. Integrations with the Internet of Things (IoT) connected devices, a whole new industry of telehealth technologies, such as remote patient monitoring devices and automatic speech recognition tools, as well as a growing tendency toward more decentralized healthcare accompany the general trend to provide improved quality of care, make it flexible, satisfactory, and convenient.

We create/customize and implement HIPAA/GDPR-compliant EMR/EHR applications and other healthcare software solutions like telehealth for healthcare businesses from the USA, Canada, Israel, the UK, and other European countries. We have already grown companies just like yours. Get a Free Quote The recent public health emergency resulting from COVID-19 has accelerated the implementation of healthcare service delivery through telehealth. Clinicians can now provide more services to beneficiaries via telehealth. As you probably know, the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services has expanded access to Medicare telehealth services. Features of Telemedicine Enrich your healthcare application with real-time communications adding Telehealth features. E-visits and medical consultations. The main idea of telehealth is to connect patients and physicians around the world quickly and securely through live video. This enables two-way, face-to-face interactions on a computer or mobile device with high-quality video and audio.  Secured communication can be held by a wired or wireless Internet connection.  Some solutions also allow screen sharing and multiway video so 3rd parties (such as caregivers or translators) can also participate in a virtual consultation. All the additional attendees are added by the doctor. Define session time slots. Choose how long your telemedicine consultations should last. Define a suitable time slot to schedule the meeting with the patients. Manage your time.In the case of contingencies, сonfirm, cancel, or re-schedule telemedicine appointments to suit your availability and manage your time effectively Reduce No-Shows. Lower no-shows by confirming telemedicine appointments and sending notifications about the upcoming telemedicine sessions.  Define pricing. You have the opportunity to price and charge patients (or keep it free) for telemedicine sessions. Moreover, while hosting a webinar you can set the fee for joining the meeting. Online payments.You can collect all the payments for your telehealth sessions in advance to confirm participation. Online billing.Generate bills for video consultations to track the revenue generated for telemedicine services and provide complete financial management of your practice. We stand for providing the highest quality of healthcare services delivered while using telemedicine features. That’s why we considered the opportunity for the providers to access patients’ health records during video sessions to help with the diagnosis. All the recordings are available for the doctors to clarify the assignments in the future. Consultation Notes. Create notes during your sessions with patients in order not to lose goals, medications prescribed, invoices, follow up appointments, or care plans you may have discussed. ePrescriptions.You will be able to prescribe the medications during your telemedicine sessions and send the prescriptions by email or with a paper-printed letter to patients without the need for them to visit the practice. Consultation summary. Share a summary via email with patients, including key aspects discussed during your session, for better medication adherence. Adding telemedicine features can improve your abilities in following up with the visitors on their progress. Patient-initiated. Patients can book follow-up appointments to their clinic visits or online consultations and consult with you via video sessions. This will definitely save the providers’ time compared with written communication.  Moreover, the patients can clearly see the type of appointment while checking their schedule so that they can plan their visits or video calls. Provider-initiated. Book follow-up telemedicine sessions for patients who may not be able to visit you at your clinic. Text consultations. This particular feature allows doctors to exchange text-based messages with patients in real-time before, during, or after an appointment. These messages are secure and HIPAA compliant to ensure your practice is following all regulations. Adapting an existing WebRTC Solution to the Current EHR/EMR System Web Real-Time Communication saves your time if you need the telehealth functionality as soon as possible. Its mission is to "enable rich, high-quality RTC (real-time communications) applications to be developed for the browser, mobile platforms, and IoT devices, and allow them all to communicate via a common set of protocols". Advantages of WebRTC WebRTC ensures rapid implementation of the audio/video conferencing features without hiring a huge team. You can customize the interface of your telehealth app to align with the interface of your existing EHR/EMR system. You don’t need to redevelop your existing system, as only one new module with an intuitive user-friendly interface would be added. WebRTC allows audio and video streams to work inside web pages by allowing direct peer-to-peer (P2P) communication, eliminating the need to install plugins or download native apps.  The technology is available on all modern browsers as well as on native clients for all major platforms. WebRTC provides web browsers and mobile applications with real-time communication via simple application programming interfaces (APIs).  In our case WebRTC is interesting as a means to connect existing communication providers to the EHR/EMR system through API, creating a time- and cost-saving solution for telehealth services.  This way of implementing telehealth features on the one hand ensures you get a reliable and secure communication channel and on the other hand doesn’t demand any significant changes in your current system.  The only condition to perform such integration is the presence of an open API in the customer’s EHR, but even the absence of it can be fixed by developing a special add-on. How to Choose the Best WebRTC Provider To take all the advantages of this method, you must choose the WebRTC provider carefully to prevent expensive refactoring and/or re-architecting when the load on your WebRTC solution grows. All the major WebRTC platform providers want to make it easy to start using their product. This means it is free for the initial low volume. As the implementations scale-up in volume or the use-case goes beyond minimal functionality, the costs go up as well and for very high volumes, they charge a lower pay-as-you-go rate. The major differences among providers often come down to which facet of communications they emphasize as their bread-and-butter. Some (like Agora) emphasize real-time hi-res video. Twilio tries to strikea balance between voice and video communication. Thus, it pays to consider exactly which WebRTC capabilities your project will use in both near- and far future before committing to a provider. Find a platform with the right strengths for better results – and ultimately, lower costs. Our experience allows us to claim that we’re able to adapt for your telehealth needs the next popular WebRTC communication platforms: Twilio; Agora; Vidyo; Zoom; GoToMeeting; ClickMeeting; Vonage; VSee. Twilio Webrtc Provider Twilio Programmable Video covers all the bases with API’s for voice, video, and messaging. Twilio places a special emphasis on user verification and security. The services are priced individually, starting at $0.0015 per minute/participant. All services are offered as pay-as-you-go, with no contracts and no minimum fees. Twilio also has a special Healthcare solution that is presented as a flexible and comprehensive answer to the modern challenges. Doctor On Demand uses Twilio Programmable Video Agora Webrtc Provider Agora offers a wide set of services, with hi-res video being the star of the show. WebRTC services are priced by type of service. Video of 720p or less costs $3.99 per 1000 minutes (or $0,00399/minute), while hi-res commands a $14.99 for the same time ($0,01499). All pricing is pay-as-you-go with no upfront cost, and the first 10 000 minutes per month are free. DrFirst and Agora partner to add telehealth to Backline HIPAA-compliant care collaboration platform Vidyo Webrtc Provider Vidyo provides multi-party video APIs for the web, mobile, and native endpoints. A fixed $65/month pricing point will bring you ongoing support and includes up to 6500 minutes of real-time communications. It also presents a Healthcare solution with special video conferencing capabilities. Telehealth Solutions Powered by Vidyo. Source Zoom Webrtc Provider Zoom provides a full set of services needed to conduct video conferences for businesses of all sizes. The recent solution was launching a special Healthcare plan that costs $200 per account with 10 hosts. What Zoom’s Customers Say. Source GoToMeeting Webrtc Provider GoToMeeting presents a set of subscription plans that differ in their features. Prising starts from €10.75 for a professional account, for enterprises there’s an option to set custom plans depending on the amount of employees. ClickMeeting ClickMeeting is another solution that is priced upon your chosen subscription plan. Depending on features included the prices start from $25 and may be adjusted individually according to your business needs. Vonage Webrtc Provider Vonage offers interactive video, video broadcast, voice (via SIP), and text messaging (via SMS/chat). A monthly base fee of $9.99 includes 2000 subscribed minutes (it is per receiver, and the sender does not pay for upstreaming their video). Higher volumes are priced in tiers starting at $0.00475/subscribed minute for the 2 000-100 000 minutes and thereafter decreases to $0.00400/subscribed minute for the 5M minutes. Vsee Webrtc Provider VSee provides a specialized telehealth solution for clinics in basic ($45 per month) and enterprise (the price is set individually depending on the number of employees) subscription plans. The difference is in features included into the plans. VSee also provides Telemedicine Kit. Source Integrating WebRTC with your app The time needed for integration of the WebRTC solutions mentioned above is set individually according to the complexity of the current customer’s EHR/EMR system and the set of features, chosen according to the subscription plan. In general all the process can be done in 1-3 months. Summarizing all the above, using WebRTC solutions is the best way for those customers which need Telehealth features ASAP  without any excessive effort on “reinventing the wheel”. This technology already has many high-quality platform providers, so the competition among them will grow stronger, intensifying their deeper specialization in the market. By building a comprehensive use case for your project, you’ll be able to find the provider that offers the best overall value proposition not only in terms of cost per subscribed minute, but for the ongoing costs of further scaling development and adding new features. Anyway, our company is always ready to help you in achieving your business goals in the most suitable way.

How Belitsoft Can Help Our elearning software development company is ready to extend your VILT with an LMS development services. We offer:  Integration LMS with Video Conferencing Tools; LMS with Zoom integration; LMS video platform development. Integration with an LXP platform. GET A FREE QUOTE Difference between Video Conferencing Platform and LMS Virtual instructor-led training includes any educational activities done live through video conferencing tools like Skype, Zoom, GoToMeeting, etc.  Various sources differ on whether to include webinars in this definition. On the one hand, they are also delivered live and online. On the other, full-fledged VILT makes full use of two-way communication between presenter and learners, while webinars tend to be more one-sided.  A learning management system (LMS) is a piece of specialized software for storing, administration, and tracking various training programs. Examples include JoomlaLMS, Canvas, Blackboard, etc. We have written many articles on LMSes, from choosing the right one to preparing a specification for a custom one, to building a turnkey system from scratch. Feel free to explore our blog for more insights on the topic. How LMSes extend the power of VILT Learning management systems can really power up VILT in many ways. Here are some of them. 1. Archiving Traditionally, recordings of live sessions remain available just for some time after the entire course is over. This means that you need to store these recordings somewhere, take time to upload them. Commonly this is done via a third-party video hosting service (e.g. YouTube) manually.  LMSes, on the other hand, have the capability to store the recordings in-system (without the need to manually upload the files). They also can automatically limit access, might include video-editing tools and other quality-of-life features.  All-in-all, this saves a lot of time that can be better spent elsewhere - for example, on preparation for new courses.  2. Scheduling Usually, the timetable for learning sessions via traditional VILT tools is posted on a separate website or social media group. The reminders are sent through a third-party mailing service.  LMS unites this all in a single system. An inbuilt calendar is a convenient way to plan and possibly reschedule classes. And a notification system allows for automatically sending people updates and reminders.  3. Communication The typical webinar/VILT software allows one or two ways of communication: voice chat and text chat.  LMSes have a lot to add to it: Internal email; SMS; Social media; Forums; Etc. This makes teaching much more flexible, allows for extra activities (e.g. group work on the forum), and supports innovative training methods.  4. Integration If there is a particular VILT tool that you like, it is likely that there are LMSes that can connect to it. This will grant you both the benefits of the tool and all the good stuff that the learning management system has to offer.  Moreover, the functionality of an LMS includes features from many separate kinds of software, which means you will need only one tool for all your eLearning needs.  5. Examination Every LMS has an inbuilt quiz feature. They can differ in details (e.g. the types of questions available) but there is always a way to test the users’ knowledge.  This is a huge step forward from simple VILT tools that have nothing of this sort. The learners can get all kinds of tests without leaving the system which makes the process much more intuitive. Moreover, it saves the time of the instructors who will be able to quickly and easily create quizzes and modify them.  6. Analytics Using an LMS will add an entirely new dimension to your VILT. Instead of manually calculating metrics like attendance and completion rates, you will have a suite of automated reports for everything that matters both academically and commercially.  In addition, LMSes compliant with modern standards like xAPI allow for even more detailed analytics and in more areas: Completion tracking; Offline learning tracking; Game-based learning tracking; Mobile learning tracking; Etc. Now you’ll be able to beef up your presentation with extra activities that will take learning to a new level.  7. Elearning Features In addition to improving the more traditional aspects of instructor-led training, an LMS can open new paths for making your courses more efficient and engaging. Gamification, self-guided learning, automatic certification… There are tons of features that common VILT tools don’t provide. How one successful eLearning marketplace reduced their costs by 10x with a custom video-conferencing tool Skyeng is an online English language school, also called as the “leading edtech startup”. Forbes estimated Skyeng’s valuation at $130 million, with no fewer than 15,000 teachers and 120,000 learners active on the platform.  Video conferencing is the major communication tool between a teacher and a student at Skyeng. At peak hours the eLearning marketplace supports up to 4,000 video lessons at the same time.  The project started working with Skype. But Skype could not be integrated into the training platform. That’s why they decided to try SaaS solutions. But they were very expensive. As a result, the company stopped working with ready-made solutions and opted for WebRTC and Janus.  Now Skyeng team created a video conferencing feature for the educational platform. They faced quite a lot of troubles on the way. The right protocol is essential Ready-made tools seem to be the fastest solution, especially if you don't want to invest in developing the infrastructure.  When the eLearning marketplace Skyeng first integrated video calls into the training platform, they opted for one of the ready-to-use tools… based on TCP and UDP protocols.  The sound and picture were fine. But there was a critical drawback. It was expensive.  The team started to search for another solution. And found an alternative almost 5 times cheaper!  They tried to use it though it worked only using... UDP and didn't support TCP.  And here comes a new large corporate client, whose security system blocks UDP.  Not to lose clients, Skyeng returned to ready-to-use tools and was forced to pay for them devastating bills for a couple of years. The situation could not last long. And the Skyeng founders figured it would be cheaper to assemble their own team and invest in the infrastructure. They considered using WebRTC together with the open-source Janus.  Janus was supposed to work as a signaling server, an essential element for establishing communication via WebRTC. It has a front-end library janus.js that allows embedding video conferencing into the training platform. It gives a possibility to record audio and video streams.  WebRTC itself doesn’t support any changes. But the Skyeng team was going to add their own features. And although they managed to launch and configure it using Janus without any problems, there were certain bottlenecks. WebRTC and traffic issues WebRTC can adjust traffic depending on the Internet connection. Look at the graphs made during a call. You see that the bitrate temporarily lowers when the client's connection gets worse.  The problem for Skyeng was crucial. Their conversions dropped by 10% when WebRTC reduced traffic in a trial lesson. On the other hand, when the client has a good connection, WebRTC uses the channel to the maximum, increasing the bitrate. It creates the danger of server overload. It may happen if you send it more traffic than Janus can support. As a result, many clients can be disconnected.  Also, Skyeng faced one more issue. If the bitrate is very high, the original records take up more disk storage and may overflow it. To calculate the server load more accurately and to make the video quality acceptable, they set a bitrate limit of 256 kbps. However, there are situations you cannot influence.  Here is a curious example from Skyeng. A client takes online classes next to a working microwave, which blocks the radio signal between the router and the computer. Until the microwave turns off, even a smart bitrate control won’t help.  To warn and calm down a user, Skyeng now displays tips and warnings that something is wrong with their Internet connection. The more powerful server, the better It was assumed that having powerful hardware, WebRTC would work smoothly and swiftly. The Skyeng specialists calculated the expected workload and decided upon the proper server configurations. But something went wrong. They started to receive complaints from teachers long before achieving the limit values.  They didn’t explore the subject fully, but apparently, there were some restrictions inside Janus gateway itself. They reduced the capacity limit from 300 to 200 Mbit/s. And the problems disappeared. After that, they bought simpler servers with fewer restrictions. Another problem was found in the algorithm that created a route between clients. By default, the algorithm chose a more powerful server with better capacity, regardless of its physical location.  As a result, a teacher and a student from one city could communicate through a server from another. The path was too complicated, and the chances to lose packets were higher. They rewrote the algorithm. Now based on pings from a pair of clients to servers, the closest server is selected. Can WebRTC work equally well in different browsers? The Skyeng technical specialists assumed that WebRTC would work equally well in different browsers. If not, then the problem could be solved using the webrtc-adapter library. That’s right, but not so simple. Let’s take China as an example. They have such mobile browsers as QQ and UC. When the eLearning marketplace Skyeng tried to enter the Chinese market, they found that the Chinese browsers support WebRTC only in one direction. They deny access to the microphone and camera while playing video from the second client.  The same problem occurred in Europe with the DuckDuckGo browser. And once they even got a complaint that the client couldn’t study through the Tesla browser! And since they cannot influence all of this, they ask customers to use the latest version of Google Chrome. The conclusion is - if anything doesn’t work, switch to Google Chrome. Although, until recently, Chrome didn’t work smoothly on iOS devices as well.  When users used to start a video call in Chrome from a mobile device, iOS failed to work and suggested opening Safari. Just to mention, Safari received WebRTC support only recently, and it still doesn’t work as well as it should.  For example, a low camera resolution is a problem. It requires a better video connection, while we transmit a 640 by 480 picture to save traffic. And one more surprise. On iOS devices, students cannot simultaneously be in a video stream and play a video file with an assignment. Therefore, now they have to choose one thing and turn off another. And Skyeng had to accept this fact. The peculiarities of accessing a camera and a microphone To start a video lesson, you need to turn on the camera and microphone. It seems obvious. But the Skyeng team noticed that often the connection is not established because the user blocks both the camera and microphone. And he does it automatically, because the request window looks like standard annoying requests from other sites, and appears in the same place.  So they began to show this notification directly at the moment of entering the first lesson. And for extra reliability, they showed an additional pop-up in another place on the screen. It made notifications much more noticeable, and the problem was solved. The bottom line Skyeng reports that their own hardware and team let them reduce the cost of video communication by 10+ times. They’ve reduced the risk of packet loss by choosing the optimal server between two clients. Got the ability to react faster to user behavior and improve user experience.  Are you interested in implementing a video-conferencing feature into your elearning platform? Or looking for cheaper options than the ones you currently use? Our eLearning developers are here to help you with integrating your elearning platform with a video-conferencing tool.  Let’s talk!