LiveSwitch Hybrid Architecture greatly reduces latency and eliminates lag induced spoilers in a live experience - no matter what kind of streaming they're participating in. We can get down to 0.1 sub-second latency. LiveSwitch is that fast. 

But our hybrid architecture is not the only reason LiveSwitch is so scalable. LiveSwitch’s regionality (or server geo-distribution) also lends itself to high quality connections.

Media servers in one region can cluster with media servers in another region over high speed backbone networks. The regional distribution of servers is one of the ways that we can ensure low latency connections between clients and servers and to ensure that you maintain the best user experience.

Instant Interactivity

No downloads necessary. Enable your audience to tune in and participate in your live video stream without having to download any plugins or install any software.

See how Attendify used LiveSwitch to create real-time, interactive broadcasts with its application:

Support for Simultaneous Devices

LiveSwitch supports the most platforms, browsers and devices on the market today. With a single cross-platform API that is virtually 1:1 identical on every single platform, you can save time by building for one platform and then re-using all of your knowledge and learning on the next platform. This greatly decreases the time to market.

Further, because LiveSwitch supports so many platforms, including augmented and virtual reality platforms, you never have to worry about the future capabilities of your application as markets change and evolve. Great for developers, don’t get boxed in. Great for CTO, can see ROI, write once and leverage the same API/knowledge. It de-risks your future, you won’t get stuck down the road.

LiveSwitch offers a downloadable SDK that empowers developers to build and deploy cutting edge interactive streaming applications on web, Android, iOS, Unity, and more.

Devices:

• iPhone/Android phones/iPad/Android tablets
• Microsoft Hololens
• Laptops/desktops (if running supported browser versions)
• Support for Raspberry Pi, MagicLeap, Oculus, HTC Vive and other embedded platforms via Professional Services (only via PS, not via Product)

Basic LiveSwitch Video test running on Microsoft Hololens 2:

Operating systems:

• iOS
• Android
• Windows (.NET only)
• Mac (Need to figure out how we support Source Elements) 
• Linux (TBD, more usage on Java/Linux than we thought)
• Browser (Firefox, Chrome, Edge, Safari) (latest supported versions, Edge TBD)
• Run times (see docs for version numbers)
• .NET Framework
  • (latest supported versions)
  • .NET Core (latest supported versions)
  • Mono
  • Java 
  • Android Runtime (ART — latest supported versions)

JavaScript (latest TypeScript version)

• UI Frameworks
  • VueJS
  • ReactJS
  • Angular
  • VanillaJS/HTML
  • Xamarin 
  • Xamarin Forms (limited support) 
  • Windows Presentation Foundation (WPF)
  • Universal Windows Platform (UWP)
  • Windows Forms (WinForms)
  • Swing

Auto-Scaling

It’s really difficult to do live-streaming at high scale —check out the limits on Twilio, Chime, Tokbox, etc. LiveSwitch can easily ‘switch’ from a small scale conference to a large scale broadcast while maintaining the best quality video feed for all participants. 

One key benefit of LiveSwitch’s hybrid topology is that it allows you to scale from small scale conferences to large scale broadcasts instantly without affecting video quality for the participants. 

But the hybrid architecture is not the only reason that LiveSwitch is so scalable. LiveSwitch’s regionality (or server geo-distribution) also lends itself to high quality connections. Media servers in one region can cluster with media servers in another region over high speed backbone networks. The regional distribution of servers is one of the ways that we can ensure low latency connections between clients and servers and to ensure that you maintain the best user experience.

Acoustic Audio Cancellation

If you ever hear yourself speaking a few hundred milliseconds after you have spoken, this is most likely because the remote peer does not have Acoustic Echo Cancellation (AEC). The remote peer is playing your audio stream through the speakers, then picking it up with the microphone and streaming it back to you.

Acoustic Echo Cancellation solves this by keeping track of the audio data you send. If someone retransmits data that is similar enough to the data you have just sent, it is recognized as an echo and is removed from the audio data before playback.

Token-Based Authentication

Rest API and Webhooks Control

Webhooks are user-defined HTTP callbacks that can send event-triggered notifications or updates to an external web server. You can use webhooks to hook your own processing into LiveSwitch events. LiveSwitch sends out webhook event updates as an HTTP POST request with the body formatted in JSON.

Application Webhooks allow hooking into application-level events.

LiveSwitch can extend beyond just simple video conferencing by ‘switching’ how your application interacts with external systems through using webhooks.  

OK yes, this may be stretching the switchiness narrative by attempting to align the LiveSwitch product name with the amazing flexibility that its built-in webhooks provides - but we couldn’t honestly write this article without highlighting this incredibly useful feature.  With LiveSwitch Webhooks, your LiveSwitch powered application can interact with virtually any endpoint on the internet.  

Using predefined, fully-configurable conditions, webhooks can be used to trigger external actions upon a wide range of events that commonly occur within video conferencing sessions.   With the LiveSwitch Webhooks feature, you can do things such as notifying an external system when a user registers or unregisters from the LiveSwitch gateway which is often useful for determining online presence in a virtual waiting room.  Or webhooks can also be used to do things like notify an external recording system to begin receiving video at the beginning of a session and trigger post-processing and analysis of the video after the session. The sky is truly the limit for the things that can be done with the broad set of configurable events LiveSwitch exposes to the developer. 

Text Chat

You can use Data Channels for sending and receiving text messages. Data Channels supports the transfer of binary or text data. You can use it to transfer any sort of data outside of the typical audio and video data.

Recording

LiveSwitch allows you to record individual SFU or MCU upstreams in real-time. Recorded files can then undergo any post-processing required by your app to mix, modify, or archive.

Data Channels

LiveSwitch supports data channels for MCU and SFU connections. Data channels support the transfer of binary or text data. You can use data channels to transfer any sort of data outside of the audio or video use case typically associated with RTC.

Audio/Video Sources/Links

LiveSwitch uses the concepts of sources and sinks. A source captures data sent to another client. A sink renders data received from another client. LiveSwitch provides several implementations of sources and sinks for common use cases.

Screen Capture

You can use use LiveSwitch to perform a screen share data and share it with others in a session.

Mute/Unmute

In the LiveSwitch SDK you have the ability to mute local media so that others don't see or hear you, and mute remote media so that you don't see or hear a participant.

Channel Management

Channels provide a mechanism for specifying media configuration used by client MCU and SFU connections. Channels belong to an Application, and are listed at the end of the Application's page.

Register/Unregister

To participate in a media conference, users need to communicate with each other. The LiveSwitch Gateway connects participants in a media session, controls which individuals they can communicate with, and restricts unauthorized access to a conference. To start a session, first register with the LiveSwitch Gateway. This link outlines the registration process and some of the core concepts of session management.

Logging/Analytics

The logging API outputs messages with one of multiple possible severity levels. The severity level indicates the importance of the message.

Audio/Video Codecs

LiveSwitch supports integrating custom codecs for audio to the Media Server. For example, you can use third-party custom media codecs to support different formats such as Advanced Audio Coding (AAC).

Simulcast

Transcoding

RTMP

SIP

Media Playback

The ability to capture Local Media, audio or video produced most commonly using a camera and microphone, as well as playback Remote Media, which is that which comes from a remote participant.

Adaptive Bitrate (ABR)

Automatically adapt to define the max rate at which data can be transferred between two endpoints.

With LiveSwitch you get fully adaptive bitrate streaming that adjusts video and audio quality based on network conditions to improve video streaming over networks. This process makes playback as smooth as possible for viewers regardless of their device, location, or Internet speed.

Unity Engine Ready

Create a Unity project from the Unity Hub. Add the following DLLs for reference within the project:

• BouncyCastle.dll
• FM.LiveSwitch.dll
• FM.LiveSwitch.AudioProcessing.dll
• FM.LiveSwitch.Opus.dll
• FM.LiveSwitch.Unity.dll
• FM.LiveSwitch.Vpx.dll
• FM.LiveSwitch.Yuv.dll
• Unity.IO.Compression.dll

These DLLs supply the necessities for a LiveSwitch Unity project:

• Codecs
• Image converters
• Video and audio capture
• DTLS security

Implement Virtual Appointments for Live Video Shopping

With LiveSwitch Video and calendar integration you can ensure your customers' needs are met. It allows your team to inspire, engage and reassure customers about their purchase decisions in real-time.