November 2019 Summaries

The presentation by Mish Matheus focused on how real-time communication (RTC) and changes in the video/audio industry are impacting people's lives. Communication is increasingly mobile, with more voice and video apps being developed across all sectors. Castbox provides a platform for podcast enthusiasts, One Touch Brands offers two-way video solutions for digital customer experiences, and Lightmob is an online photography workshop platform. The panel discussed how RTC is changing human connections, particularly the generational shift in comfort with mobile RTC. Instant gratification and validation are now possible through various social channels and streaming platforms, but there's a risk of digital isolation. Opportunities for RTC include better content delivery, improved healthcare and mental health support, revolutionized education, and enhanced nonprofit connections.

This tutorial follows up on a previous one about building a video chatting app and focuses on integrating Firebase for authentication and analytics purposes. The author guides users through setting up Firebase, enabling sign-in methods, creating new views for user search and settings, logging in with FirebaseUI, creating a user database, searching for users, adding settings, and reconnecting the video call screen. By the end of this tutorial, users will have an app where they can log in, set their display names, search for other users within the app, and join calls with those users.

In this tutorial, learn how to easily share your screen in Unity3D by creating a drag and drop Prefab that broadcasts the device display over the Agora global Real-Time Communication network. The process involves integrating the Agora Video SDK for Unity3D into your project, creating a ScreenShare Prefab with a corresponding script, and configuring settings in the Editor. Once completed, you can build the scene to a device and it will automatically stream the screen view.

The Agora Console has been revamped with new features and benefits to enhance user experience on the platform. Key improvements include an enhanced user onboarding process, real-time console overview access, a redesigned anchor navigation system, and various project management tools. These updates aim to provide actionable insights, better control over usage, and easier app development for users. The Agora team is continuously adding new features and encourages feedback from the developer community to improve future rollouts.

This tutorial guides developers through integrating live video chats into Unity's popular Tanks game for both iOS and Android platforms using Agora Video SDK for Unity. The prerequisites include knowledge of C#, scripting within Unity, an Agora developer account, and at least two mobile devices (one iOS & one Android). The project setup involves enabling Unity Live Mode, building the iOS version, and making adjustments to the code before building the Android version. After integrating the video chat feature, developers can test their game by deploying it on iOS or Android devices.

This guide provides step-by-step instructions on how to create a video chat app using the Agora SDK in just an hour. The requirements include Xcode 10.0+, a physical iOS device, CocoaPods, and an Agora account. The process involves setting up the Agora library with CocoaPods, adding camera and microphone permissions, configuring the scene, initializing the Agora engine, enabling video, joining a channel, setting up remote video, and polishing the app by adding functionality to buttons and displaying usernames.

TechCrunch editor-at-large Josh Constine led a discussion with CEOs of gaming companies Comunix, Bunch, and Mech Mocha at the AllThingsRTC conference. The panel discussed how virtual reality, augmented reality, gaming, and social networking are evolving to create stronger connections between players. They highlighted that games like PokerFace by Comunix and apps by Bunch are incorporating video chat interaction for a more immersive experience. Voice and video capabilities enhance the digital gaming experience by fostering personal interactions despite physical distance. The evolution of social gaming is expected to split into public gaming, where multiple players are watched and interacted with by a global audience, and private games shared among select users.