November 2021 Summaries

The 2021 Augmented World Expo (AWE) conference marked the return of in-person events with approximately 3,000 attendees and 200 exhibitors. Agora shared a booth with HTC as part of their recent partnership, showcasing Agora's real-time engagement platform for building interactive AR/VR experiences. Over 60% of the speakers at AWE were female this year. Agora participated in a panel discussion on "XR Tools That Rule: Building Community in the Social Metaverse." The company also debuted its latest VR training demo and provided a QR code to reduce paper waste.

In this tutorial by Boemo Wame Mmopelwa, we learn how to alter and beautify a user's voice using the Agora Android SDK. The prerequisites include an Agora developer account, knowledge of creating live-streaming Android applications using Agora, basic Android development knowledge, and Android Studio. We add dependencies in Gradle, permissions in the Manifest.xml file, create an instance of RtcEngine, set the client as a broadcaster, beautify the voice with setVoiceBeautifierPreset function, and convert the user's voice using setVoiceConversionPreset function. The tutorial concludes by testing the demo and provides additional resources for learning more about Agora features.

In this tutorial, learn how to stream an augmented reality (AR) scene using SceneKit on iOS devices with the help of Agora UIKit package and ARVideoKit. The process involves setting up a new iOS project, adding necessary packages, creating a UI with ARSceneKit view and Agora UIKit view, configuring AR session, joining Agora video channel, pushing frames to Agora, handling audio streaming, and testing the application. This method allows users to stream an AR scene using SceneKit on iOS devices, which can be viewed on any other device that has a compatible Agora SDK installed.

Manitej Pratha, a student developer and ReactJS enthusiast, provides a tutorial on building an audio streaming app similar to Clubhouse using React, Firebase, Agora SDK, and Geist UI. The tech stack includes React for the front end, Firebase for the database, Agora SDK for server functions, and Geist UI for styling. Prerequisites include an empty React project set up, a Firebase project, and an Agora developer account. The app's folder structure consists of a root file with imported react-router components and three routes: login page, show all rooms route, and join room page. Users can create accounts using Firebase's Google OAuth authentication, view public rooms, and join them after logging in. Protected routes ensure only logged-in users can access certain parts of the app. The Auth context is used as a global store for user info, while the login component uses Firebase Google login for user authentication. The Rooms component displays all rooms from the database, allowing users to create new rooms or join existing ones. Testing the final project involves creating and joining rooms in different browsers, with Agora handling back-end functions and providing 10,000 free minutes per month.

The Extensions Marketplace by Agora offers a variety of features that can be added to video call apps, including voice changers. In this tutorial, we learn how to integrate the Voicemod Voice Changer extension into an existing video call app using SwiftUI and Agora UIKit in just three easy steps: enable the extension, pass its credentials, and choose the desired voice. The process involves setting up a new iOS project, adding the required packages, and enabling the Voicemod extension for your Agora account. Once the extension is enabled, you can modify the app's code to include a menu with available voices and define methods to set the API Key, API Secret, and voice property. The tutorial concludes by encouraging developers to explore other available extensions and resources provided by Agora.

In this article, we will learn how to build a one-on-one video calling application using Flask and Agora's Real-Time Engagement platform. The author previously built a video chat app with WebRTC and Laravel but found limitations such as quality of experience and scalability. Agora provides an SDK for voice, video, live streaming, screen sharing, and more, making it easier to implement video chat features in applications. We will use Python 3.8.5, a Flask application with authentication, Pusher presence channels, and an Agora developer account. The project setup includes creating the back end views and configuring the front end for making and receiving video calls. Finally, we test the application by registering users and placing calls between them.

Kofi Ocran, a software engineer, has written an article detailing how to implement a video chat application using Django and Agora. The author explains that while WebRTC is one way to implement video chat features, it has limitations such as quality of experience and scalability. In contrast, Agora provides a fully packaged video chat SDK for high-quality Real-Time Engagement experiences. The article outlines the advantages of using Agora, including its comprehensive SDK, lack of need to set up a turn server, free usage minutes, and intuitive API documentation. It also lists the prerequisites for building the video chat application, such as Python 3.8.5, knowledge of Django project creation, and an Agora developer account. The author then guides readers through setting up the back end with Django, creating views and classes, and configuring Pusher at the server-side. The front end is also covered, with instructions on creating the user interface for making and receiving video calls using HTML, CSS, and JavaScript files. Finally, the article provides testing steps and a link to an online demo of the completed project. It encourages developers to use Agora's features in their web applications, as it can save development hours when implementing video chat functionality.

Joy Chen, Entrepreneur in Residence at GSV Venture, discusses the transformation of traditional classroom-based learning through EdTech. She highlights how technology has made online learning more flexible and scalable, but also points out the limitations of Massive Open Online Courses (MOOCs) in maintaining learner engagement. Chen emphasizes that live audio and video technologies for synchronous learning have been successful in driving impactful education outcomes at scale by providing real-time feedback from teachers, group discussions, and team competitions. The pandemic has accelerated the adoption of interactive online learning, making it an integral part of future classrooms. Education technology can improve learning outcomes when carefully designed and thoughtfully applied, with a focus on leveraging proven technologies like live video and audio to enhance scalability and accessibility of high-quality education.