Video calls
Voximplant platform allows making high-quality video calls with a variety of features.
This article will help you to understand how it works and what differences these call types have.
Server video calls
Server video calls are common one-to-one video calls to Voximplant users or SIP addresses. They provide a high variety of server-based features, such as call recording, speech processing, and integration of AI-based robot Avatar. These calls are billed depending on the destination and the length of the call.
Here are the server video call characteristics:
Video calls between two participants.
Client-based features available: screen sharing, muting microphone/speakers, holding a call, transferring a call, sending tone signals.
Server-based features available: call recording (video from one user, audio from both users), streaming (audio and video from one user), speech synthesis and recognition, IVR, avatar.
Client-server encryption. The data is decrypted and processed at the server side, then encrypted back and sent to the client.
You can convert a server video call into a conference. You cannot convert the call into a peer-to-peer call.
Billing according to the price list per minutes and traffic transferred.
You can read how to implement server video calls here.
Peer-to-peer video calls
Peer-to-peer video calls are available for calling Voximplant users with SDK clients. Such calls provide better security as the data has end-to-end encryption and the traffic goes directly from client to client encrypted. If the clients are within the same local network, the connection goes throughout the local network without the internet. If you do not use a TURN server, P2P calls are completely free.
However, as traffic goes directly, all the server features, such as recording, streaming, speech processing, and so on are not available.
Here are the peer-to-peer video call characteristics:
Video calls between two participants.
The traffic goes directly between the clients. If the clients are within the same local network, the connection goes throughout the local network without the internet.
Client-based features available: screen sharing, muting microphone/speakers, holding a call, transferring a call.
No server-based features available, such as call recording, speech processing, etc.
End-to-end encryption.
You cannot convert a peer-to-peer video call into a server video call or a conference.
Billing applies only if using a TURN server, peer-to-peer video calls are free.
A TURN server is a media relay/proxy that allows peers to exchange UDP or TCP media traffic whenever one or both parties are behind NAT. When a TURN server is used, peer-to-peer calls are billed according to the price list.
You can read how to implement peer-to-peer video calls here.
Video conferences
Video conferences are video calls with multiple participants simultaneously seeing and hearing each other. They provide a high variety of server-based features, such as simulcast, conference recording, where all participants' audios and videos are saved within a single file, speech processing, joining as screen sharing only users or as viewers only, changing separate participants settings, such as visibility and resolution. Video conferences are billed depending on the number of participants and the length of the conference.
Here are the conference video call characteristics:
Video calls between up to 50 participants.
Client-based features available: screen sharing, screen sharing as a separate call, joining as viewer only, muting microphone/speakers, sending tone signals.
Server-based features available: conference recording (video and sound from all the participants in the single file), speech synthesis and recognition, IVR, avatar, simulcast.
Client-server encryption. The data is decrypted and processed at the server side, then encrypted back and sent to the client.
You can manage the participants' visibility and resolution.
You can convert a conference into a server video call.
Billing according to the price list per minutes and the number of participants.
Simulcast is the video broadcasting in different resolutions and/or bitrates, intended for increasing video performance for users with poor connection or hardware, and increasing video quality for users with good connection and hardware. Read this article to learn more.
You can read how to implement video conferences here.