Reflections and Forecasts – Streaming Video and Beyond

As 2022 comes to an end, we thought it would be fun to reflect back on the year, as well as to look forward at what’s on the horizon. Red5 Pro CEO Chris Allen and CTO Mark Pace sat down to chat highlights from the past year and predictions for 2023. Here are the key take-aways from the discussion:

Looking Back at 2022

• The 2022 Forecast – What did we predict for this year? Take a look back and see how we did!
• Attending lots of conventions – After the lockdown and travel restrictions, it was fun to finally see people in person and reconnect. It was also great to visit some clients on-site and get a better sense of their needs.
• Chat GPT and the rise of AI –AI was hot this year. It was writing and coding for us (ChatGPT), creating art (DALL·E, Deep Dream Generator), and even tricking us with deepfake imagery. It will be interesting to see how this trend disrupts (for better or worse) the worlds of education, art, and creativity in general. On an aside, we had fairly good success with generating AI-generated technical documentation. Where will this lead us? Will the robots take over? Do you want to play a game?

*At this point in the conversation, we tried to invite Chat GPT to share some insight, but it was too busy.

• Live video streaming sports in real time has come into its own – It’s been a long journey, but we’re seeing forward movement in this realm. Companies are starting to embrace the technology and see the value that it can provide for their customers. We’re excited to see how this plays out in the realm of online betting and micro-betting.
• Red5 Mixer and Watch Party Technology – The Watch Party has created a lot of “aha” moments as people start to see some of the possibilities out there. But the best part may be that this open-source option is out there for people to build on and innovate.
• April Fool! – We had a good time putting together our April Fool’s Day post outlining our “new” technology, Carbon-Based Streaming. If you didn’t see it before, you’ll want to check it out. It’s not quite as far-fetched as it seems. And speaking of AI, our much-lauded scientist is really just an AI creation.
• Crypto in Flames – We knew there were some unsavory players out there who were having a negative impact in the field, but we certainly didn’t predict the fiery glory of the 2022 crypto meltdown.

Looking Forward to 2023

• More Codecs – It may not sound too sexy, but we’re excited for more Codecs bringing higher resolution and less bandwidth to the table. It looks like 2023 will also bring wider adoption of H.265 and AV1, as devices become more powerful.
• Standardization around WHIP and WHEP – WebRTC is the gold standard for low latency live video streaming, so the standardization of WHIP and WHEP is something the entire industry is looking forward to. We’ll see easier-to-use encoders and faster connection times. We’ll also enjoy greater interoperability between platforms and less debugging.
• Bantha Livestream – Join us live for mixed drinks, chats with industry leaders, new products and use cases, and thoughts on the state of the industry. We’ll be using Red5 open-source software that we’ve customized to power the experience. [This may or may not be written by AI. Our guests may or may not be AI. Perhaps ChatGPT will finally be free to join in…]
• An inflection point in social media – It’s still unclear what it will look like, but perhaps we’ll see open standards become dominant with options like ActivityPub, which is used by Mastadon.  If social media can become more like email or standard web pages where they are fully interoperable between various platforms, we could move away from social media being controlled and owned by a handful of monolithic providers.
• Shift in real-time interactive streaming (RTIS) providers – RTIS is seeing a lot of movement right now.  There is a lot of demand for on-premise, self-hosted solutions, but many still want a turnkey hosted solution, as well. Red5 Pro will be introducing a hosted solution, making it easier for businesses who don’t want to deploy it themselves.
• GovCloud – We’ll see more government cloud solutions and standards focus on live real-time video, creating more potential for high-security deployments. These run on high-level government clearance with high-security screening. In terms of encrypted WebRTC video, we have pretty sophisticated systems to secure the streams and connections in and out of them.
• Edge computing is starting to deliver on its promise – Edge computing isn’t anything new, but it’s coming into its own with 5G getting to a point where it’s more widely available. We’re excited to see more and more Edge computing use cases, such as in stadiums, at sports events, etc.
• Sports betting and live sports engagement – As mentioned above, live streaming is taking off in the sports realm. This has increased efforts to legalize online sports betting around the world. We know gambling is always popular, but we also think that sometimes it’s more about the user experience than the transaction. This might lead to micro-betting platforms that behave more like a trivia game than an actual financial wager. And, with technology like the Red5 Pro watch party, we could see fantasy football league apps, where friends watch a game with live league stats updating on-screen. Perhaps we’ll even see AI-generated highlight reels customized for your league players.
• CDN – With the implementation of open caching architecture, CDNs will become more localized and more efficient.
• Red5 Pro in cloud marketplaces with cloud vendors – We’ve launched in the Oracle Marketplace, but we won’t stop there!

Here at Red5 Pro, we never stand still. As we head into 2023, you can expect more innovations, including new open-source features like the watch party that you can take and make your own. With so many opportunities for new use cases, we hope you’ll hop on board. Feel free to reach out to us at info@red5.net or set up a call.