Video Chat Recording

Ney

Member
Hi,

Are we able to save recordings for video chats done via iOS, Andriod and Web SDKs?

Thanks!
 

Max

Administrator
Staff member
Hello.
Yes you can record streams from web, android, ios sdks.
The recording is done on stream base.
So if you have a two-way video chat, then two mp4 or webM files will be recorded.
The first file will present first participant / stream.
The second file will present second participant / stream.
 

Ney

Member
Hi! Thanks for your response!!
Do we need to pass any record:true param in the SDKs or does it happen by default? If we need to pass anything, then can you please let me know what to pass in case of video chatting via iOS SDK?

Secondly, in your example you mentioned 2 streams being recorded, each one for its own participant. Does it mean that none of these recordings will be the full video chat recording? In participant 1's recording we can only watch participant 1 and in participant 2's recording we can only watch participant 2? We were looking for a full video chat recording which can provide us audio and video for all the participants in a single file.

Please advise. Thanks for your help!
 

Max

Administrator
Staff member
Do we need to pass any record:true param in the SDKs
Yes you have to pass the param for any publishing stream.
what to pass in case of video chatting via iOS SDK?
Please checkout Stream Recording example for iOS SDK
https://github.com/flashphoner/wcs-ios-sdk-samples/tree/master/WCSExample/StreamRecording
Does it mean that none of these recordings will be the full video chat recording?
Yes. It would be two separate mp4 files.
You will have to merge these two files on server-side using another software like ffmpeg.
In participant 1's recording we can only watch participant 1 and in participant 2's recording we can only watch participant 2?
Yes.
We were looking for a full video chat recording which can provide us audio and video for all the participants in a single file.
This feature is not currently implemented. Though we have similar story in our roadmap, so there is a chance it will be released in future versions.
 

Ney

Member
Hi


To get recording of any stream, we need to provide options.record = true through instance of FPWCSApi2StreamOptions. But at the time of video chat publish stream object is getting created through below method

Code:
publishStream = [room publish:_localDisplay];
I had checked, FPWCSApi2StreamOptions is not a public property, so that I can set the record options after creating the stream. It should be set at the time of initialising the instance of FPWCSApi2Stream

Please suggest how we can set the property for record in case of video chat then ?





 

Max

Administrator
Staff member
Recording is not currently supported via rooms in iOS SDK.
So you can record using stream API but it does not work using rooms.
We plan to provide a fix. I will inform once it is done.
 

Ney

Member
Ok -- can you give us any idea on how long that may take? Just so we can plan accordingly our launch timeline.

Thanks
 

Ney

Member
Hi

Would it be possible for us to somehow record at least one of the streams? We were hoping to record for now at least the stream of the person who started the video chat. It's okay for now if we cannot record all the participants on the video chat.

Please advise.

Thanks
 

Max

Administrator
Staff member
Would it be possible for us to somehow record at least one of the streams?
You can record streams outside the room.
Just as using Stream Recording example. In such a case you have to implement your own room where users know stream names each other.
 

Ney

Member
Hi Max
That's awesome that you guys made it possible to record the room! Any idea when the QA phase will be over? I'm slightly afraid that if our development team gets on this integration without its fully QA'd from your end, it might extend the development time at ours.

Thanks
 

Max

Administrator
Staff member
Hello
iOS SDK 2.5.0 has been verified by QA
The recording works over Room API.
can you give us any idea on how long that may take?
Any idea when the QA phase will be over?
I'm sorry. Priorities may change. That's why we do not state any timelines.
We provide timelines on extended/enterprise support contracts only.
 

Ney

Member
Hi Max,

Hope this finds you well!

We have implemented the iOS SDK to record the Video Chat. For each participant we are able to save the recording on the server. We are also able to merge all of these together, but we are not able to figure out how to go about merging the files based on the time of joining. Suppose the second participant joins 5 minutes after the first participant, how can we merge the videos such that the video of the participant starts 5 minutes after the first participants's video?

Furthermore, our flow is customized so that only the first participant's video and audio streams are on. We by default mute the video stream of all the other participants. Only their audio stream stays on. Hence we are not so much concerned with merging the video streams together. We only need to merge the audio streams with the first participant's video. So in my above example, we will always view the video of the first participant (as long as he's in the room otherwise we will show only a black screen). 5 minutes into the video we will start hearing the second participant along with the first participant. How can we achieve the merging of audio streams into a video file based on the time of joining of each participant?

Your help is very much appreciated by everyone here!

Thanks
 

Max

Administrator
Staff member
Hello
Thanks for detail explanation.
We are considering options to improve stream recording experience.
We plan to add empty video and audio into the beginning of recorded file, starting from moment of creation of the room.
So, for example, if first participant has created the room on 8:00:54 sec 352 ms than it will be starting point for all recordings.
Therefore if second participant joined 30 seconds later, his / her recorded file will have 30 seconds of black screen in the beginning of the file.
If third participant joined 60 seconds later, his / her recorded file will have 60 seconds of black screen n the beginning of the file.
etc.

Therefore eventually you will have to just merge these several files having the same length in time.
We will update once we have any news related this room recording improvement.
 

Ney

Member
Hi Max,
Hope this finds you well!
I wanted to check in to see if there was any update on the Video Chat room recording. Any idea on when to expect this to be available will be very helpful!

Thanks
 

Max

Administrator
Staff member
Hello
This feature is implemented in the new branch.
It should be released next week.
Implementation:
We add empty audio+video in the beginning of recorded file.
So all files have the same recording duration synchronized related to the starting point of the first record in a room.
 

Ney

Member
Hi

Looking for confirmation on this. It's been a month without any response on this. Please reply urgently.


Thx!
 
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