The Best Frameworks For Building A Video Streaming App

Live video streaming is becoming increasingly common in apps across diverse industries - telemedicine, customer support, field service, education, enterprise communications etc. Maybe you've built an app, and want to add video streaming capability to it. Or, maybe you need a standalone video conferencing solution that integrates with your existing enterprise infrastructure.

Whatever the case, you will most likely be looking for a solution that lets you enable live video streaming from your app with minimal lines of code/effort.

Growth Trends and Market Statistics in Video Streaming

The video streaming industry has experienced significant growth and evolution in recent years, driven by advancements in technology, increasing internet penetration, and changing consumer preferences. Here are some key growth trends and market statistics in video streaming:

Future Projections: The global video streaming market is expected to expand significantly, growing from $473.39 billion in 2022 to an impressive $1.69 trillion by 2029, with a remarkable compound annual growth rate (CAGR) of 19.9%.
User Adoption: Over 80% of U.S. households are now subscribed to at least one streaming service, indicating a significant shift from traditional cable TV. They prefer live video over blog articles or other media formats.
Mobile Streaming: With the rise of mobile devices, approximately 70% of video content is now consumed on smartphones and tablets, emphasizing the need for mobile-friendly streaming applications.
Content Variety: The increasing availability of diverse content, from sports and movies to educational material, is driving user engagement and subscription growth across various platforms. A staggering 90% of users discover new brands or products via YouTube.
GenZ Adoption Advantage: About 34% of Generation Z are interested in live streaming, particularly on social media platforms. Additionally, companies that incorporate video features see revenue growth that is 49% faster than those that don’t.

Video Streaming App Framework

Building a robust streaming application requires a solid framework that encompasses several critical components:

Frontend Development

This involves designing an intuitive user interface (UI) and user experience (UX) that facilitates easy navigation and content discovery.

Backend Development

A strong backend is essential for managing user data, content storage, and streaming protocols. This often involves using cloud services and databases to ensure scalability.

Content Delivery Network (CDN)

A CDN is crucial for efficiently delivering video content to users by distributing it across multiple servers worldwide, reducing latency and improving load times. AWS CloudFront is a popular option used by many leading streaming services, including Netflix and AWS Media Live.

Video Encoding and Transcoding

To optimize video quality and streaming performance, it's essential to implement video encoding (compressing files) and transcoding (adapting to various devices and network conditions).

Queueing System

A robust queueing system is crucial for managing the processing framework of a streaming app. Options like Apache Kafka or Amazon SQS are excellent choices, ensuring fault tolerance, secure storage, and effective geographic distribution of video content.

Streaming Protocols

Two main protocols to consider are

RTMP (Real-Time Messaging Protocol)

Ideal for high-definition streaming, RTMP is suitable for broadcasting events like conferences or concerts. While it offers high-quality audio and video, it has a longer processing time.

WebRTC (Web Real-Time Communication )
This protocol supports real-time communication and is commonly used for video calling platforms (e.g., Zoom, Hangouts). Although it provides lower transmission quality than RTMP, it excels in real-time applications.

Reliable Storage System

A dependable storage solution is vital for ensuring uninterrupted video streaming. Your content must be stored in a way that guarantees distortion-free playback. Cloud services are often the best choice for this, as they are scalable and cost-effective.

Media Player

Decide where you want your video streaming to be accessible—whether on a web app, mobile devices,or even smart TVs. There are various options available that support HTML5 streaming, including open-source solutions, to cater to different platforms.

Building a Streaming App: Step-by-Step Guide

Creating a successful streaming application involves several essential steps:

Step 1: Define Your Niche

Identify your target audience and the specific type of content you want to provide. Whether it’s sports, educational content, or entertainment, defining your niche will guide your development process. Research your market segment thoroughly and assess what competitors provide. Conduct interviews with potential users to identify the specific challenges they encounter. This will enable you to determine how your application can effectively address their needs.

Step 2: Choose the Right Technology Stack

Select the appropriate technologies for your app's development.

Popular options include:

Frontend: React, Angular, or Vue.js for web applications; Swift for iOS; Kotlin for Android.

Backend: Node.js, Python, or Ruby on Rails for server-side development.

Database: PostgreSQL, MongoDB, or Firebase for data storage.

Step 3: Design the User Interface

Create a visually appealing and user-friendly interface. Consider employing UI/UX design tools like Figma or Adobe XD to prototype your app’s layout and features.

Step 4: Develop the Core Features

Implement essential features such as:

User authentication
Content browsing and searching
Video playback
Subscriptions and payment processing
User profiles and preferences

Step 5: Integrate Video Encoding and CDN

Choose a reliable video encoding service to compress your content and set up a CDN to ensure smooth delivery to users, minimizing buffering and load times.

Step 6: Test and Optimize

Conduct thorough testing to identify and fix any bugs or performance issues. Gather user feedback to continuously improve the app's functionality and user experience.

Step 7: Launch and Market Your App

Once the app is ready, launch it on relevant platforms (iOS, Android, web) and implement a marketing strategy to attract users. Utilize social media, influencer partnerships, and content marketing to increase visibility.

Step 8: Monitor and Update

Post-launch, continuously monitor user engagement and performance metrics. Regularly update your app with new features and content to keep users engaged.

Streaming App Development with Ideas2IT

Choosing the right framework is pivotal for building a successful video streaming app that meets user expectations and stands out in a crowded market. At Ideas2IT, we understand the complexities of streaming app development and offer expertise in leveraging the best frameworks and technologies available. Whether you're looking to build a robust backend with scalable architecture, create an engaging frontend with seamless user experience, or ensure optimal performance across various devices, our team is equipped to guide you through every step of the process.

Get in touch with us today to start your journey towards creating a top-notch video streaming app with the best frameworks and technologies.

We have a list of video streaming frameworks that address this very problem.

Based on the approach, we're splitting the options into three broad categories:

‍1. Using Real Time Protocols

2. Using Platforms

3. Using Prepackaged Solutions

‍We will attempt to list the unique advantages of each and talk about the vendors who offer these services.

Using Real Time Protocols - like WebRTC

WebRTC is an open project that provides browsers and mobile applications with Real-Time Communications (RTC) capabilities via simple APIs. It is currently maintained by Google and has become very popular among the dev community lately since it:

Is a plugin-free RTC
Is peer to peer
Is High-quality
Offers support for mobile, browser and IoT devices
Offers communication via a common set of protocols
Makes encryption mandatory

Popular WebRTC Software Vendor

Is a free, open software project

There are a number of popular software vendors who have embraced WebRTC and have built wrappers around it for simple mobile integration. Some of them are:

Hookflash - Enterprise RTC solution recommended by Microsoft and Google. They are the pioneers of implementing WebRTC and making it a viable option for others considering RTC.
OpenTok from TokBox - Very popular choice for integrating WebRTC with mobile apps. They offer a fully customizable integration with tools for analytics, managing infrastructure etc.
OpenWebRTC - Mobile-first wrapper around WebRTC and the easiest way to integrate. It is open-source too. Was developed by Ericsson who were also one of the first to embrace WebRTC.
Sinch - provides SDK for integrating audio and video calling from apps. It is also quite cheap in terms of pricing. A lot of production-quality apps have used Sinch.
Quickblox - A popular chat framework that enables video and audio calling.
VoxImplant - Feature-rich cloud offering with support for mobile and web integrations.
Twilio - A popular SMS platform has a great in-built support for video calls as well.
Pvilo - Similar to Twilio and with mobile and web SDKs.
Red5Pro - A popular choice for screen sharing features, also has full fledged SDKs for supporting video calling with WebRTC.

There are also other protocols that enable multi-platform RTC like HTTP Live Streaming (HLS) and Real Time Streaming Protocol (RTSP with RTP). If you want info on how to leverage these instead, talk to us!

Using Platforms - like VSee, Vidyo

Vidyo was one of the pioneers in getting software-endpoints in place of hardware-endpoint solutions for video conferencing. At one point, even Google used Vidyo for Google Hangouts. They boast of a highly scalable, secure and high quality infrastructure that drives their diverse video offerings. They also have extensible APIs that helps to embed point-point and multi-point communications. Their mobile offering is an app that brings in the goodness of Vidyo across iOS and Android platforms.

VSee is fast becoming the leader for telemedicine and secure communication integrations. They offer a lot of telemedicine services and a mobile SDK for enabling multi-way video communication. They compare well against the competition by providing a secure, simple and low bandwidth service. It prides in having no complicated infrastructure setups like Vidyo. NASA chose VSee as its official communication platform aboard the International Space Station!

Using Prepackaged Solutions - like from Microsoft, Cisco

If the need is for a stand-alone communication platform that could connect with your enterprise set up - the popular options are Microsoft Lync, Skype, Cisco, Polycom, Zoom.

Microsoft Lync / Skype for Business

Microsoft’s Lync or Skype for Business platform is great for IM, Outlook and traditional telephony support. It is an excellent option for video conferencing if you are on a good network, want to connect from different devices and don’t bother much about data security. It enables you to even make phone calls to recipients on traditional telephone networks. The Skype Developer Site provides tools and frameworks for integration.

Cisco

Cisco offers multiple video collaboration options - Cisco Meeting Server, TelePresence Server and TelePresence Conductor. The services are scalable, cloud-based and secure. They also have tools to record and stream video, analyze views and enable multi-source conferencing.

Polycom

Polycom is another provider with immersive telepresence and mobile offerings. They offer both on premise and cloud deployments of their different services.

BlueJeans

BlueJeans was built as a cloud-based video service to enable people to connect at any time, any place, and from any device. It is used by a lot of industry leaders for their enterprise video conferencing solution, for example, Facebook, Netflix, Pandora, RedHat etc.

Ideas2IT Team