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Over the past few years Mersoft has helped startup video security providers extend their existing solutions with the addition of Web Real Time Communication (WebRTC) and prosper from streaming onto the web. Companies who never thought they could afford the cost, time, or complexity of development to innovate their products toward new use cases, differentiate in the market, and unlock new business models have been able to with our help. Every project presents it’s own set of technical challenges. However, many times the biggest challenge of all is removing WebRTC camera live streaming assumptions held by IoT startups.

We repeatedly see providers stuck with the assumptions that integrating WebRTC is either too difficult, too costly, or doesn’t provide a clear path to ROI. Depending on the direction the startup provider goes in to build their own video streaming platforms, this may be true. However, when leveraging an existing commercial platform, like Mersoftstream, that doesn’t have to be the case . Let’s see how.

My Video Solution Is Good Enough Today, Why Should I Consider WebRTC Camera Live Streaming?

WebRTC is now the best way to deliver live video over the web between security cameras, mobile devices, and IoT products. Companies that have innovated based on this standard enjoy a range of strong business values from capturing more market share, boosting recurring revenue, revolutionizing service offerings, and more.

Stand Out From The Competition

With WebRTC, startup security and IoT providers are able to differentiate their products from the competition with seamless user experiences. Customers can “see” their home or business in real-time rather than only from recorded playback. Additionally, WebRTC live streaming enables the many device platforms that we all expect today  These devices include mobile, desktop web, set-top box, or Smart TV. As startup providers build out user experiences across these devices they are able to address a larger proportion of their target market. As a result, they are able to please end users with specific device preferences.

New Services and Business Models

Live streaming video with WebRTC also allows for new value-add services and associated business models. Many SMB providers offer a recorded playback option on top of their base live video solution that customers pay additional cost for. They may also tie in advanced analytics, like object or face recognition, and up-sell higher levels of service around intrusion detection, elderly patient monitoring, and manufacturing quality.

Compete With Big Brands

With the Internet of Things (IoT) and home automation taking off in the market, WebRTC is enabling IoT startups to also compete with the big brands for share of the Smart Home security market. Consumers now expect streaming from their video camera to be triggered by some other device in the house, such as a doorbell, and displayed on their mobile phone or desktop web browser for viewing. When IoT startups can offer this live functionality, they compete strongly in the prized (and very large) Smart Home market.

Integrating WebRTC into my current solution is too difficult and expensive!

Often, startup engineering teams who have built traditional RTSP solutions look at WebRTC and shudder. They envision long months of building out signaling and streaming servers, supporting new levels of user authentication, and hassling open source transcoding software. Leadership sees an associated high cost of development and likely additional headcount to bring in specific areas of expertise not required by their RTSP solution. This is especially a concern around client development to support web, mobile, (iOS and Android), set-top box, and Smart TV applications. It all seems extremely difficult and expensive. Fortunately, that doesn’t have to be the case.

Platform Development: It’s Handled

With Mersoft, the heavy lifting has been done for the engineering teams. So, no platform development is required. All of the components required to stream web video are provided out of the box. Mersoft uses conversion, rather than transcoding, of RTSP to WebRTC to drastically minimize latency. With basic API-level integrations the startup solution can relatively easily integrate with Mersoft and gain access to the full power of these video streaming capabilities.

Reduce Application Development Cycles

Leveraging the Mersoft ClientSDK, startup engineering teams can drastically reduce application development cycles for common devices used by consumers to view real-time video. While the Mobile SDK supports Android, iOS, set-top box, and SmartTV applications the Mersoft Javascript SDK supports desktop web browser applications, minimizing the amount of required work and hiring of external expertise.

Professional, Knowledgeable Support

At any point in the project, startup engineering teams can leverage Mersoft Professional Services for their projects. Engineering VPs don’t need to look outside for new resources and adding risk. Mersoft Pro Serve can step in for solution design, architecture, implementation, and more. As a flexible extension to the team, Mersoft Pro Serve saves even more resources on the project.

Tying it All Together

Mersoft’s solution is purpose-built for the world of web-based and IoT video applications in the commercial and residential markets. It is lean, well-designed, and ready for integration by startups focused on getting a strong ROI. We’ve been highly successful helping dozens of organizations save years of time and hundreds of thousands of dollars. They simply chose the solution that has already solved the hard problem of fast, reliable real-time video. With a clear ROI, with cost and complexity assumptions addressed, SMB customers can plan timely entry into the market. They can offer truly real-time video solutions that are reliable and easy, putting them ahead of the competition.

Learn more about Mersoft and how it can help you integrate WebRTC. Connect with our Professional Services Team.

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