The Need
When our client engaged with Softjourn, its sophisticated video-streaming architecture was built on Flash. Going forward, many browsers will no longer support this mature, heavyweight technology.
The company also wanted to ensure reliable, private video streaming. Though the site had been secured with https, not every part of the system handled secure content effectively or a mix of secure and insecure content. The client also wanted the potential to allow subscribers to make payments directly, rather than using third-party credit card payment services.
Knowing of Softjourn’ s extensive experience with video streaming and video player design plus its reputation for rapid turnaround and high quality results, the customer turned to our team for assistance
The Solution
Softjourn acted quickly, bringing this video service into its development environment in just three days and spending the remainder of the first week of work gaining an understanding of the high-level structure of the code base and its various elements.
When contacting Softjourn, the client has already worked with Web Real-Time Communication (WebRTC), open-sourced project with web components and mobile components, so it was decided that it would be an appropriate platform on which to build new video players. WebRTC offers end-users two distinct advantages. It is easy to use, supporting real-time communications without requiring additional applications or plug-ins. It enforces the use of encryption for media, delivering a higher level of security.
Next—and with the ultimate goal of enabling https—Softjourn revamped the client’s external media feature. The team updated usage of the Embedly API and made it possible for non-https URLs, which were then translated to https traffic, to be entered into the screen queue. Softjourn also upgraded the client’s version of Ruby and completed significant work on upgrading the Rails framework, web services, web pages and many related gems to the latest stable version.
Technologies&Tools
Ruby on Rails, WebRTC
The Benefits
Perhaps the most immediate benefit for our client was the speed with which Softjourn grasped an architecture composed of many moving parts and put together a team of expert, on-demand resources. “This was not a relatively simple, out-of-the-box solution,” said Kostiantyn Korniienko, chief architect and project manager. “We needed to customize an application, which required that we understand a complex environment and communicate effectively with the team members.”
Ultimately, Softjourn’ s work benefitted end users as well. Their credit cards are accepted on a secure site without security warnings. Video streaming and sharing operate smoothly, and client’s user friendliness has improved.
"The service had an enthusiastic user base worldwide, and we attracted loyal customers in a very short period of time. Our challenge, though, was dealing with technology limitations that were impacting the customer experience. We needed to partner with developers who had worked with a multicomponent video-streaming architecture and help us create a solution that would work over the long term." - CEO, Live Video Streaming Service