CloudCall

CloudCall is an experiment to conduct remote interviews that would be directly ingested into the video editing workflow of VRT NWS.

This solves three problems:

1. The application is entirely web-based, working also on smartphones.
2. The recordings are made server-side instead of client-side, ensuring availability.
3. The recording is automatically transcoded to the format used by the editors.

There was a focus on ease of use with minimal information needed to get started. When the journalist logs in, they must fill in the topic of the interview as well as the name of the person to be interviewed. A url is then generated which can be sent to the person to be interviewed. A simple start/stop recording button is then shown on a minimal interface to minimize distractions. The journalist can then stop the interview and let the automatic video upload and conversion process start.

The server software is written in Node.js, talking to the Kurento media server and OpenVidu service. React is then combined with OpenVidu components to create the frontend.