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A Smoother Call on Any Connection: Our Smart Approach to Video Streaming

· 5 min read
Jibon L. Costa
Jibon L. Costa
Founding developer
Bob Teng
Bob Teng
Developer Advocate

We've all been in that frustrating video call. Someone is speaking, and suddenly their video freezes. Their voice becomes robotic and distorted. You miss a crucial piece of the conversation, and the flow of the meeting is completely broken.

Often, we blame our internet connection. But what if the problem isn't just the connection, but the software's inability to adapt to it?

At plugNmeet, we believe that a video conferencing platform should work intelligently to provide the best possible experience, no matter what your internet situation is. That's why we've built a "smart streaming" philosophy into our core, using advanced techniques to ensure your calls are smooth, stable, and use as little data as possible.

The Problem: The "One-Size-Fits-All" Video Stream​

Most video applications work like a firehose. They try to send a single, high-quality stream of video data to everyone, all the time. If your internet connection is a wide-open pipe, this works great.

But what if your connection is more like a narrow straw? Trying to force a firehose of data through a tiny straw leads to a predictable result: a clog. In video terms, this "clog" is what you experience as lag, frozen video, and dropped calls.

The plugNmeet Solution: Smart, Adaptive Streaming​

Instead of a single firehose, we use several smart techniques to adapt the video stream to the reality of each person's connection and what they are actually seeing on their screen.

Technique 1: Offering Multiple Qualities (Like Netflix Does)​

Think about watching a movie on Netflix. If your internet slows down, the picture might get a little less sharp for a moment, but the movie keeps playing. Netflix does this by having multiple quality versions of the movie available.

We do the same thing for live video. This is called Simulcast.

For every person speaking, our server intelligently prepares multiple versions of their video stream: a high-quality one, a medium one, and a low-quality one. Your device automatically "tunes in" to the best quality it can handle at any given moment without freezing. The result is a continuous, uninterrupted conversation, even if the video quality has to adjust temporarily.

Technique 2: Pausing What You Can't See​

Imagine a meeting with 20 people. On your screen, you can probably only see 9 of them at once. So why should your computer waste precious data downloading the video streams of the 11 people who are off-screen?

It shouldn't. This is called Dynacast.

plugNmeet is smart enough to automatically pause the video streams of participants who are not currently visible on your screen. The moment you scroll or switch pages to bring them into view, their video instantly resumes. This single technique can dramatically reduce the amount of data your computer needs to download, making the call more stable for you and everyone else.

Technique 3: Sending the "Just Right" Size​

On your screen, the person speaking might be in a large main window, while other participants are in tiny thumbnail squares. It makes no sense to download a full, high-definition video stream just to display it in a tiny box.

Our platform is smart about this, too. It automatically sends a much smaller, lower-resolution video for thumbnails, while reserving the high-quality video for the main speaker. This further reduces data usage and frees up your connection to focus on what's most important.

Technique 4: Prioritizing Voice Above All Else​

What is the most important part of any conversation? Hearing what the other person is saying.

Our platform understands this fundamental rule. When a user's internet connection becomes very unstable, the system performs a kind of digital triage. It knows that it is always better to have a clear conversation with a frozen video than to have a choppy, robotic voice with a moving picture.

So, it makes a smart choice: it will temporarily pause the video stream to dedicate all available, limited bandwidth to keeping the audio channel clear and uninterrupted. The moment the connection stabilizes, the video seamlessly resumes. This ensures that your conversation can always continue, even in the most challenging network conditions.

Conclusion: A More Accessible and Reliable Experience for Everyone​

By combining these smart streaming techniques, plugNmeet creates a video experience that is:

  • More Resilient: It gracefully handles fluctuations in network quality, preventing the freezes and robotic voices that kill conversations.
  • More Cost-Effective: By intelligently reducing data usage, it's a lifesaver for anyone on a metered or expensive data plan.
  • More Accessible: It ensures that users in areas with variable connectivity can still have a meaningful and productive meeting.

Our goal is to make real-time communication a stable, reliable utility for everyone, everywhere. Our smart streaming philosophy is how we deliver on that promise.

Ready to experience a smoother call?