Use case of stream merging - meeting recordings

[Nagendra Kumar1648581702]

Hello Team AntMedia,

   I have a use case to record meeting/event. In my use case two or more users (max 4 users) discuss a topic. In this case 4 streams are created. Now I want to record these conversations and access for offline viewing.

On antmedia side all these are recorded in 4 different mp4 files. We want to merge thexe together. It can be done in two ways:

1. on server side we may use ffmpreg to merge but synchronization can be tricky here.

2. Merge stream on client and send as another stream which will be recorded.

I tried option 2  but the CPU usage spikes up.

I want to get the opinion from antmedia on the feedback of which approach can be helpful.

Thanks

Nagendra

[Lucas Valentim1648581688]

How you merge the stream on client and send as another stream?

 

 

[Nagendra Kumar1648581702]

We can use this

https://antmedia.io/how-to-merge-live-stream-and-canvas-in-webrtc-easily/

[Burak]

Personally I recommend merging at server side. Because it is easy to manage. Otherwise, you need to select one client to do it, you need to create new stream etc.  

 

 

[Nagendra Kumar1648581702]

Agree. In fact, this will help the client to get better CPU usage.  In my case user can do a screen share as well. So when we have conversation, screen share  and recording from client then cpu usage is out of control. I am using enterprise version, how can I run the server-side merging with antmedia 

server. ffmpeg provide option to do the merging but  how can we access these streams on antmedia servers.

Thanks

Nagendra

[Burak]

You can use user-defined scripts which is run after a stream finishes. Lets check it from:

https://github.com/ant-media/Ant-Media-Server/wiki/User-defined-Scripts

 

[Nagendra Kumar1648581702]

Hi Burak,

  Thanks for your reply.

There are two limitations of post meeting merging/

here:

1. Let's say a meeting has 3 participants: A join at t = 0. B joined at t =5 then B left, and then C joined at t = 10. So synchronization can be tricky.

2. Later on I want to provide the ability to do social broadcasts to channels, so merging needs to be done on the fly, else we have to wait till the event/meeting has not ended.

Any idea how zoom works (recording meeting)? I think zoom is merging on screen before sending to server rather on server.

Thanks

Nagendra

[Daniel Biagi]

Hey,

I have worked with Agora.io in the past and it does it on the fly.
You can use an REST service to change the position and size of each stream in the recording layout.

Maybe you could implement something similar.

I also have that problem and I'm thinking on recording using a play only client + software to record some part of the screen and audio.

Not the best option but doable for some time.

Cheers,

Daniel.

[Nagendra Kumar1648581702]

Yes. That is what I am trying. I am using this open source to use stream merging

https://github.com/t-mullen/video-stream-merger

Have you figured how to do the REST call positioning in antmedia?

Thanks

Nagendra