WebRTC Failover: What Is It and How Does It Work?

WebRTC is enjoying an ever-expanding influence over the tech market in general and live-streaming specifically. From increased security to plug-in free communication, we’ve covered the many benefits of WebRTC.

However, not all platforms support it. As a server-side media processor, Red5 Pro can effectively handle streams from different sources and networks so that video and audio sessions can be launched with any device. This is why Red5 Pro built failover support into our WebRTC implementation. When publishing or subscribing with a WebRTC application, any platform that does not support WebRTC will failover to Flash (RTMP) or HLS.

So How Does it Work?

From the broadcaster, the device or browser in use will try to broadcast with WebRTC. If that fails, it will then try broadcasting with Flash. Similarly, on the subscriber, it will first try to subscribe with WebRTC. If that fails it will try subscribing with Flash. Finally, if that still fails, it will try to subscribe with HLS. For more information on implementing WebRTC, please see our documentation.

What Platforms Support WebRTC?

Right now, WebRTC works out of the box on Chrome, Firefox and Safari 11. For more information, please see our FAQ.

Want to learn more? Give us a call!