PDX Video Tech 2023 #4 (Norsk)

Simplifying Complex Live Streaming Workflows with a Low-Code SDK
Speakers: Dr. Adrian Roe, CEO @id3as and Steve Strong, CTO ‪@id3as‬
Anyone who’s ever tried to build a sophisticated live streaming workflow knows what a daunting task it is, requiring a huge investment of time, money, and specialized talent. And while there are plenty of off-the-shelf tools available, they lock you into their vision of what a live streaming experience should look like-and are nearly as difficult and expensive to customize to achieve your vision. You could, of course, hire a development team to create a workflow that is exactly tailored to your needs, but that is a costly approach with obvious time to market and workflow flexibility downsides. It’s our firm belief that you shouldn’t have to do any of these things-that there’s a better way.
And so we built Norsk, a groundbreaking low-code SDK that allows even non-video experts to build live streaming experiences that thrill their viewers without having to worry about the details of codecs and delivery protocols or being forever at the mercy of a third-party technology provider. Complex features like multiple camera angles and audio feeds, picture-in-picture, real-time data/stats, and in-play highlights can be built in just a few lines of any gRPC-compliant code. In fact, a Zoom-like experience requires just over 100 lines of code, most of which is business code (Is this person allowed to join? Where in the output matrix should they appear? …). Under the covers there is immense complexity (Erlang, PureScript, and Rust, anyone?), but you can leverage the value customization brings without having to wrestle with that complexity. In this talk, we’ll peel back the curtain and show how we built Norsk, and how it changes the way live streaming workflows can be built.