Video quality metrics you should track in WebRTC applications

Get your copy of my ebook on the top 7 WebRTC video quality metrics and KPIs (below).

I’ve been dealing with VoIP ever since I finished my first degree in computer science. That was… a very long time ago.

WebRTC? Been at it since the start. I co-founded testRTC, dealing with testing and monitoring WebRTC applications. Did consulting. Wrote a lot about it.

For the last two years I’ve been meaning to write a short ebook explaining video quality metrics in WebRTC. And I finally did that 😎

The challenges of measuring video quality

Ever since we started testRTC, customers came to us asking for a quality score to fit their video application. But where do you even begin?

• A 1:1 call quality will be perceived differently at 1mbps running on a smartphone or a PC with a 27” display
• These same 2 participants collaborating together on a document require much less bitrate and resolution
• Group video calls with 15 people or more requires a totally different perspective as to what can be seen as good video quality
• Cloud gaming with a unidirectional video stream at really low latency has different quality requirements
• A webinar is different than the scenarios above

Deciding what’s good or bad is a personal decision that needs to be made by each and every company for its applications. Sometimes, differently per scenario used.

Where do we even start then?

Packet loss and latency aren’t enough

If I had to choose two main characteristics of media quality in real time communications, these were going to be packet loss and latency.

Packet loss tells you how bad the network conditions are (at least most of the time this is what it is meant to do). Your goal would be to reduce packet loss as much as possible (don’t expect to fully eradicate it).

Latency indicates how far the users are from your infrastructure or from each other. Shrinking this improves quality.

But that’s not enough. There’s more to it than these two metrics to be able to get a better picture of your application’s media quality - especially when dealing with video streams.

Know your top 7 video quality metrics in WebRTC

Which is why I invite you to download and review the top 7 video quality metrics in WebRTC - my new ebook which lists the most important KPIs when it comes to understanding video quality in WebRTC. There you will find an explanation of these metrics, along with my suggestions on what to do about them in order to improve your application’s video quality.

And yes - the ebook is free to download and read - once you jot down your name and email, it will be sent to you directly.