RTMP: web video innovation or Web 1.0 hack… how did we get to now? (Demuxed 2019)
One of the creators of RTMP will take you back to a time before Firefox, Safari, and Chrome, when Internet Explorer was used by the majority of people on the Web, and over 98% of browsers had Flash installed. RTMP was first prototyped in late 2000 and released in July 2002. Sarah Allen shares the untold story of the origins of this protocol — careful design choices and unexpected hacks that led to a de-facto standard that still drives the majority of live web video today.
today I will share the untold story of the origins of RTMP
How does something like this become a de-facto standard? And who am I to say so?
long before I worked on Flash, CoSA, digital video off CD-ROM, QuickTime, AE, Macr
browser landscape. yellow line - a range of time in late 2000, ideas behind RTMP.
highlights IE 5.5… first version of Internet Explorer to support CSS
easy hate on Flash… but 200K code, small download drives adoption
Flash PM, Troy Evans, added his vacation photo to Flash Player install
Jon - wrote most of player, created a prototype of a new project, he called “tincan”
Slavik’s story
https://sundanceltd.com/front-door-camera/
10 stories about what we wanted this protocol to do
The “Front Door Cam” story described what is now part of a Smart Home
This isn’t just an app today, there’s a “connected video doorbell” market
The live classroom story described a mix of multimedia, recorded video and live
the now-ubiquitous customer server agent on a webpage…
we wanted to support text messaging too
Nascar Drive which launched in 2016 matches the “race car” story.
Interactivity included fast switching of video feeds
I am watching a car race, there are cameras at each turn and in the cars. I value the editing and filtering provided by the TV crew but I also have a favorite driver I want to watch closely…
So, in order to support these kinds of communications app, the protocol needed …
prioritize audio, low-latency delivery to support multiparty interaction (140 ms)
two-way streaming, enough info to delegate mux/demux to server or client.
For data — time-based data streams… application control messages & request/response
RTMP is really more of a peer-to-peer protocol, with a common server architecture.
Privacy has always been a critical concern, and at first was only added to the client, but later secure transport was added when RTMP became a layered protocol before the initial launch
Core message format — allowing for audio, video, and three kinds of data
3 bytes - 4.66 hours
4 bytes - 7.1 week
“odd order” - consumer adoption > a pretty spec…
Later - ok for time to roll over… supporting always-on streams, OTT / Elemental
Other things we did that seem wacky, were carefully designed
notable constraint in the design of RTMP was the Web itself
TCP, not UDP, not enough, beta testing, SSL, HTTP tunneling, such firewalls still exist
This is a 2005 visualization of the Internet IP addresses — or an Internet map. It’s an example of data visualization for a network. Each line joins two IP addresses, with the length representing the delay between them.
Less than 30% of reachable addresses were used to construct this Internet map, based on 2005 data (wikipedia via https://www.acculation.com/blog/2015/01/30/internet-map-network-data-visualization/)
Prepping for the launch Kevin Lynch had an idea…
Doug Engelbart who had built a platform with similar capabilities in 1968
“Mother of all Demos” — Valerie Liberty tracked him down and he agreed to join the launch
I went down to Doug’s house in Atherton to set up Flash, Camera and Mic on his very old 386
Video - Bill Paxton, later an early adobe engineer
https://web.archive.org/web/20020719172146if_/http://www.impossibilities.com:80/blog/ff2002nyc/
Doug joined Kevin on-stage — live via web video…
https://web.archive.org/web/20020719172146if_/http://www.impossibilities.com:80/blog/ff2002nyc/
launch: 30%
By September > half
by the end of the following year - 90%
Phillip Kerman’s Stampede Stockyards was one of the first live data apps
Live, online cattle auctions
Redbull Reevolution – around 2005/2006 –
Sync’d video to data and stats
ZED uncut had people use their webcam to join
a “wall’ of viewers was broadcast on live TV.
Desperate Housewives….
and Lost…
Full Episode streaming transformed how we all we all watch television
Adobe wins an Emmy for Flash Video in 2006…
With the award for Streaming Media Architecture & Components
National Academy of Television Arts and Sciences
recognizes the software's pivotal role in bringing television content to the Internet.
Between 2002 and 2007, Adobe created an ecosystem….
Flywheel effect…
~2010, open source and proprietary software filled each niche
with diverse offerings, such that there’s no dependency on a single vendor
500M ip cameras…
Challenges today
SmartHome largest growth segment for IoT…
appliances with video sensors expected to have huge growth
today: smart refrigerator (3) —- Samsung Family Hub refrigerator
https://www.bestbuy.com/site/samsung-technology/samsung-family-hub-refrigerator/pcmcat748301896069.c?id=pcmcat748301896069
Thinking about the future of RTMP, maybe it looks something like this
If you have any interest in talking about past, present or future of RTMP, come find me!