WebRTC Conf & Expo - TenHands

At the WebRTC Conference & Expo, Jack Blaeser, CCO and a co-founder of TenHands, discusses how TenHands is transforming the way people collaborate to get more done and build stronger relationships.

Blair Pleasant: Hi. This is Blair Pleasant. I am at the WebRTC Expo with Jack Blaeser of TenHands. So Jack, tell us about TenHands and tell us about what you are doing with WebRTC.

Jack Blaeser: TenHands has taken advantage of this revolution called WebRTC, web real-time communications. What we are doing is we are enabling it for others to embed within their applications. What WebRTC does is it takes audio, video and chat capabilities and it allows you to access it through the browser environment. So you can access it without software or hardware required. Essentially what I think it will do is it will democratize video and audio and it allows anyone in the world with any device to communicate effectively.

Blair Pleasant: So it sounds a little too good to be true. So what are some of the things that have to be overcome?

Jack Blaeser: The most significant challenges I think actually have to do with outside WebRTC and that is the devices; being able to have the right equipment and the right processing power. So to have the right microphone and speaker phone has always been the challenge in the video industry as well as audio. WebRTC though, promises to make that more available across all devices to essentially open up billions of new potential users to communicate around the world.

The other major challenges will be just adopting and maybe some of the resistance you might get from existing suppliers that see it as a threat.

Blair Pleasant: So you had mentioned in one of your presentations that TenHands has THE first WebRTC application. Can you tell us about that?

Jack Blaeser: Sure, we have done two things that we think are the first. First, we have virtualized in the cloud, a video. What that means is, we have written all the code to be able to run point-to-point and multi-point video in the cloud and we can put that software anywhere. It is pretty significant because it gives us fairly disruptive cost capabilities as well as flexibilities around video deployment.

And then the second is, we have commercialized WebRTC. What that means is, we can deliver today WebRTC as a plug-in free solution. Meaning that you can go to your browser, if it is a Chrome 23 version, and run video without any software or hardware required. Then we have also complimented that with our own small plug-in to be able to run on all other devices like IE and Safari, and basically give it a business-quality capability. Now you can run video under the advantages of WebRTC and if you don't have that type of environment, meaning like with the Chrome browser, you can also run the same service very effectively.

Blair Pleasant: So what types of companies would benefit the most from this application?

Jack Blaeser: Well, small and large. Certainly the SME market can benefit. It's a much more cost-effective solution than the current video and audio solutions out there today. It will promise to democratize video so that more people can access it. It takes away the barriers of having to download a client that you get with most other video solutions that you see today. But, I think the large enterprises can benefit because what it does it removes the barrier around return on investment (ROI). The ability to take a solution like ours that is a freemium solution, you can employ it across your whole environment, rather than having to make the decision of how many licenses do I need to pay for and who is going to use it, and who is going to get the right benefit. In the case with our service at Tenhands, you are able to deploy it to everybody and then we only monetize those who use heavily.

Blair Pleasant: Can you give us one example of a typical use case that can benefit from WebRTC and from TenHands.

Jack Blaeser: Yes. Step outside of the traditional use and there are a lot of other use cases that are going to develop because of WebRTC, that are exciting. I think it will create billion dollar markets or businesses for folks. Call center is very obvious. The ability to engage somebody via video or audio without the plug-in necessary. So when they are engaging commerce on the web, you will be able to launch a video call right with them if you want and accelerate that sales process. E-Learning is a big field. E-Learning is really moving towards the ability to teach people from far distances and not to have to go into a particular school for that education. So you will see a lot more of E-Learning developing into significant business. Then, we are seeing all sorts of other use cases around telemedicine or say even the construction business. We've got a partner that is working with a large construction company that is currently using video to survey a site and instead of bringing the engineer in, the engineer can work with the folks onsite remotely very effectively with the visual enhancements that they have through video and WebRTC.

Blair Pleasant: Great. Well thanks very much and we look forward to hearing more about TenHands and what you are doing in this area.

Jack Blaeser: Great. It has been a pleasure. Thank you very much.