Some companies that the people never heard about have suddenly gained attention due to the COVID-19 pandemic. Certain classes of apps have seen an unexpected rise in usage and installation. These include grocery delivery apps, on-demand entertainment apps, telemedicine apps, and for sure, various social networks and messengers.
According to research by Techcrunch, in just one week in March 2020, video conferencing apps for both business and personal use were downloaded over 62 million times. The market is showing, and the chat industry for digital conferencing or virtual events is gaining traction.
On the one hand, apps like WhatsApp, Snapchat, and Instagram can help people stay connected. However, Citrix, Skype and Google Meet, Google Cloud have always dominated the professional/formal contact environment.
Video conferencing platforms were considered unsuccessful even during technical meetings.
Besides, nowadays plenty of platforms have become well-known as COVID-19 social media!
What is a virtual event?
Virtual events are events that hold on the internet. They use web platforms to make people’s communication more convenient and provide sophisticated functions such as voting, Q&A, chat windows, etc. The leading providers of digital events are Digitell, Evia, ON 24, Zoom, Intrado, GoToMeeting, and others.
Virtual events can cover anything. But there are four types of the most common ones. They are virtual conferences, webinars, hybrid internal events, and external hybrid events.
Advantages of virtual events
Here is the list of advantages that will keep sponsors, exhibitors, and visitors happy.
Cheapness
Meeting and event planners are still trying to save money by cutting budgets. The total cost of launching your event is greatly reduced by event simulation, and to be precise, it is 75% cheaper. Planners save on staff, location, setup and workload, staff placement, accommodation, travel costs, and more.
Saving time
You will save a lot of time for yourself, employees, and service personnel, as your event will be interactive. While virtual events entail some set-up time (e.g. event website, registration, event marketing, promotions, etc.), this is significantly less than personal event set-up time. You also don’t need travel time! Now your staff and support staff will take this opportunity to focus on all other important issues.
Flexibility
Since virtual events are held online, you can broadcast the event flexibly. Whether you’re hosting an influencer meeting, virtual city hall, a sales launch, or some special form of event, the sessions will be interactive. Various languages are available for inviting invited speakers.
Main steps to create a virtual event app
Here are some critical steps on how to build a virtual event app:
Step #1: Backend development
One of the first steps is to create a server to run the application. The best choice is to build it from scratch.
Step #2: User interface
The interface makes the first impression. So, it is crucial to make it attractive and convenient.
Step #3: Compatible with iOS and Android
To expand the target audience, the application has to support both Android and iOS operating systems. Swift suits for building iOS app and WebRTC for the Android app.
Step #4: Cloud network
Digital meeting apps have an integrated data center infrastructure that is closely monitored and continually optimized by professionals. The cloud network is built for global connectivity.
Step #5: Video architecture
The architecture should be optimized to meet video requirements, and the back-end technology and cloud infrastructure differ in four critical characteristics:
- Distributed architecture
It allows people to share meetings on the network, seamlessly join meetings through a link to the nearest data center.
- Multimedia routing
It provides a highly scalable system, multiple video streams, reduces the power consumption of computers. Commonly, an MCU supports fewer than 100 participants.
- Multi-bit encoding
Every stream can be changed to multiple permissions. It eliminates the need for encoding, decoding, and optimizing the output and scalability of streams for the endpoint.
- App quality of service level
Impeccable level of optimizing video, audio, and screen sharing for each gadget to provide the best quality of service across the entire network.
This article was originally published: https://code-care.com/blog/how-to-build-a-virtual-event-app/
