The SimplyVideo Project: Connecting Conference and VR
SimplyVideo is the coolest new platform that gives you the freedom to use immersive communication tools during your video meetings.
Our Tech Talkers Jordan and Tom share their experience of working on this wonderful and innovative project.
The Back Story
It was back in 2019 at the networking event — VentureFest, that the fate of our developers Tom and Jordan changed for good. SimplyVideo required excess staffing for their projects and they hired Hatless Studios to do the job. And we have learned a great deal about the VR/AR/XR(Mixed Reality) startup space since then.
Their integration with SimplyVideo
Ever since Tom and Jordan started working with SimplyVideo, they were integrated into the team as if they belonged there. After showing their determination and talent, they both now work with SimplyVideo on a full-time basis.
Tom was given ‘epics’ to implement which are large feature sets rather than just bug fixes. He was initially brought onboard to be a backend engineer using Laravel to help build out a big piece for the platform. That epic unfortunately got delayed, which made him transition into a full stack developer, something that he does full-time with them now.
Jordan, on the other hand, worked mainly on the web platform, improving the mobile responsiveness, cleaning up the styling, and fixing a few critical bugs that required discovery pieces behind them. He eventually became a XR Software Engineer, who is now working in Unity on a classified project. He also ended up joining them for his year in industry.
After a big discovery effort from Jordan, Sam, John and a member of SimplyVideo, they figured out how to integrate WebRTC into applications outside of web browsers. That’s when their new roles were changed from working on the platform/old wearable app, to working on the MagicLeap and Realwear devices and bringing new tech to them.
Technologies behind SimplyVideo
Hatless has helped with implementing and improving the design of the actual video chat app itself. The team mainly worked on the actual call view, improving the look and feel of it, and worked on other areas of the platform, fixing bugs and adding new features. Sam Stenner and John Ingram also created the app for a XR device called the Realwear (pictured below).
They also created a mobile app from iOS and Android called the Companion app (Sam and John’s work again) which makes connecting from XR devices like Realwear and MagicLeap incredibly easy, as well as allowing a second camera to be present in the call so people can view the person moving IRL (In Real Life) with the headset on.
Finally, Hatless has also planned, researched and created the full app, working with MagicLeap themselves, to bring the ability to see virtual content into an actual Google Meet and Microsoft Teams call with the SimplyVideo App.
SimplyVideo’s app uses technologies Laravel for backend, Vue.js for frontend, Selenium and jest for automated testing, Flutter and native Android for mobile apps and assistive reality apps, and Unity for their virtual reality apps.
Shown below is the User Flow explained by our dev guys.
Key Learnings and Favourite Parts!
Tom’s favourite part has been helping to build a brand new platform, as he got to build cool new features. He particularly enjoyed the fact that he was able to be a part of the envisioning process, and could help pad out the new feature sets. He also found working with such a young team interesting as the ideas that were bounced around were always innovative and awesome.
They really did believe in everyone on the team and their abilities. It was a great confidence boost.
One of Jordan’s favourite algorithms is an EventSource bus algorithm that he made for their Unity project. It’s pretty simple, but the concept is just really pleasing to him. It means a server can send events directly to the client and it will invoke events and model changes in the app itself. To do this, you must open a stream to a URL and repeatedly read a line from it in a new thread (using tasks in C#). By parsing the content, you can detect when a server-sent event is starting to be packaged, or when you are providing data to put inside an event package. Once they’re paired, it’s queued into a queue collection, which is repeatedly iterated in an Update method, where the queue is dequeued and the event is dispatched. You can use a switch case to determine what specific in-app event should be invoked, or what models should be updated.
During his time there, he also learnt a lot about mobile-responsive web apps and Vue.js in general, and especially about making apps for virtual reality. They also did a lot of discovery pieces, which are like heavy research on a bunch of tech that they were somehow considering to use in their platform.
SimplyVideo is a great client to work for. We’ve had a lot of banter in meetings, and the work has always been chill and very insightful.The best parts are the people and the technology. Almost every single meeting with them has at least ONE joke, which is like a guaranteed laugh every few days, and I get to work with the most incredible and expensive frontier technology that exists today, a dream I’ve had since I was 11 years old.
Although SimplyVideo has now made Jordan and Tom a part of themselves, it’s not good-bye to them yet — they shall always remain a precious part of Hatless’ formative years!
A few golden words from Chris about learning from SimplyVideo:
Value the relationship with the client above all else. Work with good people, on good projects, and treat each other well. Don’t undervalue your work, or your ability to make a world-first happen.
