How We Build With Webex: Vbrick

It’s not hard to understand why video makes for such a powerful way to meet. In today’s world of dispersed teams and on-the-go work styles, video lets you collaborate face to face in real time — for real connections. No wonder it’s become so widespread so quickly.

Yet video can sometimes come with surprising challenges. Sure, it’s simple to turn on video on Webex (Just click the button!), but what if you need to stream your broadcast to other channels? And what happens after the meeting ends? How can you reliably and easily manage and distribute your video?

These are the questions on the minds of IT teams in large enterprises everywhere. That’s because video capture tools tend to by clunky and complicated, while many video management solutions try to do it all — instead of providing the simple editing and speech-to-text abilities most customers are actually looking for.

So, you’ve got your capture and management issues. On top of those, you’ve also got the problem of scale. How do you best distribute high-quality video to thousands of simultaneous viewers?

Bring in Vbrick.

About Vbrick

A longtime Cisco Integrator Partner, Vbrick uses our APIs to enable Webex users to capture, manage, and distribute their videos. As Dan Bagley, Vice President of Technical Sales and Operations, puts it, Vbrick is moving “synchronous video communications to the asynchronous.”

Sounds pretty abstract, right? But it’s not. Just think about all the practical applications.

Imagine you work at the headquarters for a large insurance company that employs many independent agents. It’s up to you to make sure the agents are trained to your company’s standards, but you can’t be there to train each person individually.

So, you broadcast a series of video tutorials. Some agents are able to tune in as they happen, but those who can’t get the content delivered to their Webex video library to review later. They can even ask the Vbrick bot, Rev, to search for the specific videos they’re after.

Why Webex?

For the Vbrick team, the network- and video-centric aspects of Webex set it apart from other, seemingly similar enterprise communication platforms. As Bagley recounts, “It was a natural fit.” It’s why they went with Webex.

And what a productive partnership it’s been. On the one side, the Webex platform gets a big boost from the video capture, management, and distribution capabilities made possible by Vbrick’s bot and integration. (At Cisco, we even use it ourselves!) As for Vbrick? They’ve seen their business grow by leaps and bounds as they’ve landed deals with customers looking for collaboration tech packaged up with powerful video management features.

It’s not just a win-win for Vbrick and Webex. When you consider the customers, it’s a win-win-win.

The Developer Journey

Another win for Vbrick? The super smooth developer journey to build on Webex. “It’s a very developer-friendly platform,” describes Bagley.

Bagley focused on the authentication and documentation aspects of the build. He highlighted how he was able to leverage OAuth when adding users to Webex, enabling them sign in and grab a token.

“It’s a user-centric approach,” Bagley explains “Easy from an architectural perspective.”

What’s Ahead

We’re so excited for what’s next for our partnership with Vbrick. Curious to learn more about Vbrick itself? Take a look back at our previous Vbrick blog post and check out their website, then visit the Webex App Hub to explore the Vbrick Rev bot and integration.

Finally, if you’re feeling inspired to get started on a build of your very own, head over to our [Webex developer documentation][6].