Hi.TV: Video for Empowerment in the age of COVID-19

[Rob Monster]

@omelet and @epik finalized a partnership deal this week to develop the domain name Hi.TV into something that might serve humanity in a novel way. This comes at a time when many people find themselves isolated due to COVID-19 related quarantines. In short, it seemed to be a good time to introduce new solutions for hosting of virtual meetings, both public and private.

Epik is happy to introduce an instant-on video solution that allows anyone to connect with others around the world in a single click with no download. You can follow the progress here:

https://hi.tv/

You can set up your own meetings for free.

There is even an Epik meeting room that is open to the public to meet with whoever from Epik is around at any time -- employees, customers and partners:

https://hi.tv/Epik

Here is one for NamePros:

https://hi.tv/NamePros

If you are bored or just want to visit, you can come hang out or start your own rooms.

Let's see what innovation gets unleashed.

 

[Kassey Lee]

Grat idea, Rob. How about setting up a weekly calendar and have some volunteers (the pros) take up time slots of, say, 60 minutes, so investors can come and discuss a specific issue and ask questions?

 

[Croissant]

Thanks Rob, a nice initiative especially nowadays

I already started to use it even with my friends instead of using skype and whatsapp =)

 

[karmaco]

No moderation required. Anybody can have a room. If aspiring porn stars show up we might have to boot them, but for now y'all have fun with it.

I was going to say make sure the videos are G rated

 

[Rob Monster]

Grat idea, Rob. How about setting up a weekly calendar and have some volunteers (the pros) take up time slots of, say, 60 minutes, so investors can come and discuss a specific issue and ask questions?

Yup, office hours like a college professor.

I will plan to be in there at 2 PM PT (5 pm ET) today for anyone who wants to visit:

https://hi.tv/epik

Anyone wants to meet up, we can do it. @Intelliname will also join. It is video so show your face.

If this becomes popular we'll do different hours on different days to accommodate the time zones.

Also, if anyone wants to envision their own channel on their own URL, we can do it. We'll charge a monthly hosting fee to cover our cost.

We are actually running all of this on our own CloudChase.com Kubernetes instances.

 

[onspec]

@omelet and @epik finalized a partnership deal this week to develop the domain name Hi.TV into something that might serve humanity in a novel way. This comes at a time when many people find themselves isolated due to COVID-19 related quarantines. In short, it seemed to be a good time to introduce new solutions for hosting of virtual meetings, both public and private.

Epik is happy to introduce an instant-on video solution that allows anyone to connect with others around the world in a single click with no download. You can follow the progress here:

https://hi.tv/

You can set up your own meetings for free.

There is even an Epik meeting room that is open to the public to meet with whoever from Epik is around at any time -- employees, customers and partners:

https://hi.tv/Epik

Here is one for NamePros:

https://hi.tv/NamePros

If you are bored or just want to visit, you can come hang out or start your own rooms.

Let's see what innovation gets unleashed.

@omelet and @epik finalized a partnership deal this week to develop the domain name Hi.TV into something that might serve humanity in a novel way. This comes at a time when many people find themselves isolated due to COVID-19 related quarantines. In short, it seemed to be a good time to introduce new solutions for hosting of virtual meetings, both public and private.

Epik is happy to introduce an instant-on video solution that allows anyone to connect with others around the world in a single click with no download. You can follow the progress here:

https://hi.tv/

You can set up your own meetings for free.

There is even an Epik meeting room that is open to the public to meet with whoever from Epik is around at any time -- employees, customers and partners:

https://hi.tv/Epik

Here is one for NamePros:

https://hi.tv/NamePros

If you are bored or just want to visit, you can come hang out or start your own rooms.

Let's see what innovation gets unleashed.

When I click the link, it takes me to a page to download an app called Jitsi.

I understood from above that no download was required. (Using Samsung S7).

Thoughts?

 

[omelet]

When I click the link, it takes me to a page to download an app called Jitsi.

I understood from above that no download was required. (Using Samsung S7).

Thoughts?

I think this by far only works limited to computer browsers, not on phone yet?

 

[Rob Monster]

I think this by far only works limited to computer browsers, not on phone yet.

We are working on the solution that will eliminate a force mobile app download so that the service works natively in a mobile browser. The engineer responsible for the project will be looking at that today.

 

[HotKey]

In good company. Great to meet you yesterday Rob.

If you get an opportunity, go fool around with it guys if you haven't already- great spot to chill too. Kids and all. Pick a room and off to the races.

btw, if you run into Rob, he only goes by Mr. Monster. Else you get banned.. just an fyi. Just trying to help the situation.

Take it easy.

 

[equity78]

Rob love seeing a .tv being used especially a two letter, can you tell me how this compares to using Zoom? Thank you.

 

[Rob Monster]

Rob love seeing a .tv being used especially a two letter, can you tell me how this compares to using Zoom? Thank you.

It is comparable to Zoom.

Where we differ from Zoom:

- No logging or surveillance of meetings

- Up to 1000 users in a meeting for free

- Branded URLs, e.g. hi.tv/raymond

- Ability to deploy on stand-alone domains, e.g. Raymond.Tv.

 

[equity78]

It is comparable to Zoom.

Where we differ from Zoom:

- No logging or surveillance of meetings

- Up to 1000 users in a meeting for free

- Branded URLs, e.g. hi.tv/raymond

- Ability to deploy on stand-alone domains, e.g. Raymond.Tv.

Cool thank you and @Lox pointed out to me Zoom's privacy policy

 

[Rob Monster]

Cool thank you and @Lox pointed out to me Zoom's privacy policy

Even with the stock market cratering, Zoom has a market cap of $35 billon. There is evidently a very nice business there. Lox probably figured out which 3 letter agencies they work with. I can only guess.

 

[Rob Monster]

In good company. Great to meet you yesterday Rob.

If you get an opportunity, go fool around with it guys if you haven't already- great spot to chill too. Kids and all. Pick a room and off to the races.

btw, if you run into Rob, he only goes by Mr. Monster. Else you get banned.. just an fyi. Just trying to help the situation.

Take it easy.

That's hilarious Truth be told, @HotKey addressed me as "Mr Monster" and I said "Call me Rob". So much for that myth of formality. We had a good time visiting with Hotkey's family.

 

[Rob Monster]

Related Tweet:

https://twitter.com/x/status/1241126337177419779

 

[Kassey Lee]

I'm trying to set up a digital meetup using Hi.tv. Is there a tutorial on how to do it. Rob said I could create a room but I don't see any mention of this term on the home screen. So,

(1) How do I set up a room?
(2) How do I set up a time to start the meetup?
(3) How do I create an invite link (with local time)?
(4) How do you manage conversations when there are many participants?
(5) What do the three moderator modes mean?

Thanks.

 

[Kassey Lee]

@Rob Monster . Can someone provide me with the above information?

 

[Rob Monster]

@Rob Monster . Can someone provide me with the above information?

Some of that functionality might not exist yet, but will see if we can prepare a how-to and a roadmap for future enhancements.

To get started, just go to hi.tv, and name your channel. You, as moderator, can optionally set a password.

There is no invite management as yet.

@Sumeeth

 

[NicTraders]

Some of that functionality might not exist yet, but will see if we can prepare a how-to and a roadmap for future enhancements.

To get started, just go to hi.tv, and name your channel. You, as moderator, can optionally set a password.

There is no invite management as yet.

@Sumeeth

So, 2 questions:
- If you name a channel is that then available to you for x years to come - i.e. every time you want a video chat with someone you tell them to go to hi.tv/nictraders (for example) and that room will always be available to me?
- And if you set a password that password is required for any participant to enter, then off we go?...

Thanks.

 

[Bob Hawkes]

Have others got it to work with iOS devices? May just be that my device and IOS it supports are not the latest, but if I enter hi.tv on Safari on an iPad shows secure site but just dark screen.
Bob

 

[HotKey]

Have others got it to work with iOS devices? May just be that my device and IOS it supports are not the latest, but if I enter hi.tv on Safari on an iPad shows secure site but just dark screen.
Bob

So, 2 questions:
- If you name a channel is that then available to you for x years to come - i.e. every time you want a video chat with someone you tell them to go to hi.tv/nictraders (for example) and that room will always be available to me?
- And if you set a password that password is required for any participant to enter, then off we go?...

Thanks.

Hey Nic, I'm just going to chime in, from personal experience with the service thus far (also @Bob Hawkes ):

Used it this weekend for first time with multiple family members spread out across the province, a total of 5 families on at the same time. It was awesome!

- the room is avail to anyone once there is no one else left using it. So for example, the minute you leave the room opens up again. This is great, it will prevent hoarding of easy to remember names.
- the person who first creates the room becomes the moderator, and can set the password. In the same regard, if the mod leaves the room but there are still others in the room, then moderator status get moved to the next person whom last joined the room, and so on and so forth.
- the password once set, is required by anyone who wishes to join the room.
- Bob, I had one family member who also couldn't use Safari. I confirmed this by installing an older version of Safari onto my desktop, and it didn't work for me either. Same thing, a blank/dark screen. So basically just got the family member to download and install Chrome, and viola.

Not sure what people who don't have the ability to download/install an alternate browser will do, such as for an iPad device, but maybe they'll change compatibility in the future. Could be an issue with Apple devices being so proprietary when it comes to security.

Take it ease!

 

[Rob Monster]

Hey Nic, I'm just going to chime in, from personal experience with the service thus far (also @Bob Hawkes ):

Used it this weekend for first time with multiple family members spread out across the province, a total of 5 families on at the same time. It was awesome!

- the room is avail to anyone once there is no one else left using it. So for example, the minute you leave the room opens up again. This is great, it will prevent hoarding of easy to remember names.
- the person who first creates the room becomes the moderator, and can set the password. In the same regard, if the mod leaves the room but there are still others in the room, then moderator status get moved to the next person whom last joined the room, and so on and so forth.
- the password once set, is required by anyone who wishes to join the room.
- Bob, I had one family member who also couldn't use Safari. I confirmed this by installing an older version of Safari onto my desktop, and it didn't work for me either. Same thing, a blank/dark screen. So basically just got the family member to download and install Chrome, and viola.

Not sure what people who don't have the ability to download/install an alternate browser will do, such as for an iPad device, but maybe they'll change compatibility in the future. Could be an issue with Apple devices being so proprietary when it comes to security.

Take it ease!

Thanks @HotKey.

The engineering team met this morning to map out some related projects. One of the things is coming is an option for a permanent video address, e.g. hi.tv/hotkey. That will not be free but it will be a private meeting room forever. In the meantime, the names do expire.

We do have a capable product manager who is working on video sharding for being able to provide a massively scalable video performance. There is some higher expense associated with that infrastructure investment. The paid rooms should make that a sustainable business model.

 

[NicTraders]

Thanks @HotKey.
In the meantime, the names do expire.

So, does the name expire as soon as all participants leave the room, or just at some later predetermined time?... (Just interested) Thx

 

[Rob Monster]

So, does the name expire as soon as all participants leave the room, or just at some later predetermined time?... (Just interested) Thx

Currently the room just expires when the last person leaves.

We are working to deploy a version that lets someone secure a room forever either on Hi.Tv or on their own stand-alone URL, e.g. where staff of a company can each have their own permanent rooms.

Suffice it to say that Zoom has plowed the road for a lot of innovation in the area of telepresence. We are probably in the 2nd or 3rd inning of this transformation.

 

[NicTraders]

Hi Rob. Thought you'd want to know - can't share a hi.tv link on FB Messenger for some reason.

 

[Rob Monster]

Hi Rob. Thought you'd want to know - can't share a hi.tv link on FB Messenger for some reason.

Show attachment 151166

Yup, we need to get that whitelisted.

We have made some progress with FB lately.

@Intelliname