Last week we read this article (link) from Skype about the announcement of the development of the ORTC API for WebRTC. This means that the next versions of Internet Explorer will provide real time communications capabilities but not based on the WebRTC API 1.0 as defined by the W3C that is currently adopted by Mozilla Firefox and Google Chrome.
Microsoft is participating in the W3C defining the ORTC API in a group of about 80 members (including delegates from Quobis) and they are now announcing support for it. Some foresee a future integration of WebRTC API 1.0 and this ORTC in a future WebRTC API 1.1 or 2.0. As part of the announcement, Microsoft also stated they are going to support H.264 video codec, a topic currently under discussion at the IETF. For audio, Opus, G.722 and G.711 will be offered.
Our Sippo WebRTC Application Controller will be ready to support the ORTC API as soon as it’s implemented by the browsers. Using the Sippo Abstraction Layer, we are ready to hide the complexity behind the different flavors of the WebRTC 1.0 API support by Chrome, Chrome for Android or Firefox. This layer helps to develop once and make applications work with any browser, device, gateway or architecture. As soon as the newer versions of Internet Explorer are available you will be able to test your WebRTC applications developed on top of the standard-compliant sippo.js API running in MS Internet Explorer, without the need of a third party plugin.