The Audio/Video Issues with Chrome 54

Here at Discuss.io, we want brands to succeed. At our core, we believe that this success is tied to a brand’s ability to understand consumers by speaking with them directly. We make speaking with consumers as hassle-free as possible. Using our real-time video conferencing platform, brands can directly access to consumers around the globe right from their office using online in-depth interviews (IDIs) and focus groups. By bringing research into the digital age, we give brands a competitive edge by reducing their time to market.

We are able to speed up this process dramatically by using the latest and most powerful set of tools. Google Chrome and Mozilla Firefox support WebRTC technology, which enables real-time video and audio conferences within their browsers. Unlike other video platforms for market research, we have built Discuss.io from the ground up using this WebRTC technology. When you conduct online IDIs and focus groups on the Discuss.io platform, you benefit directly from the capabilities of WebRTC.

However, as we publish this blog post, the WebRTC kit is experiencing a bug that inhibits webcam and microphone input/output signals in the most up-to-date version of Chrome (v 54.0.2840.71). This manifests itself on our platform displaying an error message in a black box that reads “Connection could not be established.” Google and OpenTok are aware of this issue and are actively working to fix this bug within their systems. Justin Uberti, Principal Software Engineer at Google, acknowledged this concern recently, stating, “This is a top priority issue for us. … There’s a lot of work needed to fix this fully, but it is in the top 3 issues we are focusing on for desktop.”

As Google tackles the issues surrounding WebRTC, we have a compiled a list of work-arounds that will help you avoid technical difficulties on Discuss.io platform. If you receive the error message, we recommend that you try the following workarounds in the order listed below:

1. Quit and restart your Chrome browser, or

2. Open the session with Firefox instead of Chrome, or

3. Use the phone bridge to dial-in the user, or

  • As a moderator, you can do this yourself or have a member of Discuss.io’s support team (available during every session) do this for you

4. Restart the affected user’s computer

Our team of engineers at Discuss.io is keeping track of this issue. We thank you for your patience as we work with our vendor to resolve this issue.

Update (12/6): Click here for an update from OpenTok about this issue.

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