Re: [media-and-entertainment] Globally synchronized playback

Hi @itsjamie 

I thought you would like to know that we've had an initiative going for a few years calling for Web support for globally synchronized playback. You're more than welcome to join in :)

The [Multi-device Timing Community Group](https://www.w3.org/community/webtiming/) was chartered with this very purpose. We've also published a draft specification for the [Timing Object](http://webtiming.github.io/timingobject/) which incidentally suggests a *timingsrc* property for media elements ;) Additionally [Timingsrc](https://webtiming.github.io/timingsrc/) is an open source implementation of a programming model around the *timing object*, including functions for synchronization of media elements, timed data, and integration with *online timing providers* for global playback. The site also has documentation, example code and live demoes.

Here's a demo we made before using timing objects for globally synchronized playback of DASH a few years back (without making any modifications to the dash player!). [Live synchronized DASH](https://www.w3.org/community/webtiming/2015/08/17/multi-device-mpeg-dash/)

Note also that the scope of the timing object proposal is a little broader than what you suggest here. For one thing, its not only for sharing a reference clock, but also targets active control (e.g. pause, skip, fast-forward) globally. Furthermore, its not limited to media elements, but targets synchronization of anything timed. Still, the use case with synchronizing CDN playback is certainly an important use-case and one that we hope could attract some support from CDN's. I think your use case fits nicely with the timing object proposal. What you suggest as *timeSource* is somewhat similar to a *timing provider* in the *timing object* model. 

Again, I hope you'll take a look at the multi-device timing community group, and hopefully join and help out :)


Best regards,

Ingar Arntzen, chair Multi-device Timing Community Group



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Received on Tuesday, 19 June 2018 20:35:52 UTC