aiortc

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aiortc is a library for Web Real-Time Communication (WebRTC) and Object Real-Time Communication (ORTC) in Python. It is built on top of asyncio, Python’s standard asynchronous I/O framework.

The API closely follows its Javascript counterpart while using pythonic constructs:

  • promises are replaced by coroutines

  • events are emitted using pyee.EventEmitter

Why should I use aiortc?

The main WebRTC and ORTC implementations are either built into web browsers, or come in the form of native code. While they are extensively battle tested, their internals are complex and they do not provide Python bindings. Furthermore they are tightly coupled to a media stack, making it hard to plug in audio or video processing algorithms.

In contrast, the aiortc implementation is fairly simple and readable. As such it is a good starting point for programmers wishing to understand how WebRTC works or tinker with its internals. It is also easy to create innovative products by leveraging the extensive modules available in the Python ecosystem. For instance you can build a full server handling both signaling and data channels or apply computer vision algorithms to video frames using OpenCV.

Furthermore, a lot of effort has gone into writing an extensive test suite for the aiortc code to ensure best-in-class code quality.