Video Calls in Bright Pattern Contact Center

Bright Pattern Contact Center allows an active chat interaction to be escalated to a two-way audio call and then to a video call, using WebRTC in the browser or the customer's mobile application. Starting with version 5.35, the audio and video portions of these sessions can be recorded, stored, encrypted, exported, and reviewed alongside the chat transcript.

This article introduces the video capability end-to-end and links to the detailed configuration, agent, and reference pages.

How Video Works

Video is not a standalone channel. It is an upgrade path within an existing chat session:

1. A web chat (or mobile chat) session is active between a customer and an agent.
2. Either party initiates an audio call by clicking the headset button. The audio leg is a WebRTC (VoIP) call.
3. Either party then turns on their camera. Video is transmitted directly between the two browsers (or browser and mobile app).

Key characteristics:

• Video always starts as audio. There is no way to open a video session without first establishing an audio call. See How to Have an Audio Chat and How to Have a Video Chat.
• Cameras are controlled independently. The agent and the customer each turn their own camera on or off. A session can run with one camera on, both on, or neither (audio only). Turning a camera off does not end the audio call.
• Ending the call ends both legs. Clicking the telephone button ends the audio and video together and returns the interaction to text chat.
• Media is encrypted in transit. WebRTC uses DTLS-SRTP between endpoints. See WebRTC Considerations for browser-specific behavior.

Mobile

When the customer is using a mobile application built on the Bright Pattern Mobile SDK, the agent receives a browser notification to allow the video session. Note that in this configuration only the customer can close the video leg while keeping chat and/or audio open; the agent can only end the entire session. See Mobile Video.

Configuration

Chat Widget

Two settings in the chat widget's style properties control whether video is available on a given chat entry:

• VoIP call – enables the headset button (audio call). Required for video.
• Visitor video – enables the camera button. Has no effect unless VoIP call is also enabled.

Both are configured in the Chat Widget Configuration application. See Chat Widget Styling.

Deselecting VoIP call removes both the headset and camera buttons from the widget, because video depends on the audio leg. See How to Remove the Call Option from Service Chat Sessions.

These settings replaced the single "allow video calls" checkbox in version 5.2.0. See 5.2.0 Release Notes.

Agent Auto-Start

By default, the agent's camera does not turn on automatically when the customer enables video. Starting with version 5.36, the contact-center-wide setting Automatically start agent video when customer video starts changes this behavior. The setting is located in Call Center Configuration > Chat Settings and is available only for contact centers with Agent Desktop 2.0 enabled. See Chat Settings and 5.36 Release Notes.

Bandwidth

Video calls consume additional per-agent bandwidth beyond the baseline voice allowance. See Other Requirements and Recommendations in the Deployment Guide.

Recording

Prior to version 5.35, WebRTC media was exchanged directly between endpoints and was not captured by the platform. Starting with 5.35, the audio and video segments of a chat session can be recorded. See 5.35 Release Notes.

Enabling Recording

Recording is enabled at two levels:

1. Service provider level. The tenant feature Enable chat WebRTC recording must be turned on by your service provider. If this feature is disabled, WebRTC traffic is not captured regardless of service-level settings. See Features tab.
2. Service level. On each chat service where recording is desired, select Record WebRTC calls on the Properties tab. This option is visible only when the tenant feature is enabled. See Properties tab.

Storage, Retention, and Security

• Retention. Recorded WebRTC sessions follow the same retention period configured for call recordings; there is no separate retention setting for video.
• Encryption at rest. WebRTC recordings can be encrypted using the option in Security > Encryption Settings. See Encryption Settings and Encryption Key Management. Note that exported items are decrypted on export.
• Export. Scheduled jobs that export chat transcripts to S3 or FTP automatically include the associated audio/video media files.
• Erasure. Interaction content erasure for compliance purposes applies to recordings.

Playback

Recorded sessions are reviewed in a unified timeline that shows the chat transcript together with the audio/video playback. Markers on the timeline indicate when the audio or video connection started and stopped. Playback is available in:

• Omni QM Eval Console – see Quality Management Overview and Eval Home
• Interaction Records in the Contact Center Administrator application
• Agent Desktop activity history

Limitations

• Video is available only as an escalation from an active chat; it cannot be initiated as an inbound or outbound channel on its own.
• Sessions are two-party. There is no multi-party video, conferencing, or supervisor join into the video leg.
• Screen monitoring and screen recording of the agent are separate features and require the Agent Desktop Helper Application; they are not part of WebRTC video. See WebRTC Considerations.
• Co-browsing and remote assist are distinct from video and are configured separately.

Version History

• 5.2.0 – Single video checkbox split into VoIP call and Visitor video; independent camera control introduced. Release notes
• 5.2.1 / 5.2.2 – WebRTC video stability fixes (echo, NAT traversal, STUN/TURN, mobile browsers). Release notes
• 5.35 – WebRTC audio and video recording for web chat. Release notes
• 5.36 – Auto-start agent video setting. Release notes< Previous | Next >