Ariuum

Ariuum – a live video debate platform where two participants present opposing views to a large audience. Each speaker gets a fixed two-minute window. Viewers watch in real time and vote by liking the participant they support. The participant with the most votes wins the debate.

The platform is built for streamers, public speakers, and audiences who want open, real-time debates without content moderation filters. We were brought in to fix and stabilize an existing product that was failing in production.

Real-Time Debate Flow at Scale

The core challenge of Ariuum is synchronizing live video, strict time limits, and audience voting for thousands of viewers at once. Both participants must connect reliably, speak in fixed turns, and stream with low latency. At the same time, viewer reactions need to be collected and counted in real time without breaking the stream.

The original system relied on many third-party components that caused connection failures and crashes.
We reworked the server-side logic to make participant connections predictable and to reduce failures in live debates.

Live Debate Experience

Participants join a video room and debate one-on-one. Speaking time is limited to two minutes per turn, enforced by server-side logic. Viewers watch the debate live and vote while it is happening.

Real-Time Audience Voting

Likes from viewers are processed instantly and aggregated during the debate. At the end of the session, the participant with the most votes wins.

Debate Recording and Replay

All debates are recorded automatically. Viewers can access a public catalog of past debates, similar to a YouTube video library, and watch them on demand.

Web-Based Access

The platform runs entirely in the browser, allowing both participants and viewers to join without installing additional software.

Technologies

Platform: Web
Frontend: JavaScript, React.js, Next.js
Backend: Node.js with microservice architecture
Real-time communication: socket.io for signaling and live events
Video processing: WebRTC with Kurento for real-time audio and video
Database: PostgreSQL for user accounts and debate metadata

Key engineering work focused on fixing the server-side architecture, improving WebRTC connectivity between participants, and reducing failures caused by third-party services.

Delivery and Outcome

We took over an unstable, partially working platform and fixed the server-side architecture.
After the changes in 2022, live debates became reliable, crashes stopped, and participants could consistently connect and stream.
The system has remained stable since, without the need for further intervention.

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