ZephyVid
ZephyVid is a private and secure video hosting platform allowing users to upload, manage, and share videos with precise visibility settings. Featuring robust access control, invitation-only memberships, detailed analytics, and video customization capabilities, ZephyVid is designed to ensure user privacy and content security. The project is intended to become open-source after foundational elements are refined for easier reuse.
December 28, 2024
Technologies
Introduction
ZephyVid was created to provide users with a secure platform to privately host and manage their videos. It allows videos to be shared selectively, ensuring control over content visibility through robust privacy modes: Private, Unlisted, and Custom access.
Origin of the Project
ZephyVid originated from my curiosity about how YouTube manages video streaming, uploads, and optimizes videos for broad compatibility, especially ensuring smooth playback even on mobile connections. I was particularly interested in how adaptive resolution streaming works, automatically adjusting video quality based on the user's network conditions. This project allowed me to explore and better understand video distribution, encoding techniques, and the fragmentation methods used for streaming, significantly deepening my knowledge in video technology.
Development Journey
The development of ZephyVid began with the goal of enhancing privacy and usability in video sharing. Iterative improvements focused on secure invitation management, real-time analytics integration, and customizable user controls, driven by direct user feedback and evolving privacy needs.
Technical Implementation
ZephyVid utilizes a modern technology stack including SvelteKit for the frontend, Node.js with BullMQ for background video processing tasks, FFmpeg for optimized video transcoding, and Redis for job management. The backend database is efficiently managed with Drizzle ORM. Deployment is streamlined using Docker, Nginx, and Ubuntu servers, enabling scalability and robust security.
Features and Innovations
ZephyVid allows detailed video customization, including editing thumbnails, titles, descriptions, and visibility settings. The innovative invitation-only system ensures controlled platform access, while real-time analytics provide insights on viewer engagement, views count, and invitation usage.
Deployment and Scalability
ZephyVid is containerized using Docker and deployed via Nginx on Ubuntu servers. Continuous integration and continuous delivery (CI/CD) are managed through GitHub Actions, ensuring fast and reliable updates. The infrastructure is designed for easy scaling to support growing numbers of videos and user interactions.
Future Open Source Plans
ZephyVid aims to transition into an open-source project. Before open-sourcing, foundational components will be refined to enhance reusability, documentation, and ease of integration by the broader developer community.