Developing real-time video without all the meetings

Testing real-time video systems can be challenging due to limitations such as difficulty in differentiating between multiple instances of oneself and internet saturation. One solution is using Mux Meet, an open-source tool that simulates real-world scenarios but has scheduling limitations. Another approach involves HTMLMediaElement.captureStream, which allows piping any <video> element as the camera/microphone input. This opens up possibilities for testing with multiple different participants without needing actual people to join meetings. By using this technique along with Mux Spaces Web SDK and Mux Video Player, a synthetic participant can be created that joins a space as a "participant" and shares their video/audio. This approach has been used for various purposes such as testing AV sync, load testing, monitoring ABR support, verifying active speaker notifications, providing interpreted streams, and testing mobile devices' behavior when decoding multiple videos simultaneously.