Aeion BaaS + LiveKit — Voice Chat at 10× Less Cost
Configure LiveKit as the voice provider in Aeion BaaS. Modern WebRTC SFU, either self-hosted (embedded LiveKit) or via LiveKit Cloud (external). ~10× cheaper than Vivox at scale ($0 vs $0.05-0.10/user-minute on self-hosted). LiveKit is currently the only SFU Aeion's realtime voice adapter implements — there's no Mediasoup or Agora adapter to switch to.
Why LiveKit
Voice chat is one of the biggest hidden costs of game backends. Vivox (Unity-owned) charges $0.05-0.10/user-minute; Agora charges $0.0099-0.0199. For a moderate-scale multiplayer game with 100M voice-minutes/month:
Setup — LiveKit Self-Hosted
- Deploy LiveKit server on your infrastructure (Docker, Kubernetes, bare metal):
Setup — LiveKit Cloud (Managed)
For teams that don't want to operate LiveKit infrastructure, LiveKit Cloud is the hosted alternative.
Voice Room Lifecycle in Aeion
```typescript
Spatial Audio (Optional)
LiveKit supports spatial audio via the data channel + client-side audio positioning.
Common Gotchas
- TURN server requirements — for players behind restrictive NATs / firewalls, LiveKit needs TURN. Deploy
coturnalongside LiveKit OR use a TURN service (Twilio, Xirsys). Without TURN, ~5-10% of users can't connect.
FAQ
Aeion's realtime voice adapter implements LiveKit only today (self-hosted/embedded or LiveKit Cloud/external) — there's no Mediasoup or Agora adapter to switch to.
Start with LiveKit Cloud for prototyping (zero ops). Migrate to self-hosted when voice-minute volume justifies the infra investment (~10K+ daily active voice users).
Deploy LiveKit nodes per-region; route players to the nearest cluster. Aeion's matchmaking can prefer same-region matches to keep voice latency low.
Yes — LiveKit's Web SDK handles browser voice via WebRTC. Aeion's match voice integrates seamlessly with browser-based game clients.
Yes — LiveKit is platform-agnostic. Desktop Windows user voice-chatting with mobile Android user just works (subject to network conditions).
Recording is opt-in per tenant + disabled by default. If you enable recording (for moderation), you must disclose to users + provide deletion path (Aeion's GDPR pipeline handles deletion requests).
Aeion tier (flat) + LiveKit Cloud (per-minute). For typical game scale, total is ~10× cheaper than Vivox alone.