Fourwaves
Fourwaves follows its participant inbox with a week of admin fixes and security hardening.
Comparison · Meetings
HOMER vs Kaltura
A side-by-side editorial comparison of HOMER and Kaltura — release velocity, themes, recent moves, and the top alternatives to consider.
HOMER vs Kaltura: at a glance
What is HOMER?
HOMER 11.0.369 fixes S3 auth on Ceph-based storage and stops compaction memory growth.
HOMER's 11.0 line is still hardening its DuckDB tiered-storage layer. 11.0.368 retries incomplete tier moves and fixes tiered queries that missed lake tables. The 11.0.369 pre-release stops sending the AWS session token with static S3 keys, which broke Vultr/Ceph RGW, and keeps DuckDB's file cache off on write paths so compaction memory plateaus. Security fixes (bound tiered lookup parameters, hono bump) ride alongside.
What is Kaltura?
Kaltura goes all-in on agentic AI video — Event OS, avatar roleplay, and an open-sourced AI Agent Skills suite.
Kaltura is in the middle of a sharp pivot toward agentic AI for rich-media platforms. In a single month it has open-sourced an AI Agent Skills suite (so any third-party AI agent can build rich-media experiences), introduced Event OS for AI Agents (natural-language event creation and orchestration), unveiled an avatar-powered roleplay solution for enterprise training, and is presenting an Agentic Revenue Engagement Platform at Forrester. The releases are tightly aligned around one thesis.
HOMER vs Kaltura: editorial side-by-side
HOMER
5.0MEETINGS
HOMER 11.0.369 fixes S3 auth on Ceph-based storage and stops compaction memory growth.
◆ Current state
HOMER's 11.0 line is still hardening its DuckDB tiered-storage layer. 11.0.368 retries incomplete tier moves and fixes tiered queries that missed lake tables. The 11.0.369 pre-release stops sending the AWS session token with static S3 keys, which broke Vultr/Ceph RGW, and keeps DuckDB's file cache off on write paths so compaction memory plateaus. Security fixes (bound tiered lookup parameters, hono bump) ride alongside.
◆ Where it's heading
Almost every release since early October fixes the parquet lake: compaction, cache behaviour, tiering and S3 compatibility. The storage rewrite is being shaken out in production on more varied object stores. Feature work, such as OTLP log events on the call ladder, has paused while this stabilises.
◆ Prediction
Expect 11.0.369 to be promoted from pre-release, followed by more storage fixes for non-AWS object stores before feature work picks up again.
Kaltura
8.8MEETINGS
Kaltura goes all-in on agentic AI video — Event OS, avatar roleplay, and an open-sourced AI Agent Skills suite.
◆ Current state
Kaltura is in the middle of a sharp pivot toward agentic AI for rich-media platforms. In a single month it has open-sourced an AI Agent Skills suite (so any third-party AI agent can build rich-media experiences), introduced Event OS for AI Agents (natural-language event creation and orchestration), unveiled an avatar-powered roleplay solution for enterprise training, and is presenting an Agentic Revenue Engagement Platform at Forrester. The releases are tightly aligned around one thesis.
◆ Where it's heading
The arc is clearly from a video platform into an agentic-AI orchestration layer that happens to specialize in video. Kaltura is staking out the position that video, events, training, and revenue engagement should all be run through AI agents talking to its platform — and is willing to open-source the agent-skills layer to make Kaltura the default endpoint for rich-media agents.
◆ Prediction
Expect a paid agent runtime or pricing model on top of the open-sourced skills, deeper avatar/roleplay options for enterprise L&D, and Event OS plug-ins for major collaboration platforms (Teams, Slack, Google Workspace). The next big tell will be how serious enterprise adoption of Event OS becomes versus staying a demo-stage capability.
Alternatives to HOMER and Kaltura
Other Meetings products tracked by Sparkpulse, ranked by recent ship velocity. Each card links to a full editorial trajectory and lets you pivot into a head-to-head comparison with either HOMER or Kaltura.
Element Call
Element Call starts moving to new LiveKit transports and falls back to remote SFUs when needed.
JW Player
JW Player moves CMAF VOD into the dashboard, adds AV1, and opens Broadcast Live to audio-only feeds.
rtpengine
rtpengine opens the mr26.3 branch with a rollback message and leaner call state.
Nextcloud Talk Desktop
Nextcloud Talk Desktop 2.3.3 adds accessibility options and bundles Talk v25.0.6.
Nextcloud Talk
Nextcloud Talk patches v22 and v23 while v25 stable sits five weeks past its last RC.
See all HOMER alternatives → · See all Kaltura alternatives →
Recent activity from HOMER and Kaltura
Latest ship moves from both products, interleaved chronologically. ⚡ = editorial spark.
- 1d agoHOMERHOMER 11.0.371: B2BUA legs in exports, Smart Search fix
- 3d agoHOMERHOMER 11.0.369 fixes Ceph S3 auth and compaction memory growth
- 6d agoHOMERHOMER 11.0.368 fixes tier moves and tiered-query table coverage
- 8d agoHOMERHOMER 11.0.367 disables DuckDB file cache for local lakes
- 9d agoHOMERHOMER 11.0.366 bumps DuckDB to 1.5.6, pins Go build
- 15d agoHOMERBlocks DuckDB file reads and rejects placeholder JWT secrets
- 5mo agoKalturaKaltura Open-Sources Suite of AI Agent Skills, Enabling Any AI Agent to Build Intelligent Rich-Media Digital Experiences ⚡
- 6mo agoKalturaKaltura Introduces Event OS for AI Agents, Enabling Organizations to Create and Orchestrate Events Through Natural-Language Conversation ⚡
- 6mo agoKalturaKaltura Introduces Event OS for AI Agents, Enabling Organizations to Create and Orchestrate Events Through Natural-Language Conversation
- 6mo agoKalturaKaltura Unveils Avatar-Powered Roleplay Solution for Enterprise Training and Simulations ⚡
- 6mo agoKalturaKaltura Unveils Avatar-Powered Roleplay Solution for Enterprise Training and Simulations
- 6mo agoKalturaKaltura to Present Agentic Revenue Engagement Platform at Forrester B2B Summit 2026, Showcasing the Shift From Static Content Publishing to Intent-Aware, AI-Powered Buyer Journeys
Frequently asked questions
What is the difference between HOMER and Kaltura?
They serve adjacent needs but don't currently overlap on shipped themes. Kaltura is currently shipping more aggressively (velocity 8.8 vs 5.0), with 0 editorial sparks in the last 30 days against 0. See the at-a-glance table above for a side-by-side breakdown of velocity, recent sparks, and editorial themes.
Is HOMER better than Kaltura?
Sparkpulse doesn't pick a winner — we score release velocity, not feature parity. Kaltura is currently shipping more aggressively (velocity 8.8 vs 5.0), with 0 editorial sparks in the last 30 days against 0. For your specific use case, the alternatives sections above list other Meetings products to evaluate alongside.
What are the best alternatives to HOMER?
Top HOMER alternatives in Meetings are ranked by recent ship velocity. Browse the "HOMER alternatives" section above for the current picks, or visit /alternatives/homer-voip for the full list with editorial commentary on each.
What are the best alternatives to Kaltura?
Top Kaltura alternatives in Meetings are ranked by recent ship velocity. Browse the "Kaltura alternatives" section above for the current picks, or visit /alternatives/kaltura for the full list with editorial commentary on each.