Granted, the server model was very different for TS and Vent (more so the latter), but it was normal then. Kudos to the Discord team on making a solid product.
Teamspeak though, yeah, I'm surprised it didn't try to integrate streaming into its mechanism.
Mumble is still alive and well, and very functional for audio-sharing. Nothing in the way of video or streaming, though.
Things like TS and Vent is voice-chat-first and thus, you will only join _after_ you've made friends to voice chat with online in some other platform (like irc or a game). There's no TS community, since it's purely utilitarian, unlike discord.
Sure there is Nitro, but I believe data mining is part of the devil's bargain.
Vent 4 release saw our v3 server die. It was then we realised that a "phone home" was part of the deal.
We now use Mumble.
https://www.autoblog.com/2010/08/21/video-man-sells-gt500-ra...
I guess there's no more of that.
I didn't make it back in time.
That being said, I would argue that any voice chat with more than 10, maybe 20, active people talking is going to be nearly unusable. Not due to audio quality.
It turns this (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9dM3HqNFox8) into this (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Znv6Cf4IKgE).
Maybe it’s the wow culture of having raid leaders and specific callouts, but it’s very much usable and enjoyable.
If you want to see how it usually plays out, just search twitch for anyone streaming a raid.
A new thing comes along without this problem and dominates the new playing field. For Teamspeak and Ventrilo the field changed in that it became possible to host the voice servers themselves, rather than the 'customers' hosting.