Livestream

Vimeo Acquires Livestream – Launches Vimeo Live

~ jen

Vimeo, the world’s largest ad-free open video platform, announced an agreement to acquire Livestream, the leading live video solution that powers over 10 million events a year. Vimeo also rolled out its own Vimeo Live product, offering professional live streaming capabilities directly through its platform for the first time.

Following completion of the acquisition, Livestream’s offering will be integrated with Vimeo to empower creators to capture, edit, stream, and archive live events, as well as host, distribute, and monetize videos, all in one seamless workflow. The move into live streaming positions Vimeo as the most complete video solution in the market for businesses, organizations, and professional creators.

The combination of Vimeo and Livestream will offer:

Innovative Production Hardware and Software – Livestream provides best-in-class production tools and services for capturing, broadcasting and editing live events, from its live event Mevo camera to its live production switcher Studio. Future integrations with Vimeo will provide creators with direct access to stream live events through Vimeo and leverage the platform’s robust video tools.

High Quality Streaming – With Vimeo Live, creators can now broadcast live events in full 1080p with built-in cloud transcoding and adaptive streaming, so viewers can watch in stunning high quality, perfectly fit for their device and bandwidth. Auto-archived live videos on Vimeo can be replaced with files to support 4K viewing.

Powerful Distribution and Marketing Tools – Creators using Vimeo Live have the flexibility to embed the fully customizable Video player wherever they choose, see who’s attending their event by enabling email capture in the player, turn on live chat, and view live and archived stats to track performance. The addition of Livestream’s syndication tools will enable live distribution across social platforms in the future, including Facebook, YouTube, Twitch and Twitter.

Singular Home for Video Workflow – Vimeo now provides one home to help creators with all aspects of their video hosting and live streaming workflow – from broadcasting and auto-archiving to storage, management and collaboration to distribution, marketing and analytics.

Post-event videos can also be monetized directly to audiences worldwide as a rental, purchase or subscription. Moving forward, Vimeo will also integrate live with its over-the-top (OTT) technology, enabling live content in branded apps across iOS, Android, Roku, Amazon, Samsung, and more.

Livestream Gets a New CEO

~ shawn

Livestream LogoMedia-streaming service Livestream announced earlier this month that it’s had a change at the top. Company founder and long-running CEO Max Haot has been succeeded by new CEO Jerry Hertzberg. From a Livestream blog post written by Haot:

…I recruited Jesse to succeed me as CEO with the full support of our co-founders and the Livestream board of directors. Most recently, Jesse ran operations at Squarespace and Etsy – two of the most admired technology companies here in New York City – where he was instrumental in helping them achieve scale.

Haot isn’t departing from Livestream. Also from the blog:

…I’m excited to focus my energy on my new role as SVP & GM, Video Products. Going forward, I will be responsible for all of our video production offerings. I will also continue to serve as Chairman of the board.

Hertzberg also contributed to that blog post, stating that this transition was decided upon by the founders of the company. There’s plenty of corporate fluff-speak about “the tireless efforts of our remarkable team members” and “we will be able to move the company forward faster than ever before, with the comfort of knowing that each of us cares about every single detail that goes into building world-class products,” etc.

This change seems to have gone down relatively quietly for Livestream. There’s no information about it anywhere outside of the official blog post. It’s not automatically a bad thing when companies change CEO’s. But many times, it’s an indication that a company is stagnating and looking to get a shot of new blood. Perhaps Hertzberg will be the shot Livestream needs to reach the next level.

Livestream Mobile App Now Works with GoPro

~ shawn ~ 1 Comment

Livestream LogoVideo-streaming company Livestream has added a new feature to its mobile producer app. Now, not only can the app use a mobile device’s built-in camera to capture video, but it can also wirelessly stream video from GoPro Hero cameras. From the Livestream blog:

Today, we’re proud to announce the latest update to the Livestream app for iOS. This update includes an exciting new feature that allows you to broadcast live using your GoPro Hero® as a camera source! For the first time ever, you can share your GoPro video live with millions of people worldwide. All you need is your GoPro camera and the Livestream app for iOS!

This is a pretty cool development, as it really extends the potential of producing live video streams. Previously, GoPro cameras had some limited functionality on iOS thru the GoPro app. But that app is used mostly for just controlling the camera and accessing files. With the Livestream update, it’ll now be possible to actually use a GoPro as a video source. This makes me wonder if support for other camera manufacturers will be added in the future, thus opening up the potential for even greater mobile video functionality.

And while I suspect most podcasters would use this new option from the comfort of their home studios, Livestream has teamed up with some extreme-sports enthusiasts to show off the mobile GoPro/Livestream rig in action.

Livestream Adds “Vertical Broadcasting” To iOS Producer App

~ shawn ~ 1 Comment

Livestream producer appLive-streaming media service Livestream has added a new “vertical broadcasting” capability to the iOS version of its Livestream Producer app. Vertical broadcasting allows users to maintain a 16:9 aspect ratio for video, even if the phone is held vertically. Most camera-based iOS apps change their aspect ratios based on if a device is being held vertically (with the “top” of the device facing up) or horizontally (with the “top” of the device facing left or right). It’s often easier to hold a device in vertical mode rather than horizontal mode. But this can often lead to the undesired “vertical video” effect. From Livestream:

“In previous versions of the Livestream app you were required to turn your device to ‘landscape’ mode (horizontal) in order to broadcast. There are some benefits to using the camera horizontally but the primary reason we locked it was because ‘portrait mode’ would have resulted in a vertical video, which most users don’t like.

However, there are some fundamental problems with using the camera in landscape mode. First, if you’re broadcasting a live event for any length of time that exceeds a few minutes it can be tiring to hold the device horizontally. It is also inconvenient to chat with your audience when the keyboard and messages are overlaid on top of the video.

With the newest version of the Livestream app for iOS we’ve developed a way to let you hold the device vertically while continuing to stream perfect 16/9 video. This makes it both more comfortable to hold for long periods of time and easier to chat with your audience.”

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