WebProNews

Tag: youtube live

  • Verizon Hits the Ground Running With Zoom Competitor BlueJeans

    Verizon Hits the Ground Running With Zoom Competitor BlueJeans

    Verizon has announced a slew of new features for BlueJeans, its videoconferencing Zoom competitor.

    Verizon announced a deal to purchase BlueJeans in April, as the coronavirus pandemic was gaining momentum. Zoom had established itself as the go-to option for remote work and education, as well as for individuals to stay in touch with friends and family. Verizon saw an opportunity to snap up one of Zoom’s competitors in the hopes of combining BlueJeans with the company’s Verizon Business offerings.

    Verizon has now announced some major new features for BlueJeans, as well as significant partner integrations. The platform now integrates with Salesforce, using hands-free lead tracking to capture attendee data. BlueJeans can also use Splash to help streamline event promotions, as well as follow-ups. Similarly, BlueJeans can use TicketSocket for event monetization.

    Even more significant, BlueJeans has increased the size limit of virtual events, supporting up to 150 presenters and 50,000 attendees. The platform previously only supported 15,000 attendees. In addition, BlueJeans will support seamless integration with YouTube Live. While the platform already supported Facebook Live, adding YouTube Live will greatly increase the potential reach of a live event. Similarly, better support for Real-Time Messaging Protocol (RTMP) in BlueJeans Events will make it easier to stream to additional social media platforms.

    “When COVID hit, the video industry was ready,” said David Maldow, Founder, Let’s Do Video. “Changes in culture and technology were already driving organizations to embrace live streaming prior to the pandemic, but now that traditionally in-person events are being forced to go virtual, we’re really seeing the benefits of platforms like BlueJeans Events. With these latest updates, BlueJeans continues to push the boundaries of what’s possible when it comes to hosting large-scale, interactive experiences online that exceed audience expectations while providing moderators peace of mind.”

    It seems Verizon is moving full-speed-ahead with BlueJeans, and this will make hosting events post-pandemic a little easier.

  • YouTube Is Going After Twitch with New Game Streaming Focus: Report

    YouTube Is Going After Twitch with New Game Streaming Focus: Report

    YouTube has been experimenting with live streaming for many years, finally letting any channel in good standing participate in live streaming in December of 2013, and the YouTube Live channel currently features livestreams of sporting events, music, news, and more. But if you take a look through the offerings you might come back uninspired. YouTube Live hasn’t really taken off as much as Google and YouTube would’ve liked it to.

    Apparently, the company thinks it needs a new focus.

    The Daily Dot is quoting sources in saying that YouTube plans to relaunch YouTube Live as a premier destination for game streaming – a move that would put it in direct competition with Amazon’s Twitch. When we say “game streaming,” we’re talking about the increasingly popular activity of watching other gamers play games live. This can be an amateur or a professional endeavor.

    Here’s what that source had to say:

    “Gaming and esports in particular are going to be a big driving force for the new-look YouTube Live. There’ll be huge opportunities for established streamers and organizations soon and I would say that the record numbers of esports viewers are only going to grow when Google start promoting and partnering with these events.”

    YouTube already has the framework in place to support this – it just needs the talent and promotion.

    Amazon completed its acquisition of Twitch in September of 2014. The price of that deal was $970 million. Before that, Google was in serious talks to acquire the game streaming platform itself, reportedly preparing a $1 billion offer. Reports indicated that Google backed out due to antitrust concerns.

    YouTube wouldn’t provide a comment on the report, but did send Ars Technica a cute gif of a girl shrugging, so there’s that.

  • YouTube Live Celebrates One Year Anniversary

    In celebration of YouTube Live’s one year birthday, they are rolling out new features.

    Wirecast for YouTube Live

    A new software that comes free to YouTube Partners. It allows people to produce and stream live events directly on YouTube from their desktop. Features include the ability to capture and switch live between multiple video sources, roll in media files and add effects and overlays live. If you have livestreaming enabled, you’ll be able to download Wirecast in your YouTube account.

    Publishing Flows and Real Time Analytics

    A guided flow is now available to set-up and preview events before you go live. You can now see real time data like playbacks and concurrent viewers by geography and format.

    Monetize Live Streams

    Make money from live events with advertising or paid options. Live events can now be claimed in the video manager like any other video. Paid options and pricing can be set by country. For now, pay-per-view is only available for purchse in Canada, Japan, France, The USA and the UK.

    As GigaOm notes, YouTube has been experimenting with Live pay-per-view for some time now, including a potential contract with UFC. These new features to Live may be the welcome mat for other sporting events to broadcast live on YouTube.

    YouTube Live is still in the process of being rolled out, a year later. Access has not been granted to all yet, only a few select publishers. YouTube asks for patience if you haven’t been given access to the feature yet. “If you’re one of the many people who’ve asked for YouTube Live but don’t have access yet, we want to thank you very much for your patience. We’ve developed these features with the expectation many more of you will eventually use YouTube Live, and like we said last year, this process takes time to roll out broadly.”