Industry interest in live streaming video has been surging over the past two months, as Facebook launched and expanded its live video API while other web companies scramble to respond. The first frame of this spectacle was during Facebook’s F8 conference on April 12, when it announced a Facebook Live API to allow third-party organizations to stream live video over Facebook. Facebook Live allowed for mixing multiple video and audio sources: quite like a desktop streaming application and unlike the phone-focused, Twitter-owned Periscope app. Live videos could be rewound and replayed later. On-screen graphics of Facebook comments and likes were available. Perhaps most interestingly, Facebook partnered with the drone-maker DJI to allow live streaming from above.
Throughout May, Facebook’s rivals responded by expanding their own live video ambitions. Periscope added 24-hour video saving to its mobile app, as well as support for the aforementioned DJI drones. Twitter has started allowing phone users to launch the Periscope app from the Twitter app (this still requires installing both). Twitter has also tried easing its famed 140 character limit to allow links and multimedia to be more easily tweeted. Mobile streaming may be in Google’s sights as well, as they are rumored to be adding livestream recording to the YouTube mobile app.
On May 23, Facebook’s next play in the streaming game was revealed. The Live API as it currently exists only supports 90-minute long streams, but the new Facebook Continuous Live will allow persistent streams of any length. They were inspired by some of the creative uses of Facebook Live; explore.org used it to record a bald-eagle nest all day, every day. They also wanted to enable 24-hour views of major landmarks. These ludicrously long videos will not be stored for long: unlike the current Live API, Continuous Live will not support rewinding or late viewing.
What does this mean, beyond the Silicon Valley rivalry and the sophisticated technology? It is becoming easier and easier for ordinary people to broadcast live videos to enormous digital audiences. Now that both Periscope and Facebook support drone-sourced video streams, pretty much anyone will be able to passively record hundreds of people in real-time in a critical location… or a single person in every location.
On the other side of the coin, the creepier aspects of this were possible for years. The difference now is that events can be observed live, rather than after the fact. Perhaps this will be a killer feature for sports and conference observers, and the rest of humanity will be content with their existing “dead” video uploaders.
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