Live streaming

A still from a live feed of a fish tank with multiple stream encoding qualities
A still from a live stream of a fish tank, Schou FishCam

Live streaming refers to online streaming media simultaneously recorded and broadcast in real time to the viewer. It is often simply referred to as streaming.[note 1]

Live stream services encompass a wide variety of topics, from social media to video games. Apps such as Facebook Live, Periscope, and 17 include the streaming of scheduled promotions and celebrity events as well as streaming between users, as in videotelephony. Sites such as Twitch.tv have become popular outlets for watching people play video games, such as in eSports, Let's Play-style gaming, or speedrunning.

User interaction via chat rooms forms a major component of live streaming. Platforms often include the ability to talk to the broadcaster or participate in conversations in chat. An extreme example of viewer interfacing is the social experiment Twitch Plays Pokémon, where viewers collaborate to complete Pokémon games by typing in commands that correspond to controller inputs.

Social media

In the field of social media, the term "live media" refers to new media that use streaming media technologies for creating networks of live multimedia shared among people, companies and organizations. Social media marketer Bryan Kramer describes live streaming as an inexpensive "key marketing and communications tool that helps brands reach their online audience." Users can follow their friends' live video "shares" as well as "shares" related to specific content or items. Live media can be shared through any Internet website or application; thus, when people browse on a specific website, they may find live media streams relevant to the content they look for.[1]

Live media can include coverage of various events such as concerts or live news coverage viewed using a web browser or apps such as Snapchat. James Harden and Trolli promoted an upcoming NBA All-Star Game through Snapchat. Many of LaBeouf, Rönkkö & Turner's performance art were live streamed, such as a stream of Shia LaBeouf in a theater viewing all his movies.[2]

Periscope

In March 2015, Twitter launched a live streaming app called Periscope. Normally, users would see a hyperlink attached to their broadcast, directing people to a new tab. Using Periscope, videos appear live on the timeline. If the user has allowed the site to share information, others can see where the user is streaming from. During the broadcast, users can comment, talk to the broadcaster, or ask questions.[3] Kayvon Beykpour, CEO of Periscope, and Dick Costolo and Jack Dorsey, CEOs of Twitter, all shared a common goal—to invent something that would merge both teams into one instead of as partners.[4] The team wanted to give people more accessibility for both Twitter and Periscope. Their solution was a combination of live streaming and Twitter.

Facebook Live

Facebook introduced a video streaming service, Facebook Live to select individuals in August 2016, and it to the public in January.[5] Facebook Live allows Facebook users to include their own "reactions" when someone is broadcasting.[6]

YouTube Live

YouTube was purchased by Google in 2006, and the pair subsequently announced their live streaming app. Like Periscope, users can comment on the broadcast. Unlike Periscope, live streams on YouTube can be saved and any user can access them through the app.[7] YouTube head of product for consumers Manuel Bronstein stated that live streaming gives creators the opportunity to "actually create a more intimate connection with their fans."[7]

Lifestreaming

Twitch co-founder Justin Kan wearing a lifecasting setup

Lifestreaming or lifecasting involves the continuous broadcasting of daily events in one's life. Justin Kan founded Justin.tv as a website for his own continuous lifecasting,[8][9] and is credited with popularizing the style.[10] Will Partin of Rolling Stone described a life streamer as someone who "streams several hours of his conspicuously eventful life almost every single day."[11]

Softwares

There are softwares available in the market to publish and record live streams at the same time. One of the most well-known softwares are Open Broadcaster Software and XSplit Broadcaster. The softwares are used to publish stream to Youtube, Facebook, Periscope, Twitch.tv, etc.

Video games

Live streaming playing of video games gained popularity during the 2010s. David M. Ewalt referred to Twitch.tv as "the ESPN of video games".[12] The website spawned from and grew to overshadow Justin.tv, and was purchased by Amazon.com at the end of 2014 for $970 million USD.[13] Other video-game oriented streaming websites include Smashcast.tv, which was formed after the merging of Azubu and Hitbox.tv, and the South Korea-based afreecaTV. In 2015, YouTube launched YouTube Gaming—a video gaming-oriented sub-site and app that is intended to compete with Twitch.[14]

An example of a notable live streamed event is Games Done Quick, a charity speedrunning marathon hosted on Twitch. Viewers are encouraged to donate for incentives during the stream such as naming characters in a run, having the runners attempt more difficult challenges, or winning prizes.[15] Over $10 million has been raised across sixteen marathons.[16]

Professional streamers can generate livable revenue from viewer subscriptions and donations, as well as platform advertisements and sponsorships from eSports organizations, often earning much more from streaming than from tournament winnings.[17] The audiences of professional gaming tournaments are primarily live stream viewers in addition to live audiences inside venues. The International 2017, a Dota 2 tournament with the largest prize pool in eSport history, was primarily streamed through Twitch, having a peak of over five million concurrent viewers.[18]

Risks

Many instances of crimes such as rape and assault, along with suicides, have been streamed live, leaving little to no time for administrators to remove the offending content. Live streamed crimes became a trend in the mid-2010s with widely reported incidents such as assaults and suicide streamed through Periscope in 2016[19] and the kidnapping of a man in Chicago streamed through Facebook Live in 2017.[20] A mass shooting in Jacksonville, Florida, resulting in the deaths of two in addition to the shooter, occurred during a Madden NFL 19 tournament being streamed through Twitch; twelve gunshots could be heard in the recording.[21]

Additionally, live streaming to large audiences carries the risk that viewers may commit crimes both remotely and in person. Twitch co-founder Justin Kan had been a frequent target of swatting. An incident occurred in April 2017 at the Phoenix Sky Harbor International Airport when a viewer called in a bomb threat and named a streamer as the culprit, temporarily shutting down the airport.[11] They may also be victim to stalking as with other celebrities; for example, a teenager showed up uninvited to a streamer's house and requested to live with him after having saved up for a one-way transcontinental flight.[22] A Taiwan-based American streamer fell victim to a doxing and targeted harassment campaign by a Taiwanese streamer, coordinated through a private Facebook group with 17,000 members "whose activities involved tracking [his] whereabouts," death threats and "the distribution of his parents’ U.S. phone number and address". Twitch responded by temporarily suspending the harassed streamer.[23]

See also

Notes

  1. ↑ This term is ambiguous due to the fact that "streaming" may refer to any media delivered and played back simultaneously without requiring a completely downloaded file. Non-live media such as video on demand and regular YouTube videos are streamed, but not live streamed.

References

  1. ↑ Kramer, Bryan. "How Live-Streaming is Going to Crush it in 2016". SocialMediaToday. Retrieved September 30, 2016.
  2. ↑ Robinson, T. (November 16, 2015). "Why Shia LaBeouf's #AllMyMovies was so successful". The Verge. Retrieved July 7, 2017.
  3. ↑ Price, Rob (March 26, 2015). "Twitter just launched Periscope, its hot new streaming app". Business Insider. Retrieved November 4, 2016.
  4. ↑ Pierce, David (January 12, 2016). "Periscope Now Drops Live Video Into Your Twitter Timeline". Wired. Retrieved November 4, 2016.
  5. ↑ Bell, Karissa (January 28, 2016). "Facebook is finally bringing live streaming to everyone". Mashable. Retrieved April 24, 2016.
  6. ↑ Greenberg, Julia. "Zuckerberg Really Wants You to Stream Live Video on Facebook". WIRED. Retrieved 2016-11-30.
  7. 1 2 Pierce, David. "YouTube Is the Sleeping Giant of Livestreaming". WIRED. Retrieved 2016-11-30.
  8. ↑ Herrman, John (June 17, 2018). "With Twitch, Amazon Tightens Grip on Live Streams of Video Games". The New York Times. Retrieved August 9, 2018. Twitch began in 2011 as an offshoot of Justin.tv, a lifecasting site founded by two Yale graduates, Emmett Shear and Justin Kan. They started the platform after they found that viewers were more interested in watching their lifecasters play video games than eat or sleep.
  9. ↑ Yang, Jeff (March 27, 2007). "Asian Pop: Man with a Cam". San Francisco Chronicle. Retrieved August 9, 2018.
  10. ↑ Hughes, Matthew (October 31, 2016). "Whale is the latest app from twitch.tv founder Justin Kan". The Next Web. Retrieved August 9, 2018. In 2006, he launched Justin.tv, which is credited for popularizing lifestreaming.
  11. 1 2 Partin, Will (June 9, 2017). "On Air With LA's Most Wanted Man, 'Life Streamer' Ice Poseidon". Rolling Stone. Retrieved 2017-07-22.
  12. ↑ Ewalt, David M. (December 2, 2013). "The ESPN of Videogames". Forbes.
  13. ↑ "Amazon to Buy Video Site Twitch for More Than $1 Billion". The Wall Street Journal. 25 August 2014. Retrieved 25 August 2014.
  14. ↑ Dredge, Stuart (August 26, 2015). "Google launches YouTube Gaming to challenge Amazon-owned Twitch". The Guardian. Retrieved September 5, 2015.
  15. ↑ Smith, Ernie (2015-01-13). "How Gaming Gurus Reinvented Telethons for the Web". Association Now.
  16. ↑ "all events tracker". 2017-01-14.
  17. ↑ Leslie, Callum (2014-12-31). "Hearthstone players won more than $1 million in the game's first year". The Daily Dot. Archived from the original on 9 May 2016.
  18. ↑ Handrahan, Matthew (August 14, 2017). "The International 2017 reached 5m peak concurrent viewers". GamesIndustry.biz. Retrieved August 15, 2017.
  19. ↑ Blaise, Lilia (7 July 2017). "Suicide on Periscope Prompts French Officials to Open Inquiry". New York Times. Retrieved 28 January 2017.
  20. ↑ Meisner, Jason; Lee, William; Schmadeke, Steve (2017-01-05). "Brutal Facebook Live attack brings hate-crime charges, condemnation from White House". chicagotribune.com. Retrieved 2017-07-07.
  21. ↑ "Multiple People Were Killed In A Mass Shooting At A Madden Gaming Event In Jacksonville". BuzzFeed News. Retrieved 2018-08-26.
  22. ↑ D'Anastasio, Cecilia (May 2, 2017). "When Fans Take Their Love For Twitch Streamers Too Far". Kotaku. Retrieved August 27, 2017.
  23. ↑ Julia, Alexander (February 5, 2018). "American Twitch IRL streamer details doxing and targeted harassment campaign in Taiwan". Polygon. Retrieved March 23, 2018.
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