--Livestation in Mobile Live Streaming Deal with weComm
Livestream, (formerly Mogulus), a New York-based company which offers a platform that enables amateurs and professionals to produce and distribute live TV on the Internet (note: the company, which offers free and premium versions of its platform, bills the platform as offering, among other things, the ability to mix multiple live cameras, imported video clips and overlay graphics, and as allowing producers to broadcast live from a mobile phone, use a customizable Flash player with integrated chat, and develop a branded channel page on its Web site that incorporates interactive chat--for an in-depth overview of Livestream and its platform, see the interview with its co-founder and CEO, Max Haot, that was published on itvt.com, May 21st), will today officially announce the release of several new API's that it says will enable both the free and premium versions of its service to be integrated into in-house or third-party online video platforms and players. According to the company, a new Livestream Player API will enable customers, programmers and Web agencies to build their own Livestream-powered video players and clip libraries using HTML, Adobe Flash or Adobe Flex development environments. Other platform API's being released today include a Live Publishing API, a Guide API, an Account API and a Chat API.
According to Livestream, the first "key initiative" to use the new API's was conducted in partnership with Brightcove, and saw the companies jointly developing a plug-in that allows Brightcove customers to instantly stream live and linear video via Livestream into their existing Brightcove player. The plug-in, which is available now, is billed as integrating seamlessly within any Brightcove player template and thus providing the same user experience and leveraging the same monetization, analytics and asset management capabilities as the Brightcove platform. Livestream says that it is also developing plug-ins for a range of popular open source video players, including Longtail Video's JW Player, Adobe Strobe and Flowplayer. "Livestream is an important partner for us as we look to meet the increased demand for high-quality live streaming among our global customer base," Chris Johnston, Brightcove's director of technology partnerships, said in a prepared statement. "In partnering with organizations like Livestream, we're able to provide customers with seamless access to a broad feature set for live publishing, distribution and analytics."
Livestream claims that its new API's have already "borne important fruit." Among other things, the company says, they were used to bring Twitcam.com--a service billed as enabling users to stream live video to their Twitter feeds and chat, with just one click--from the concept stage to live product in less than a week (see the article published on itvt.com, July 21st); the Player API was used by C-SPAN to create a custom multichannel player that provided viewers with multiple camera angles for its online coverage of the Sotomayor confirmation hearings; and the Player API was also used to create a custom, branded and viral Flash video player for the recent Mandela Day Concert (note: according to the company, the video player could be embedded as a widget on any Web site or social network). More information on the Livestream API's, including sign-up, documentation, live examples and downloadable code, is available at: http://www.livestream.com/platform/player/api and at http://www.livestream.com/platform/developer.
In other live streaming news: Livestation (streams live news from a range of international sources via browser and desktop player solutions) said Monday that it has partnered with mobile applications provider, weComm, to deliver live TV news to mobile handsets including Android and BlackBerry devices (note: the company recently teamed with Akamai to offer live TV streaming services on the iPhone for BBC World News and Al Jazeera). According to the company, weComm's wave On-Demand Mobile Application Platform will enable it to deliver live broadcasts from its TV news partners to all leading mobile operating systems. The live TV content will be available for a monthly subscription, the company says, and the service will also provide access to other news formats from the same providers. The companies say they will distribute the service via a number of "easy-to-subscribe methods," including through major mobile handset manufacturers' application stores. weComm claims that its wave platform uses a client-server infrastructure to deliver high-quality, interactive mobile data services optimized for all major mobile operating systems. "Time to market is key for us," Livestation CEO, Matteo Berlucchi, said in a prepared statement. "By partnering with weComm we can now deliver a high-quality, live TV experience very quickly to the market across the broadest possible range of smartphone devices."
