Livestream Video Broadcasting App Comes To Google Glass
Livestream is an application that lets you stream a video broadcast, and you can now use the app right from Google Glass specs perched on your face, a development that both heightens privacy concerns and also promises a new wave of POV journalism and entertainment.
As a means to broadcast events, Livestream is a great tool, and downloaded and installed on Google Glass, it gains another powerful layer of usability. Glass users can just download and install the Livestream app and launch it by saying, “Ok Glass, Livestream” and tapping the side of Glass.
For journalists, fans, and advertisers, this is an exciting development. A reporter could, for example, produce intense POV footage of an event, getting in close to the action while delivering a report and streaming that video live.
The possibilities for marketing and advertising are numerous. We’ve already seen the NBA’s Sacramento Kings use Google Glass (and CrowdOptic) to give fans a player’s-eye view of warmups; imagine an MLB pitcher, NFL quarterback, or Major League Ultimate handler streaming what they see as they play. The same could hold true for musicians in concert, an actor backstage at an award show, and on and on.
Advertisers would love to sponsor some special “all-access pass” content, and offering that sort of footage would help any organization market their event. And because it all happens in the cloud, users don’t have to worry about running out of storage space.
Of course, privacy mavens will flip about what Livestream portends. Imagine you’re at an event--any event, such as a sporting event, concert, political rally, and so on--and there are multiple others in the crowd sporting Google Glass. You just know that some of them will be streaming video of everything they see--some of them may be reporters, some just interested fans--but you won’t be able to tell which ones are doing it. They can shoot more discreetly than if they were lugging a video camera around, and they can follow anyone anywhere, such as into the bathroom.
Of course, that’s not a radical departure from what’s already possible. If you’re in a crowd of any kind, you can be certain that at least someone nearby is filming everything with a smartphone; with Google Glass in a crowd it’d certainly be less obvious, but then again, it’s easier to avoid those handful of Glass wearers than it is to dodge every single person with a smartphone.
As a means to broadcast events, Livestream is a great tool, and downloaded and installed on Google Glass, it gains another powerful layer of usability. Glass users can just download and install the Livestream app and launch it by saying, “Ok Glass, Livestream” and tapping the side of Glass.
For journalists, fans, and advertisers, this is an exciting development. A reporter could, for example, produce intense POV footage of an event, getting in close to the action while delivering a report and streaming that video live.
The possibilities for marketing and advertising are numerous. We’ve already seen the NBA’s Sacramento Kings use Google Glass (and CrowdOptic) to give fans a player’s-eye view of warmups; imagine an MLB pitcher, NFL quarterback, or Major League Ultimate handler streaming what they see as they play. The same could hold true for musicians in concert, an actor backstage at an award show, and on and on.
Advertisers would love to sponsor some special “all-access pass” content, and offering that sort of footage would help any organization market their event. And because it all happens in the cloud, users don’t have to worry about running out of storage space.
Of course, privacy mavens will flip about what Livestream portends. Imagine you’re at an event--any event, such as a sporting event, concert, political rally, and so on--and there are multiple others in the crowd sporting Google Glass. You just know that some of them will be streaming video of everything they see--some of them may be reporters, some just interested fans--but you won’t be able to tell which ones are doing it. They can shoot more discreetly than if they were lugging a video camera around, and they can follow anyone anywhere, such as into the bathroom.
Of course, that’s not a radical departure from what’s already possible. If you’re in a crowd of any kind, you can be certain that at least someone nearby is filming everything with a smartphone; with Google Glass in a crowd it’d certainly be less obvious, but then again, it’s easier to avoid those handful of Glass wearers than it is to dodge every single person with a smartphone.
