Woot! That’s me on The List Show TV (not the Wookie LOL):
Every now and then I get a request to do an interview. Usually it’s for blogs, podcasts and printed publications. Every now and then I get one that turns out to be a little bigger than I expected. ABC Network’s “The List Show TV” contacted me to do a quick interview and get my thoughts on mobile Live Streaming. In particular they noticed my use of Facebook Live. I did the interview via Skype and kinda forgot about it. Last night one of my cousins posted a congratulations on Facebook and I was like “what are you talking about?” I went looking for the show online as I don’t think it airs here locally in Atlanta. Low and behold, there it was on their YouTube channel! It’s always an honor when publications and media outlets reach out to me for my opinions. This one had the added cool factor that it was actually on TV too! Continue reading “Hey! That’s Me Featured On ABC’s The List Show TV”
Live streaming is becoming more and more popular and whether or not you’re live streaming your photo shoots or just wanting to create a behind the scenes video, your DLSR has the best view. Let’s face it. Your DSLR is pointed at the subject and has the best point of view. Sure, you can mount your smartphone or video camera on a stand/tripod to capture the “set”, but your DSLR is always going to be focused on the action!
If you’re into Live Streaming (if not you should think about it), then you’ve heard of Twitter’s mobile App called Periscope. Periscope launched last March 2015 and already has over 25 million users. That’s huge! Until yesterday you could only broadcast using the camera on an iOS or Android device. For the casual scope (broadcast) that’s fine, but if you wanted to show something big or with a lot of action, your smart device’s camera may not always be best. We hoped that Periscope would open the doors to other cameras and it has started…
I feel like a pioneer when it comes to Periscope. I did my first broadcast on March 27th, 2015 which was one day after the app became available. I’ve done 249 broadcasts to date. I’ve also learned a LOT about live streaming in general. When the folks over at Periscope Summit asked me to speak I was both excited and honored as I have a lot to say on the subject, platform and app. I live stream on a regular basis for work and personally. So what could I possibly learn at Periscope Summit?
Twitter launched Periscope on March 26th, 2015 and so far it has been a hit with many. It’s estimated that Periscope has 12 Million Users. It even got Apple’s prestigious “App of the Year” for 2015. Yes, all things are pointing to Periscope only getting better from here on out. However, Periscope is in an ever increasing crowded field. While we don’t see Meerkat in the new much anymore, there are others like Blab and yes the 800 lb gorilla, Facebook. Facebook has dipped their two into the live streaming pond a little at a time. Well recently, they waded out a little farther by starting to turn on Live Streaming in their regular Facebook iOS App for “regular folks”. I say “regular folks” because before this advancement, Facebook only allowed Public Figures (and people with Verified Pages) to stream in their Facebook Mentions App. Now keep in mind that this is a slow rollout. You may not have it yet. This feature only started rolling out since December 14th, 2015. I only just got the feature (a button shows up when you have it) right around Christmas day. I have other friends that still don’t have it yet. Whether you have it yet or not, you will ultimately have this ability (at least in the iOS App). It’s just a matter of time as they turn on more users each day.
The Periscope App Could Learn a Few Things from the Facebook App
Many of you know that I embraced Live Streaming early on. Periscope launched on March 26, 2015 and I did my first LIVE broadcast on March 27th using the App. Since then I’ve been streaming on Periscope on a regular basis as well as Facebook Mentions Live. I also stream twice a week on the Adobe Twitch.tv channel. Last night I got the word that I’ve been added to the list of speakers for the upcoming Periscope Summit in San Francisco January 14-17, 2016. I’m honored not only to be a speaker but to speak about something I’m passionate about and that is Live Streaming and Photography.
A good video has great light and good sound. A great video is short, great content, good light, good sound AND STEADY. A shaky unstabilized video may cause your viewers to stop watching for fear of getting motion sickness. While smartphones can capture great video quality these days, the small form factor is hard to hold steady if you are moving or walking. The iPhone 6s Plus can shoot stabilized video and I can stabilize it in post with Adobe Premiere Pro CC. However, if you’re walking your video may be so shaky that the stabilization methods above may not be enough. That’s where a gimbal comes in…
I’ve been getting into LIVE Broadcasting more and more over the past few months as things like Periscope, Live via Facbook Mentions and Twitch.TV continue to gain popularity. I put this page together to help my fellow live mobile broadcasters with gear recommendations to make your broadcasts better. As new gear comes out I’ll continue to update the page. To visit this page in the future point your browser to terrywhite.com/scopekit. Be sure to follow me on Periscope for tips and tricks and more.
This past weekend I had the honor of giving away a NEW TW Broadcaster Pro to one of my followers. I announced the winner LIVE on Periscope and you can catch the replay here:
Periscope is Twitter’s live streaming social media network. With Periscope on your iPhone or Android phone you can live stream to your followers and guests anytime you want, 24 hours a day. Periscope and apps like it empower regular people to broadcast to a worldwide audience for the cost of your data plan/internet connection. I find myself using it more and more and watching “scopes” from others when I have few spare minutes here and there throughout the day. As much as I like what Periscope has done in the short amount of time they’ve been up and running (March 2015), there is definitely room for improvement. I had started a wish list of features that I want to see, but I figured I would invite my Periscope followers to weigh in on what they wanted to see. Hey Periscope! Together we came up with this list:
The ability to bring someone into your scope. For example, if I’m scoping from an event it would be cool to say “now let’s see what’s going on on the other side of the convention center with Larry.” I would hand it over to Larry and he would be live from his phone on my broadcast. I could take control back at any time.
We would REALLY like the ability to scrub, fast forward/rewind replays. As it stands now if you have to leave a replay at some point, when you return to watch it later you have to start over from the beginning.
We want the ability to see the complete list of viewers at the end of a broadcast. This was a feature in the early days, but now we can only see the names of the last few people that joined. I would love to see the COMPLETE list of all viewers.
Time to word wrap the comments so they don’t go all the way across the screen. Comments are great, but often the content suffers because the comments in landscape go all the way across the screen. Yes I know we can hide them, but I still want to see them on one side.
Ability to schedule a broadcast. I like the instant nature of Periscope, but it would be cool if people could have a little advanced notice. Not everyone can drop what they’re doing to tune in. So I’d like to be able to say “Watch me on Periscope today at 5PM to see……”
Put a “stop broadcast” button on the main display. As it stands now you have to swipe down to reveal the stop button. It would be cool to have the option to display it on screen at all times. Yes I know if that were the case some might press it by accident, but really so what. They would learn and not do it again or turn it off in the prefs.
Ability to keep broadcasts longer than 24 hours. Right now Periscopes expire after 24 hours and disappear forever. It would be nice to have the option to keep them longer. For now I’m using katch.me and it seems to offer all the things that Periscope should be doing on their site.
Ability to save videos WITH the comments/hearts. Periscope can save the raw video from your broadcast to your phone’s camera roll. However, it will be just the video/audio without the comments and hearts. It would be great to have the whole broadcast with all the feedback intact. This would make it easy to repurpose it on other sites.
Fix the Saved Videos issues. OK, this is not really a new feature request. This is a cry to fix the existing feature above. You can save the raw video to your camera roll, but since they implemented the landscape broadcasting feature it’s really messed up. Landscape videos show up vertical on your camera roll (at a 90° angle), worse when you flip to the selfie camera the video is recorded the opposite way and totally unacceptable the saved videos are very very low res. At this point you might as well turn this feature off as the vides are pretty much unusable.
Ability to show other content on your smartphone (pictures/videos). It would really be cool to bring up a photo or video from your device and show it in your broadcast.
Share links at the end of a broadcast that people can tap/click on. A lot of times we’re talking about products, websites and services and it would really be cool if the broadcaster could share links at the end that people could actually tap on and go to.
Ability to follow someone on Twitter. It’s odd that a Twitter owned product doesn’t allow you to follow people on twitter from Periscope. I can view people’s profiles and usually their Periscope user name is the same as their Twitter handle, but there is no direct way to follow them on Twitter.
Manual control of the camera and focus. One of the most frustrating aspects of using Periscope in less than ideal conditions is that it offers zero control over the camera. If you were to shoot a video or still with your iPhone you could tap to focus and even hold down your finger to lock the focus and exposure. None of these controls exist while you’re in Periscope.
Recently Watched Tab – This was suggested by one of my followers and I like it. It would be cool to see which broadcasts you recently watched so that you can get back to the replays and follow those broadcasters that you’re not already following.
Groups – Periscope allows you to do private broadcasts to “some” of your followers (this also needs to be fixed), but it would really be cool to be able to private broadcast to a group or share a broadcast to a group.
Profile Views – How cool would it be to see who’s viewed your profile?
Ability for the broadcaster to type comments – I didn’t get the usefulness of this suggestion at first. Then I realized that there have been times that I’ve been broadcasting in places where I couldn’t really talk. It would have been great to be able to answer questions via text comments instead.
Filtering for banned words. I’m quick to block someone from my broadcasts if they are being rude, disruptive and attacking me or others. It would be great to have the ability to create list of banned words to prevent the comments from being made in the first place.
Private messages. As it stands now if you type a comment everyone sees it. Sometimes you may want to send a private comment to a broadcaster such as contact info.
Show the duration of a replay. When you start watching a replay there is a tiny progress bar at the bottom of the screen, but you have no idea how much time is left.
Ability to manually scroll back comments. Sometimes comments go by that we miss. It would be great to have the ability to scroll back the comments and/or slow them down
Allow web viewers to login and do Commenting and give Hearts on the Web
