With more and more people both streaming and watching Facebook Live videos (all the more now thanks to Chewbacca Mask lady!), it’s imperative for the social media giant to continue on improving the service and offer more features both for publishers and the normal, viewing audience. One new thing that they’ve introduced is the ability to broadcast long-form, non-stop videos so that people can watch a conference live, see the red-carpet for a glittering event, or even something as mundane but relaxing as a 24-hour puppy cam.
The Continuous Live Video API is now available not only lets you stream continuously, but it also allows you to use your own high-grade cameras for the broadcast, and even mixing boards and professional suites. Okay, it might not look as “authentic” anymore as when you’re using your mobile phone to stream, but at least you have the option to make it more professional looking if that’s what you’re going for.
For the live API platform (both normal and continuous), you also can now choose to limit the stream to a particular location (geogating), limit the age of users who can view the videos (age-gating), and even set the video to expire at a certain time (Mission Impossible-gating. Okay, not really). You will also be able to look at engagement graphs on the Live Video replays so you can see which “boring” parts to skip when you scroll through the video.
The only drawback to this continuous streaming API is that you won’t be able to save the video so people can view it later. This is understandable since Facebook would not want to be saving on their server gigabytes worth of cute puppies rolling around the playground. But we think it’s worth it of course, as we’ll probably see more interesting streams using this continuous format.
VIA: Tech Crunch
