Until now, Periscope users were allowed to stream from mobile devices only, regardless of if they were a simple casual user or a big media company. With today’s announcement, though, Twitter has set out to change this.
Twitter has confirmed that it is bringing a number of changes to its Periscope service in order to fully embrace companies, organizations, producers, and even YouTube personalities. As part of the change, these users will be given access to a feature dubbed Periscope Producer, which allow them to create their own distinctive URL which can then be entered into the streaming device that the user chooses, such as professional cameras, desktops, VR headsets or even drones. As soon as the stream is recording, a preview will appear in Periscope and from there the user can choose to publish it to the public, allowing anybody to watch. From then onwards, the experience is the same as any other stream, meaning access to replies from the audience, view counts, and all other features will be viewable. The Producer feature has actually been in testing for the past six weeks and its launch partners include Dancing With The Stars, Fusion, Louis Vuitton, Walt Disney Studios and Xbox UK, among others, and its addition to the service is sure to attract many new content creators, as well as provide an incentive to current ones to boost their output. For now, the feature is exclusive to professional content creators who apply for the feature, Twitter has plans to eventually roll out the feature to all users alongside providing an API that will allow for programs to start automatically.
As the feature is still relatively new, it’s unclear whether it will take off, but it certainly does have a lot of potential and could provide content providers with the right place to show off exclusive clips, or, in the long run, it could even be the first step in replacing live television if the Television networks see enough potential in the service to connect up their professional equipment to their respective Periscope live streams, though, for now, it’s likely that the service will be reserved for exclusives or topics of high-interest such as the US elections.