Twitter’s Periscope Producer service is now available to everyone, the San Francisco-based company announced on Thursday. The announcement came more than four months after the social media giant originally started rolling out the Periscope Producer service to major brands. The product was designed to provide broadcasters with an easy way of integrating video content from non-mobile sources into their broadcasts. The current version of the service is supported on Android and iOS devices, as well as desktop browsers.
The addition of this service won’t change the way you can already use Periscope to broadcast video from your smartphone. Instead, the new change is only evident by visiting the People tab of the app, scrolling down to the “Periscope Producer” option and tapping “Advanced Sources.” In case you can’t find the option, developers suggest you try restarting the app. Once you’ve accessed the new interface, you can simply list one or more external devices whose feeds you’re planning to use in your Periscope streams. Note that the “Source Display Name” section is completely optional to use, but you’ll probably have a hard time differentiating between your sources during a stream if you don’t take the time to label them with unique names.
Among other things, Periscope Producer supports feeds from webcams, integrated computer cameras, virtual reality (VR) headsets, and even Xbox One, i.e. Kinect. In practice, virtually all devices capable of video output can be used with the service. Periscope streams that are using feeds from third-party devices can still be modified and edited just like regular ones, though some limitations still apply depending on what kind of devices you’re using. However, seeing how Periscope is just a delivery platform, any potential limitations will depend on your devices, and not be related to Twitter’s streaming service. The new addition to Periscope was rolled out to all users as a server-side update that’s launching in stages, meaning it may be a while before you get access to Periscope Producer. In somewhat related news, the app’s creators have recently started opposing President Trump’s controversial immigration policies by adding the message “proudly made in America by immigrants” to all of their latest changelogs.