Live stream video technology has been recently rediscovered by institutions and individuals, at the point that today it is one of the most popular media artifacts. What is behind its success?
When it was given by Hulu the possibility to watch The White House Correspondents Dinner in real time, the success was high, and this only one of the dozens of examples of successful live-stream video events. Today, organizations of any kind try to exploit live stream video technology, especially for commercial purposes: for example, to create new brands, like Esperian, or to enhance the promotion of traditional brands, as Nissan did with its Maxima launch at the New York auto show in 2016.
So, why does it work? The answer is enclosed in one word: liveliness. Remote viewers are promised to have a similar experience of those who are going to attend the event for real, despite the fact that they are not actually present. Coming deeper into the concept of liveliness, we find out that liveliness is composed of two main components: the illusion of presence and remediation from TV. These two factors are equally balanced in making live-stream events so captivating and alluring.
The Illusion of Presence
When viewers watch a live stream video, their point of view is the one of the camera that works as a kind of proxy viewer from them. In other words, it is as if they were physically present at the event, or, to say it better, they has the illusion of being physically present. This effect is what is also called telepresence.
Naturally, it works in the measure that the stream is seamless and smooth, without any disruptions. This is the reason why the choice of the technology is important. For example, the new R-HUB`s live streaming servers http://www.rhubcom.com/v5/live-streaming.html are able to reduce the delay to 3 seconds only (usually the value ranges from 30 to 40 seconds).
The TV Remediation
Remediation is described as “the mix of older cultural conventions for data representation, access and manipulation, and newer conventions” (Lev Manovich). In other words, TV remediation is a combination of elements taken by traditional TV broadcast and newer forms coming from the internet.
In this way, live stream video technology reinvents the web by remediating what has gone before on TV. The effect is that viewers are going to experience something that is old and familiar at the same time, the live TV-broadcast of the past reinvented for the web. Nothing could be more reassuring.
The Charm of Direct Interaction
The main difference with the old live TV-broadcast is that viewers can have live interactions with the speakers during modern live-stream video events through the internet. It is sufficient to combine live stream video technology with web conferencing, as R-HUB has done in its latest severs.
The benefit is that the illusion of presence becomes even stronger, not to mention the level of engagement of the public that really peaks up. In facts, it is proved by some Harvard University researches that direct interaction is a great way to involve people (source: http://healthland.time.com/2012/05/08/why-we-overshare-the-brain-likes-it/ ).
This is the reason why this new medium is growing popular in organizations, as it allows real dialogues between managers, salesmen and customers. This latest feature is particularly important in some new marketing strategies, like the above-given example of the creation of the brand Esperian.
In conclusion, live stream video technologies combined with video conferencing could have an increasingly important role in the digital economy. The extent of its use is quite wide and includes areas as marketing, product promotion, remote collaboration, and remote team management.
The secret behind its success is its allure that is based on liveliness, a mix of telepresence and remediation from TV. However, the reliability of the live stream video technology that is used is crucial, as even the smallest disrupt could break the thin illusion of distant viewers that they are being present for real at their far events. And without this magic, live streaming is useless.