With the world thrown into an elongated period of social distancing, producers are having to reimagine what it means to not only create content but to ensure that what they create is worthy of appointment viewing status. Anyone can throw something up on YouTube for a major brand but how do you keep the "live" element prevelant while creators and audience alike are being kept apart physically?
Live X co-founder Corey Behnke was posed this question by the Audiovisual and Integrated Experience Association (AVIXA) as part of their ongoing look at Covid-19's impact on the AV industry.
From Behnke's talk with AVIXA:
“The whole reason to do something live is to be interactive,” Behnke emphasizes, “otherwise, you might as well tape it, edit it, and put it on YouTube, because it's going to look better, you know?”
Interactivity can be as simple as asking for input via social media, which can actually lead to some pretty creative programming. Like when Live X put a snowman in its studio for a New York Lottery promotion and asked Facebook viewers to help dress it, and later to choose which heater to use to melt it. “It got huge engagement, crazy engagement,” Behnke said.
Live X is also experimenting with new types of interactive components, using its own Cheesehead TV production as a sort of beta testing scheme. For a new Cheesehead TV trivia game, Live X is using a custom-built YouTube API in conjunction with a chat function integrated with its own streaming platform, which is built on Wowza. Audience responses are used to drive clever graphics-based features and their scores are tracked with a leaderboard.
Be sure to read the entire article on Live X over on AVIXA's website.
