111 people around the world did.
Follow me on Periscope/Twitter for more Derby live video broadcasts !
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| My live broadcast of Derby's Carnival on Saturday. |
If you have never heard of Periscope then here is my review of it to see if its for you.
Periscope is a free live video broadcasting app for your Smartphone. It allows you to transmit live video and sound to the world.
People find your broadcasts either via Twitter if they follow you or via the app itself.
People viewing your live video can communicate with YOU via a chat field. you type in your short message and it pops up on the video screen. It fades away after a few seconds and
gets pushed up the screen by other peoples messages. Everyone viewing the video can see everyone elses messages.
Each persons messages are in a different colour.
You can also send your appreciation to the broadcaster by tapping on the screen, this will send Hearts floating up the screen.
On popular feeds the hearts fly up the screen like a "love firework" LOL!
How to use the Periscope app (ios version):
As a viewer :
Once you have installed it and signed in with your Twitter account you are ready to go.
Click on the World icon and then the Map button at the top and it will show you a map of the world with red dots on it showing you all the current live broadcasts.
If it has a number in the red circle, this means there are several broadcasts in that location, zoom in to see more accurate locations.
To view a broadcast simply tap on one of the dots, it will show you details at the bottom of the broadcast. Tap on it to start viewing it.
Within a few seconds it will go to fullscreen and say "Loading" with the background being a blurred view of the original view of the broadcast. The live footage will
normally start within 3 seconds. If the person has a good signal the quality of the video is amazing.
Once on this screen you can now type a message to the broadcaster.Tap the screen to send hearts.
Swipe the screen to the left and it will show you a real-time map location for the person doing the broadcast.
In this section you can also tap
"hide chat" to stop all the messages scrolling up if you just want to see the video. If you swipe this panel up you can see who else is watching the broadcast.
To get back to the normal screen simply swipe it left out the way.
To stop viewing the broadcast tap the X in the top right of the screen.
As a broadcaster:
Tap the 3rd icon at the bottom of the screen.
This will start the camera preview and allow you to type in a description of your broadcast, for instance "Playing with my Dog on the beach".
Once you tap the red "Start the Broadcast" button it will determine your location, then it will start the video broadcast and then it will
send a Tweet to your twitter feed that you are now live. If you have followers on Periscope then it will also send push notifications to their phones to say you are now live.
These take the format as follows, you get a sound and a pop up notifcation "Periscope: M4TAM is Live: Guitar in the house, playing some covers."
You then tap on the message and it will launch the Periscope app and start the live view imediatly.
To get the most out of Periscope you need to have a good phone signal, ideally this should be 4G or Wifi.
Your live broadcast will continue for ever until you stop it or loose signal for a long time.
To toggle the camera between the back and front cameras you just tap twice on the screen. When you do this there will be a second of blank video as it swaps over.
The preview thumbnail it uses seems to be based on the very first frame the camera sees, ie before you even click the start broadcast button. This is why a lot of the thumbnails are of the floor !
Worth noting that if you want your preview thumbnail to be obvious what its about.
The exposure and focus also seems to be based on the first frame.
The app is designed to be used in Portrait mode, if you turn your iPhone around 90 degrees then it means the messages will be sideways and also the viewers will
have to rotate their phone to see your footage the right way around. If someone if viewing your broadcast on a computer web browser then they would have to turn their monitor around so not ideal :)
To stop your broadcast at any time single tap at the top of the screen and a V icon will appear, tap that and a "Stop Broadcast" button will show, tap that to stop your
video transmission. At this point the app will save a local copy of your video to your camera roll on your iPhone. This is quite handy as it means you have
a record of it. this copy will not have the comments or hearts on it.
One important thing to bare in mind is that your video will be available to watch again for a maximum of 24 hours from the end of broadcast. Once
it becomes 24 hours old it will be deleted for ever.! You can watch the old broadcasts complete with all comments and hearts on the
watchonperiscope.com website.
You can not leave comments on non-live videos.
By the way there is also a web version if you don't have a smartphone. You have to install the plugin to be able to interact with the broadcasts by logging in with Twitter.
Periscope is damn addictive
I have only been using Periscope for one week and I'm totally addicted to it. You are able to share moments in peoples lives all over the world and interact with them.
Some interesting broadcasts that I have seen over the last week are :
1) A man trapped in a lift in California.
He said it was the first time he had ever used the Periscope app, oh my what a great first time!
Initially you thought yea right is he really trapped but over time you could see he really was trapped. You could hear people outside
trying to get the doors open and telling him not to press any buttons.
There were 45 people watching him, all reassuring him that he would soon be free. Lots of people telling him to keep calm and that we are all in this
together.
Eventually, after what seemed like an eternity the doors were prized apart and you could see that the lift had got stuck part way between floors.
He was able to drop down out of the lift and to freedom.
This broadcast was really gripping.
2) Balloon Chase crew.
This was a lady in Texas that was part of a chase crew. They follow the progress of a Hot air balloon in their pick up truck so that they can be there for when it lands.
This was an interesting broadcast as the balloon kept looking like it was going to touch down but then went up again.
I asked her if she had ever been in a balloon but she said no as she was scared of heights.
the balloon eventually touched down in front of a house and the crew then held onto the ropes until the air had started to release from the canopy.
3) Earthquake at Universal studios.
This was someone on the ride at Universal Studios in California. It was just like being there with them. The vehicle they were on fell down and the
set all collapsed and then lots of water flooded in from above. After this they went on to the Jaws set where a Great White Shark came out of the water and attacked the ride.
4) London Street tours.
There were several people doing this, basically people wandering around various locations in London.
One person was going around souvenir shops and showing people the kind of things you can buy.
One was a wander around Leicester Square showing the live entertainment.
One was a magic at Covent Garden.
One guy was showing you his daily commute from home to the London Underground, of course this transmission stop at the point the train went into the tunnel as there is no phone signal or WiFi in there.
5) Tornado in USA
I have seen a few people doing this. There are a lot of bad Tornado's going through the USA and Periscope allows you to see them live as they hit.
There was one on Saturday which was about to hit, it was great being able to see it live and feel the tension of being there.
6) Filming of the latest Walking Dead TV Series.
This was one of the best finds on Periscope, "Pastor Rodney" kept broadcasting live from near the sets of Walking Dead ! You were able to see them setting up scenes for the latest TV Series of Walking Dead. He was chatting to film crews.
It was so amazing to actually see the new series being filmed, This is the power of Periscope.
If YOU fancy joining the new Periscope revolution then download the free app available on iPhone and Android platforms.
You sign in with your Twitter credentials and get broadcasting or viewing.
Thanks
Andy
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