Daily Archives: July 22, 2015

An Experimental Live Video Podcast on Periscope

Periscope

Periscope

Hi listeners,

It’s been a little while since I recorded an episode of Luke’s English Podcast. I’ve been really busy – mainly because of my wedding. I’m now fully married! I’ll be recording a podcast episode about weddings soon. In the meantime, here’s some extra content – my first live video broadcast via Periscope.

Have you heard about Periscope? It’s a smartphone app which is becoming really popular at the moment. All around the world, right now, people are broadcasting live videos of themselves on this app. Lots of people are talking about it, and it is the latest form of social networking and self-publishing. You can download the app from the Periscope website here at www.periscope.tv You can find me on Periscope by searching for @EnglishPodcast. You can also watch Periscope videos from a computer here https://watchonperiscope.com/users/englishpodcast/6862923

Basically, the app works like this:
– You download the app from www.periscope.tv or the App Store (Apple) or Play Store (Android) onto your phone.
– You can sign-in with Twitter, or create a new profile.
– You can then watch live broadcasts from people anywhere in the world. You can check a world map which shows where people are currently broadcasting, then watch their broadcasts.
– It’s possible to send people text messages and communicate with them directly during the recording.
– Periscope broadcasts (scopes) can be re-played up to 24 hours after the live broadcast.
– It’s also possible for users to save their videos on their phones, and then upload them to YouTube for permanent publishing.

I think this could be a really cool way for me to communicate with LEPsters all around the world, so recently I did my first experimental Periscope broadcast, from the SpacePod(TM) where I record episodes of Luke’s English Podcast. I didn’t really tell anyone that I was going to start – I just published a quick Facebook status and a Tweet, and then 15 minutes later I started broadcasting my live video. 25 people joined my first Periscope live broadcast. Yes, just 25 people – it was an exclusive moment! Most of those people were LEPsters, but some of them had never heard of me or my podcast. They were just random viewers who just discovered me and started watching. I have now uploaded the video onto YouTube and you can see it below.

Some details before you watch:
– The frame rate is pretty low. This means the video quality is not great. I think this is because my internet connection, even using WiFi is not great. I hope this will improve in the future.
– During the live broadcast my viewers were sending me text messages, and they were visible on the screen during the broadcast. Unfortunately, those text messages don’t appear on the saved video uploaded to YouTube :(
– Also, during the recording, viewers can create little heart symbols when they like something – the hearts float up the right side of the screen. Again, these are not visible in the YouTube version, unfortunately.
– What do I talk about in the video? I give a quick tour of the SkyPod (or SpacePod or StarPod or PodShip or whatever you want to call the room where I record the podcast), and also I give a quick tour of my website. Watch the whole video to witness some never before seen details of what it looks like when I record my podcast.

Here’s the video (and sorry for the long text, as usual). Enjoy! (despite the poor frame rate)
Luke
p.s. Expect more audio podcasts soon…