LiveStation

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Livestation
Developer(s) Skinkers Ltd., Microsoft Research, Livestation Ltd
Platform Microsoft Windows, Apple Macintosh,[1] Linux, iPhone[2]
Available in English, Arabic (partially)
Type Internet tv
License Proprietary
Website www.livestation.com

Livestation is a platform for distributing live television and radio broadcasts over a data network.[3] It was originally developed by Skinkers Ltd and is now an independent company called Livestation Ltd. The service was originally based on peer-to-peer technology acquired from Microsoft Research.[4] Between mid-June 2013 and mid-July Livestation was unavailable to some subscribers due to technical issues.

Overview

Livestation aggregates international news channels online and offers them in a number of ways:

  • Free to watch: a number of channels can be watched for free on the Livestation website or on their desktop player, a freely downloadable video application that presents all the channels through one interface.
  • Premium service: some of the free channels are also available on a subscription basis both in higher quality (800kbit/s) and in lower (256kbit/s) delivered via an international content distribution network for higher reliability. Some channels due to join the plaftform shortly will ONLY be available on a subscription basis.
  • Mobile: Livestation has launched BBC World News on the iPhone in 16 European countries and Al Jazeera English globally. The apps are available in the iPhone AppStore and stream the live TV channel 24/7 on both Wi-Fi and 3G connections.

Livestation broadcast streams encoded in VC-1 format (Livestation is not currently using peer-to-peer). Playback controls are overlaid on top of the video stream. Unlike services such as Joost which offer video on demand channels, Livestation streams live broadcasts.[5]

Current live TV news channels in the global offering (which comes with a default installation) include:

Livestation provides a website, mobile website and native applications for iOS, Android, Nokia and Blackberry handsets. Early models of Samsung TV are also supported. They also provide desktop software which is currently available for Windows, Mac (including PowerPC) and Linux. The cross-platform compatibility of the desktop software is facilitated by the Qt framework. Social networking features have been added that include the ability to chat with other viewers and also find out what others are watching through a user generated rating system. You can search and select the available channels either from the website, or from within the software.

In the first quarter of 2011 by 1047 percent, resulting in the first profitable quarter in its history.[8]

Between mid-June and mid-July 2013, Livestation suffered a prolonged series of technical issues and was unavailable to some users.

See also

  • IPTV
  • Internet Television
  • TVUnetworks

References

  1. ↑ "Livestation Download Page info Windows XP or Vista Mac Linux (Ubuntu Fedora9 OpenSUSE)". Retrieved 2009-01-01. 
  2. ↑ "iPhone alpha in testing now". Retrieved 2009-01-01. 
  3. ↑ "Live television and radio". Retrieved 2008-03-09. 
  4. ↑ "Scalable High Quality Solution". Retrieved 2008-05-14. 
  5. ↑ "Livestation demonstration". Retrieved 2007-07-05. 
  6. ↑ http://www.livestation.com/forum/categories/3-error_messages/posts/392-nothing_view
  7. ↑ http://www.livestation.com/forum/categories/12-new_channels__your_suggestions/posts/774-bbc_world_news_for_american_viewers?page=1#776
  8. ↑ The Livestation revolution. Livestation Blog. 11 April 2011. Retrieved on 21 April 2011.

External links

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