LinkedIn carries out tests with its own live video function. The social network for professionals is launching LinkedIn Live this week, a tool that allows users and companies to broadcast real-time video for select groups of people or for LinkedIn users from all over the world.
That’s what the TechCrunch site reports today. It found the function yesterday and reports that it is first available as a beta version in the United States. According to LinkedIn, the function is first invite-only. Whether it will be possible for everyone to make videos with LinkedIn Live is not yet entirely clear; it is possible that functionalities will change as the experiment progresses. Although this is an invite-only test, all users can register for the function via a form.
Live broadcasting
The tool aims to broadcast conferences, but also important press conferences, news interviews, expert advice and other matters. With this, LinkedIn continues to expand its functions so that the 562 million users it has on their business network can continue to build.
LinkedIn collaborates with Telestream Wirecast, Switcher Studio, Wowza, Socialive, and Brandlive to ensure the performance of the new feature. The tools give content creators multiple ways to go live, including via the desktop and the mobile app. There will be more partnerships in the coming weeks.
Microsoft also provides the technical side of the story via Azure Media Services. Despite the fact that Microsoft took over LinkedIn in 2016, it has been keeping some distance from the social network for all this time. Products developed by Microsoft and LinkedIn are usually independent of each other. But that is not the case now.
Earlier LinkedIn came up with tests for a function that enables users to create events and invite their connections to them. Like live videos, that was a much sought-after feature for the network.
