Starting at 10 am ET on Friday 28th July – 4 pm ET Sunday 30th July, Facebook and Blend Media 360 staged the official launch of 360 Live Streaming Worldwide. Exclusive Participants included: Al Caudullo (Thailand), Studio Kwo (Brazil), Adam Ravtech (Yas Island), Project 360 (Switzerland), Ideas Studio (Belarus), Lifestyle Inc. (Japan), Experience 360 (U.S.), 360Fabriek (Netherlands), Adam Cropp (Australia), Jonny Simpson-Lee (U.K.), Inside 360 (Germany), Whistle Productions (France) and Rakka Creative (Finland).
And after being held up by rain Al Caudullo of Explore 360 and Stephane Lambert of Wishtrend Thailand went 360 Live Stream, after a short rain delay from the Vertigo Moon Bar in Bangkok Thailand at 10:01 pm BST, using the astonishing Insta360 Air
The best feature of the Onsta360 camera is that it is just so darn easy and fun. You turn your phone with the micro USB port facing up, plug in the phone and start snapping 360 images, record 360 videos, or live stream 360 like I did directly to your Facebook page. I’ll have a full hands-on review of this 360 camera and app soon.
Facebook has been bullish on 360 and now has added 360 Live streaming to the mix.
Blend Media 360 is a platform specifically built to help 360 video/VR Creators make money from their existing 360/VR content through Blend’s Licensing Platform and expert team of licensing executives, as well as to generate new income for those Creators through our large global network of Brands, Agencies and Publishers wanting to produce new 360/VR content.
The social network announced its Live 360 Ready Program, a list of third-party 360-degree cameras and software solutions verified by Facebook.
The cameras and software will feature the Facebook Live logo on their packaging or their websites, and they will enable users to interact directly with friends and followers by giving them direct access to Reactions and comments via Facebook.
Cameras that are part of the initial Live 360 Ready Program are: Garmin VIRB 360, Giroptic iO, Insta360 Nano, Insta360 Air, Insta360 Pro, ION360 U, Nokia Ozo Orah 4i, Z CAM S1 and 360fly 4K Pro.
And included software solutions are: Assimilate SCRATCH VR, Groovy Gecko, Livescale 360, Teradek, Voysys, Wowza and Z CAM WonderLive.
Facebook said camera manufacturers or software companies interested in joining the Live 360 Ready Program should visit facebook360.fb.com/live360.
Facebook also announced that it now supports resolution up to 4K for Live 360 streams (pictured above), enabling users to view content in higher fidelity and, via the Facebook 360 application for Gear VR, in virtual reality, both live and after they end.
The social network’s donate buttons for Facebook Live, introduced in March, have been extended to Live 360 videos, enabling verified pages to raise funds for U.S.-based 501(c)(3) nonprofits, or nonprofits to add donate buttons to their own Live 30 videos.
Facebook introduced the ability for verified pages to schedule Facebook Live videos, complete with pre-broadcast lobbies, last October, and this can now be done for Live 360 videos, as well.
Creators and publishers of Live 360 videos can let their friends and followers know the dates and times for live videos via announcement posts published to News Feed, which enable those friends and followers to schedule one-time reminder notifications.
Once Live 360 videos from profiles have ended, Facebook is adding stabilization when its algorithm detects that it is needed, such as in cases where the video is shaky.
Creators of Live 360 videos can also use the 360 Guide tool to alert viewers to highlights and points of interest during the broadcasts, as well as Facebook’s Heatmap visual insights tool, which gives creators of live videos with at least 20,000 unique active viewers information on which parts of their videos drew the most engagement.
Facebook introduced Guide and Heatmap for Facebook Live last August.
Finally, Live 360 videos can now be cross-posted for more distribution, viewership, and engagement.
Al Caudullo and Explore360 Media went 360 Live Streaming a total of eight times over the course of the Weekend of Live 360.