My new cool iPhone app “U-Broadcaster”
I discovered a cool new iPhone app the other day that’s like having a broadcast satellite truck in my hand. It’s awesome.
But first, FULL DISCLOSURE, I have NOTHING to do with any app company, nor Apple….unfortunately, I’m not even a stockholder of Apple. But, I will disclose that I am a freakishly dedicated iPhone lover…I love my iPhone….LOVE it. Non iPhone users can “yeah, but the coverage sucks…blah, blah, …Verizon’s better….blah blah….i love the bberry….blah, blah”…whatever. For me, the iPhone rocks and it’s revolutionizing the way we communicate. But I digress.
The other day I downloaded the app “U-Broadcaster” from the company “U-Stream.” Their web site’s “About Us” page explains their business as follows:
“Ustream.TV is the live interactive video broadcast platform that enables anyone with a camera and an Internet connection to quickly and easily broadcast to a global audience of unlimited size. In less than two minutes, anyone can become a broadcaster by creating their own channel on Ustream or by broadcasting through their own site, empowering them to engage with their audience and further build their brand.”
And it’s true. And more importantly, it’s FREE! Yes, download the app, set-up an account on the U-Stream website, and within minutes you can broadcast live video over the internet. It’s kind of crazy. Now, this is not a pitch to get an iPhone, or the U-Broadcaster app. It is about how this technology will/can help brands connect to their customers, how it will potentially impact the journalism industry (those poor folks are freaking out these days), and how we’ll all interact with each other differently.
With U-Broadcaster, you can link your account to your Twitter, Facebook, MySpace, and/or YouTube accounts. So, when you begin your broadcast, you can notify all your friends/followers on your social media sites that you’re beginning your “show” and they can tune in, all with a simple click (or you can just record your video, and upload it later).
Think about this….what used to require a big truck, satellite connections, a technical staff, camera-person, on screen reporter, a satellite, uplink, downlink, frequencies, etc., can now be done with a cell phone…or a laptop, whatever.
As I type this entry, the site is broadcasting the University of Colorado’s graduation ceremony (deployed parents in the military could watch this). Yesterday, I watched Snoop Dogg get his hair done…he and his crew also seemed to be sharing his favorite hand-rolled cigarettes…and I was sitting there, with Snoop (or so it seemed). Ocho Cinco (star receiver for the Cincy Bengals) has a video where he’s cooking in his kitchen. This is like being a voyeur and a stalker without the legal issues!
But think beyond celebrity and you’ll quickly realize the value of this technology…Brands could use it to show how their products are made, or how they rigorously conduct safety tests of their products, or bring them closer to event promotions that before only had local or regional reach, and now have unlimited reach. Organizations can broadcast meetings to employees, town hall meetings can now be fed to the world, local bands can perform in their garage to audiences larger than U2 ever dreamed of…imagine if we had this on 9/11, or if the Iranian students had it during the riots a few months ago…we saw video, but I’m not sure how much of it was streaming live.
I now have a broadcast satellite truck in my hand. It’s presenting unlimited opportunities to reach existing and new audiences. Professional communicators owe it to their organizations to at least look at this technology, and see if it fits their communication strategy…and it’s free.
***In future posts about technology: how we can, with current technologies, turn physical print ads, billboards, outdoor advertising, into interactive (and trackable) advertising…and how augmented reality will make it even cooler!
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