SOCIAL
SOLUTION
Social
LinkedIn has announced a new
global virtual events tool that
allows the broadcasting of video
events via its platform.
The LinkedIn Virtual Events tool
was launched in tandem with a
new polls feature on the
professional networking platform
and represents a tighter
integration between the existing
LinkedIn Live and LinkedIn Events
products.
Despite now being owned by
Microsoft, the new product is
different from Teams or Skype,
owner Microsoft’s two other big
video products. LinkedIn Virtual
Events taps into the huge
videoconferencing trend. It is a
merger of two products that
LinkedIn launched in 2019, the
media
giants get in on the
digital events act
live video broadcasting tool
LinkedIn Live, and an offline, in
person networking product,
LinkedIn Events.
The launch is more than just a
simple integration, however, and
LinkedIn is working with third-party
specialist broadcasters, including
Restream, Wirecast, Streamyard
and Socialive.
The new virtual tool allows users
to generate a native landing page
on LinkedIn, with a unique URL to
promote their event. They are then
able to stream the event using
LinkedIn Live. All events are listed
on a user’s LinkedIn page.
Users can stream up to four
separate broadcasts into one
LinkedIn Event for multi-session
activations.
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“As the Social Solution
business
world moves
towards virtual events, we
recognise how important it is to
equip our customers with tools to
bring the professional community
together — online, in real-time and
at scale in the safest way
possible,” said Ajay Datta, head of
product in India at LinkedIn.
LinkedIn is already claiming that
Live now has 23 times more
comments per post and 6 times
more reactions per post than
simple native video.
Facebook, meanwhile, has
introduced a new video
conference tool and expanded its
live streaming features in an
update rolled out in April.
The video conference tool,
Messenger Rooms, will enable as
many as 50 people to participate
in a call, the company said in a
statement. It will display a tiled
layout of participant videos, up to
16 on desktop and 8 on mobile,
resembling the design offered by
competitor Zoom.
Facebook users will be able to
share links enabling non-users to
join Rooms via a web browser on
both desktop and mobile,
eliminating requirements to
download an app or create an
account as on other services.
There will be no time limits on
the calls.
Facebook joins a crowded field
of companies rushing to dominate
the market for video meetings, as
millions of people locked in their
homes around the world are
suddenly reliant on the tools for
work, school and social life.
Facebook said in a statement
there were now more than 700m
accounts participating in calls
on WhatsApp and Messenger
each day.
Microsoft Corp, Zoom Video
Communications, Cisco Systems
Inc and Alphabet’s Google also
have rolled out updates of their
video meeting tools while
reporting record growth since the
lockdowns began.
www.conference-news.co.uk