Exhibition World Issue 3 — 2020 | Page 49

Event technology ial ution has ed a new rtual events allows the broadcasting of ents via its platform. nkedIn Virtual Events tool ched in tandem with a new ure on the professional ing platform and represents integration between the inkedIn Live and LinkedIn roducts. e now being owned by t, the new product is from Teams or Skype, icrosoft’s two other big video . LinkedIn Virtual Events the huge videoconferencing is a merger of two products edIn launched last year, the o broadcasting tool LinkedIn an offline, in person ing product, LinkedIn Events. unch is more than just a tegration, however, and is working with third-party t broadcasters, including , Wirecast, Streamyard and . w virtual tool allows users te a native landing page dIn, with a unique URL te their event. They are to stream the event using Live. All events are listed on inkedIn page. can stream up to four broadcasts into one Event for multi-session ns. business world moves virtual events, we recognise ortant it is to equip our rs with tools to bring the nal community together — real-time and at scale in the y possible,” said Ajay Datta, roduct in India at LinkedIn. LinkedIn is already claiming that Live now has 23 times more comments per post and six 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 eight 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. Issue 3 2020 25