
Microsoft acquires Beam interactive livestreaming service - connor4312
http://blogs.microsoft.com/blog/2016/08/11/microsoft-acquires-beam-interactive-livestreaming-service/#sm.009e6ds21adqfbp10xs1oz8jvwca1
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logancg
The CEO (one of the co-founders) is 18 years old – and already a prolific
entrepreneur.[1] He did a great talk at TechCrunch Battlefield.[2]

Impressive work by the Beam team. I'm not a gamer (at all), and even I have
way too much fun watching streams on Beam.

[1] [http://www.geekwire.com/2016/beam/](http://www.geekwire.com/2016/beam/)
[2]
[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IRpgU2tTRWQ](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IRpgU2tTRWQ)

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serge2k
> We’ve developed a world-first low latency streaming protocol built on top of
> WebRTC and VP8 to do stream delivery with sub-second latency to power the
> core of our platform.

Nice. Worked on something kinda like that a couple years ago.

> Would you rather have Gates, Zuckerberg or Bezos in your corner:
> “Zuckerberg, hands down. He has a unique global perspective on human
> interaction and communities. We function as an indirect social network for
> gamers, and Zuckerberg is the king of social.”

interesting.

I'd rank him 3rd. Course this guy grew up with Zuckerberg as king and gates
running charities.

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detaro
That was quick, Beam hasn't been around for very long. But they have
innovative new stuff, where twitch has been kind of stagnating technically.

And access to Microsoft infrastructure and integration with their gaming
platforms might help them grow. First stop: Minecraft integration.

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lobotryas
Honest question: what innovative stuff does Beam have?

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connor4312
(Beam employee, views are my own)

The primary points relevant to the push for interactive content are:

\- The "Interactive" system and SDK to develop and connect games to GUI
controls. This allows first party to develop integrations, and also allows the
creation of mods for existing games or integration via simple desktop
automation.

\- Extremely low latency (~200ms) video distribution at scale. Other services
like Twitch have latency around ~10 seconds, at which interactivity would not
be feasible.

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mmgutz
Does video latency matter for most game streams? The games I watch on twitch
are delayed to offset stream sniping.

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mintplant
As connor4312 write, it majorly hampers anything interactive. The 10-30 second
latency has been a persistent issue throughout TwitchPlaysPokemon, for
example. Beyond TPP's very special case, though, it means streamers who want
to ask questions to their audience have to speak and then pause to give time
for the stream to catch up before people start answering.

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homulilly
Congrats to Beam but I will admit it's kinda sad since the chances of the PS4
ever getting an option to stream to Beam are now pretty much 0.

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minimaxir
The endgame is likely native TwitchPlaysPokemon-esque experiences for Xbox One
/ Windows 10, something which Sony/Nintendo definitely will not be able to do
as easily. (streamer/viewer interaction + Minecraft could make things crazy)

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connor4312
(Beam employee, views are my own)

That's the plan. As part of Xbox we'll have a lot more resources to build
those kinds of integrations; as of yet _most_ of our resources have been
developed to building the core streaming platform -- video distribution, chat,
various third party integrations, and other miscellaneous features.
Interactive will definitely continue to expand and increase in pace over the
coming months.

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lavalampkid
Xbox is on fire this year

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zild3d
Not to be confused with Beme

[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Beme](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Beme)

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vishalzone2002
how much did ms paid for this?

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akhilcacharya
Already?! Jesus.

