Whether you’re an experienced streamer or brand new to live streaming, you’ll find that there are endless innovations in the technology you can use. So, let’s take a look at just a few things that can take your streams to the next level.
Integrated Optical Character Recognition
Optical character recognition (OCR) is perhaps most commonly used in business applications for things like logistics, invoicing, and automated data collection. As opposed to simple scanning, OCR captures an image of a document and then matches the symbols against a database, essentially ‘reading’ what is in the image. The information from the image is then gathered and transformed into a readable and sometimes editable format. This piece of technology can also take live streams to the next level as it can allow the hosts to capture things happening in the physical setting, and integrate them into the graphics of the stream for all participants to see – transforming the physical into the digital.
This can particularly benefit interactive live streams, such as live online casino games. When users play live casino games, a real host, dealer, or croupier spins a physical wheel, draws bingo balls, deals cards, and rolls die. The video of this is live streamed in real time to real players. In this scenario, automated OCR can be used to capture the results as they happen. The results can then be displayed on the video feed instantly, allowing players to keep up with their scores, and stored by the platform for reference. As such, OCR can make the live stream more interactive, immersive, authentic, and fair.
4K Cameras
4K images have seen a rise in popularity in recent years, and it is now supported by the vast majority of streaming platforms and viewing devices alike. The market for 4K globally was valued at 94.1 billion USD in 2022 and is expected to rise at a compound annual growth rate of 23.4% to 603.6 billion by 2032. The growth in 4K equipment is likely due to the facts that it makes higher-quality content, provides more immersive viewing experiences, and more crisp images. It also allows you to zoom in for close ups without losing as much image quality, reducing the need for an additional camera position.
Put simply, 4K captures and displays images as 3840 x 2160 pixels. On the other hand, standard definition has a resolution of 640 x 480 pixels, high definition is 720 x 1280, and true or full high definition is 1920 x 1080 pixels. This means that a 4K camera contains around four times as many pixels as FullHD, hence 4K! In other applications, Cinema4K refers to a resolution of 4096 x 2160 pixels, known as 4K due to having around 4,000 pixels.
Augmented (AR) and Virtual Reality (VR)
Essentially, virtual reality (VR) creates a new virtual environment, whereas augmented reality (AR) projects virtual and digital elements onto reality – and mixed reality (MR) does a little bit of both. This technology has also seen a boom in popularity over recent years, and it is predicted that the number of users of AR and VR will reach 6,887 million by 2028.
AR has begun to be used by top broadcasters for live streaming sports events, particularly, and for tailoring advertising to viewers rather than relying on digital billboards in stadiums. That said, VR is often hailed as the next generation for live streaming, so long as the infrastructure for capturing such videos becomes more accessible to streamers in the future.
As you can see, many different technologies can support and improve live streaming experiences. With these ideas in mind, all that’s left to do is see which gadgets and tech can take your streams to the next level.