Aquarium partners with live streaming service
UPDATE 1/4/17 7:14:
People around the world can experience the Monterey Bay Aquarium in a brand new way. It involves new 360 streaming technology.
Periscope is owned by San Francisco based Twitter. It’s a live streaming app. Periscope announced the new technology more than a week ago.
The aquarium is the only conservation and science based organization that gets to test out this new service.
We were there as they broadcast behind the scenes of the drifters lab. It’s where the jelly fish grow before meeting the public on the aquarium floor.
Social media content creator Patrick Webster took followers from around the world inside the lab for a behind-the-scenes look.
“We had 40,000 people with us on that small screen on our phone looking at the lab live in 360 it’s like we had them there with us.” said Webster. 360 streaming is video that you can see from your mobile device or desktop. At any time during a broadcast you can rotate the video to any angle you want, as if you were holding the device. Right now this type of streaming can only be done by Periscope’s partners. So far, it’s just a small group that includes the aquarium. Webster says their frequent live streams caught the interest of Periscope, which approached them to test out the new technology.
“We actually got to welcome the Periscope crew to the aquarium” said Webster. “Show them around and from that relationship they figured hey we want cool stuff for this release of this new feature so they sent us a beta build for their new app and the camera and asked us to test it out and it’s been really an amazing experience.”
Periscope says it has a waiting list for all those people who would like to stream 360 video. As for the Monterey Bay Aquarium. It says it will continue to use feature to showcase its conservation work.
“It’s just a way for us to do what we do inside the aquarium online to everyone so you don’t have to visit the aquarium to see what it’s like and be inspired to conserve the ocean.
ORIGINAL STORY: The Monterey Bay Aquarium is giving people a behind the scenes look at its operations thanks to Periscope, a live streaming app.
KION’s Zach Fuentes was on hand Wednesday as Aquarium staff showed images from an area that’s usually off-limits to the public. Look for Zach’s report tonight at 6 on KION 5/46.
