Naturally, the major US "TV networks" all have their own video livestreams: ABC, CBS, Fox News, CNN. (Interesting to see that NBC was not listed for either convention.) Similarly C-SPAN and PBS will also have livestreams.
This is not really any great surprise since all of those organizations would typically be broadcasting live video coverage from the event anyway over the traditional TV networks, so adding an Internet livestream is really just a matter of putting the technology in place to stream out the existing video feed.
But look at some of the other players...
- The Wall Street Journal is streaming out the DNC convention on both YouTube and through its own mobile apps for iOS and Android (as it did for the RNC convention last week).
- The Sunlight Foundation is streaming out a "fact-checked live stream" (as it did last week for the RNC).
- Politico.com is offering a video livestream tonight as they did last week.
- Various "Occupy" groups have livestreams of the protests at the conventions via Ustream.
... and I'm sure there are probably others who aren't listed on those GigaOm pages who will be streaming out video from the floor of the convention. It's fascinating to look at what tools like YouTube, Google+ Hangouts, Ustream and so many more have done to make it possible for so many more people to offer video livestreams.
Perhaps more importantly, both the Republican and Democratic parties have their OWN video livestreams and in the case of the DNC their own mobile apps.
They are using the Internet to tell their own story in their own words, bypassing the media entirely for those who want to watch the party's view of the event.
So many different players... from both the "traditional" media and so many newer organizations...
Simply amazing at times to see what this Internet thing has enabled... :-)
P.S. And yes, from a technical point of view, I'd be fascinated to learn more about how the various organizations put together the technical capacity to pull this all off. On a network level, there has to be a great amount of bandwidth going into these convention centers... and presumably multiple layers upon layers of redundancy.
Image credit: I took a screenshot of one of the photos on the DNC website.
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