Category Archives: Beam

Microsoft’s Twitch competitor, Beam, gets a major update

Microsoft said it was about to supercharge Beam, and it’s quickly following through on that promise. After a few weeks of beta testing, the livestreaming service’s big 2.0 overhaul is now available to everyone. The most conspicuous change is what you’ll see the moment you hop in. There’s a revamped home page that can feature multiple streams and show more info about a broadcaster’s communities. Also, you’ll notice a revamped, HTML5-only player that touts better video-on-demand controls, playback at higher bitrates (up to 10Mbps) and higher resolutions (1440p at 60 frames per second, anyone?). However, some of the biggest improvements are under the hood. Continue reading Microsoft’s Twitch competitor, Beam, gets a major update

Microsoft updates Beam streaming to better compete with Twitch

The already speedy service is now faster and lets you log in with Xbox Live.

Microsoft is getting its newly-acquired Beam livestreaming service ready for Xbox and Windows with a big new update. Beam’s low-latency tech lets you rapidly interact with your favorite streamers, and even play along, compared to the more passive Twitch experience. It’s improved the already-quick latency by five times, increased the max bitrate to 10 Mbps and now supports 60 FPS render speeds at up to 2,560 x 1,440 resolution. Continue reading Microsoft updates Beam streaming to better compete with Twitch

Microsoft takes on Twitch with new game streaming tech for Windows 10 and Xbox One

At a Windows Creator event in New York City, the Redmond tech giant debuted new capabilities for Windows 10 and Xbox One that incorporate technology from Beam, the startup Microsoft acquired in August.

Beam lets players stream games from within Windows 10 and Xbox One with just a click of a button on the new “Game Bar.” Microsoft is focusing on creating a seamless experience for interactions between gamers and viewers.

Continue reading Microsoft takes on Twitch with new game streaming tech for Windows 10 and Xbox One

Xbox Acquires Beam, Taking on Twitch

Microsoft’s Xbox division has snapped up Beam Interactive. With the deal, Xbox is looking to one-up Twitch. Beam’s secret sauce is that instead of viewers simply engaging in a “watch-and-chat” experience (a la Twitch) they can participate in real time directly into a streamer’s gameplay and live broadcast. Continue reading Xbox Acquires Beam, Taking on Twitch

Beam Announcing Light

Last week, Beam launched our first public iteration of our fully HTML5 Light Player. It’s an industry first, and it embodies a significant amount of technical innovation, allowing us to further customize and enhance the viewing experience.

This platform will enable us to deeper integrate video streams and other components such as chat, polls, and other secrets in ways that would have been very difficult with Flash. We’ll be able to continue to reduce stream delay, and use even fewer resources while doing it.

A Tale of Two Protocols

Since the dawn of time computing, two protocols have ruled the live streaming world: RTMP, and HLS. Continue reading Beam Announcing Light