YouTube to host live-streamed event in SF
Could plans for the YouTube Live event in Fort Mason be indicating that live-streaming technology is on the way for the Google video site? Maybe. The company is being tight-lipped.
Google video site YouTube is planning to host on November 22 a San Francisco gathering its active users called YouTube Live--"part concert, part variety show, and part party."
The event is scheduled to take place in front of an audience at the Herbst Pavilion in Fort Mason Center and streamed live on the Web, as well as in the air, on the planes of sponsor Virgin America.
This is notable because YouTube doesn't offer live-streaming technology.
YouTube co-founder Steve Chen announced earlier this year that live video would be coming to YouTube later in 2008, but several months later, there were scattered rumors that those plans had been scrapped.
An event like YouTube Live would indicate that live streaming is indeed still on track--though the company has not yet said anything about further live-video plans or whether the streaming will be handled through a partnership with one of the many start-ups that specialize in it.
Performers at the San Francisco event will include Web-birthed "celebrities" such as rapper Soulja Boy Tell'em, Tay "Chocolate Rain" Zonday, LisaNova, and William Sledd, as well as a few mainstream acts, such as Akon and Will.i.am, the Black Eyed Peas frontman whose Barack Obama-supporting "Yes We Can" music video was a wild success on YouTube. Will.i.am will also be unveiling a new "awareness" video created from user-generated contributions.