Event Tech of the Week: @maketv

Today, we’re talking about make.tv

Company/Tool Name: make.tv
Website: http://www.make.tv/en/
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/make.tv
Twitter: https://twitter.com/maketv

What is the “problem” that your tool seeks to solve?

make.tv is a Live Video Production Van in Your Browser. make.tv enables customers to create affordable, rich and interactive live video broadcasts with a collaborative production solution.
“Problem”: There are still barriers that keep event producers from streaming an event:
1. Live video streaming events or conferences is too complicated and expensive.
2. Annoying software installation and overloaded user interfaces, unsuitable for mass market.
3. Lack of viewer interactivity and collaboration.Solution: make.tv is a flexible, cost-efficient and scalable full service solution for live streaming.
Enabling collaborative production of single live stream by journalists in different locations.
make.tv allows the audience to participate in the live program and to create comprehensive, interactive formats.
Fully web-based and intuitive software

What is the best audience for this tool? Corporate events? Social? Other? Large? Small?

Any events small or big that are meant to reach an audience beyond one location. Not only can others watch the livestream from the event, the interactive features allow viewers to participate with their own video, they can also vote live or you can do a poll among all viewers. Speakers can also join from anywhere and interview scenes with multiple live cameras from various locations are created in a just a few clicks.

What does your tool help event planners do better?

– Monetize events better by offering the event to either paying participants who can’t be at the actual event and by advertising and offering sponsor packages that include livestreaming (more inventory etc)

– Reach an audience beyond the physical location

– Bring in speakers and other participants from other locations

– Easily create state of the art, interactive live streams that are affordable and look professional at the same time (without the overhead that used to be necessary).

How is your tool different from/better than the competition?

– There are no direct competitor, only companies that have some overlap:
1. Live streaming portals: e.g. Livestream, Justin, BitTorrent and Ustream (these are destination sites and not full production studios likemake.tv)
2. Client based software and hardware solutions like Wirecast, Newtec, LiveU and specific web based tools that are similar to specific aspects of make.tv (Spreecast and Vokle)
make.tv focusses on the production side and has compelling USPs in the fields of reliability, creative capabilities and especially collaborative and interactive functionality: e.g. viewer streams can be integrated into the program (back-channel), rich media elements like voting and the opportunity to work with a whole production crew at the same time using make.tv’s cloud based studio.

What is the single coolest feature of your product?

1. Interactivity: viewer participation (viewers can join with video) and voting tool
2. Entirely cloud based (running in browser) and that makes it lightweight and very affordable compared to eg hardware solutions. Also allows Collaboration: produce a stream together with a team that can be working from anywhere.

This weekly series spotlights a new tech tool that is designed to help make planning events much more seamless. Whether it’s using event software to track every detail from start to finish or mobile apps that deliver content to attendees’ fingertips, these technologies allow planners to divert their stress to more critical issues like deciding which napkin color looks best.

Liz King Caruso

Liz King Caruso is an Event Strategist, Consultant and Speaker. As CEO of Liz King Events and techsytalk, she has helped countless thought leaders grow their audience and sell their products through in-person, virtual & hybrid events. Liz is a big-picture person – passionate about tying events into an overall sales and marketing strategy and being efficient at every point of the process. Technology is her niche and she’s obsessed with helping organizations of every size leverage technology to produce more engaging and seamless event experiences. In addition to her client work, Liz connects & educates her industry colleagues through platforms she has built – techsytalk GLOBAL, the techsytalk community & IGNITE Consulting program. Liz has been featured as Eventex’s 50 Most Innovative Virtual Meeting Planners, Successful Meetings list of 25 Most Influential People in the Meetings Industry, Top 5 Women in Event Tech, amongst other awards.