Video streaming service Livestream, which was known as Mogulus until a few months ago, just launched a redesign of its streaming player and channels. Livestream lets anyone create and produce live webcasts through an embeddable player. The startup offers free ad-supported players and premium players, which are ad-free, can be branded and offer high quality streaming.
Livestream has also made its players a whole lot more social, by letting users discuss live video in realtime with a new player side chat companion. Users can discuss live videos using Facebook, Twitter or Livestream’s in-house chat application. Livestream’s chat widget has separate tabs for for Facebook and Twitter streams, where users can update their status or send Tweets from the box. Users can also now share videos to Twitter, Facebook, MySpace, Digg and Delicious.
The pages on which Livestream’s players are hosted, called “channels,” have a sleeker look after the redesign. Livestream lets broadcasters choose colors or background images to customize the look of their channels. And the startup has added several compelling features and a UI redesign to its player.
The 16:9 video player has become more light weight, and can also be customized. The player now offers a full-page widescreen mode, a pop-out feature, and the ability to customize and change the color of the player and even specifics buttons such as auto-play and auto-mute. Also, multiple players can now be embedded into the same page.
Livestream’s founder and CEO Max Haot says that one of the most significant parts of the new redesign is the addition of social features. Haot says that he is trying to not only make Livestream.com a social video destination but also wanted to incorporate the social stream into the interface. Livestream faces competition from Justin.tv and Ustream, which are both leading in the space, according to Compete. But with a new name and a redesign, Livestream is proving that the game is far from over.