A UK live-streaming company is building a cloud-based virtual TV studio that lets non-professional users produce multi-camera broadcasts from a smartphone or laptop. Most live-streaming platforms offer only single-camera set-ups, while professional multi-camera productions with captions and pre-recorded inserts cost thousands in equipment and expertise. This leaves community venues—sports clubs and places of worship—unable to afford high-quality streaming, limiting their ability to reach audiences and maintain engagement. The company, Livener, is developing a software-as-a-service app that lowers both cost and skill barriers, allowing volunteers or staff to produce broadcast-quality streams without hiring specialists. If successful, the tool could help these venues forge stronger connections with their communities, reduce isolation among older attendees, and boost physical activity. It also offers a feature not found on competing platforms: live off-air communication with camera contributors, improving real-time coordination and production quality. The project aligns with Sport England’s push to use digital technology to encourage sports participation, particularly among women and the elderly.
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UK-based live streaming SME Livener is led by a project team of Tony Branfield, (founder, CEO and project lead), Colin Muir (technical lead and developer) and Nathan Bentall (Technical NED). Platforms such as Facebook and YouTube only offer single-camera live streaming set-ups, while high-quality, multi-camera broadcasts with pre-recorded captions and inserts are prohibitively expensive, costing £10K-20K in expertise and equipment. This lack of economical options produces a £10k+ equipment purchase financial barrier for venues with annual turnover lower than £40K, seriously impacting the UK's 150K sports clubs and 45K places of worship and limiting community outreach and engagement. While short-term impacts include heightened risks of isolation and reduced physical activity, this could lead to more pronounced loneliness, particularly for older attendees, and jeopardise sports participation in the long term. This would have profound effects on well-being and health across society. Livener is developing the Livener Virtual Studio, a cloud-based app offering a user-friendly and cost-effective virtual TV studio platform. Livener's platform lowers skill barriers, democratising high-quality live stream production for non-professional content creators. This intuitive SaaS solution enables community venues such as sports clubs and places of worship to forge stronger connections, reach new audiences and increase revenue while reducing loneliness and boosting inclusivity. Livener's plans to expand to Europe and the US could provide the UK with a dominant position in the market. With its accessible multi-camera live streaming capabilities, Livener's innovation offers live off-air communication with camera contributors, a feature not offered by competitors. This superior real-time coordination enhances production quality and fosters community engagement. Furthermore, this project aligns with Sport England's initiative to utilise digital technology to encourage participation in sports, particularly for women and the elderly.
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