14 DAY TRIAL // Internet has made quite an impact on our life, an impact so big that more and more people do not even touch a computer not connected to the big web. Lots of businesses rely on the Internet and new ones have been created because the Internet was the right environment for them to start and develop. It has become the most efficient communication channel in all human history, being able to reach billions of users at the same time, regardless of their geographic position or time zone. As long as you are connected, you benefit from the same news, same entertainment, same drama and events as all other users in the world.
And yet with all its speed and power, the Internet could not overthrow the two most popular communication channels: television and radio. It simply provided a new way for them to propagate in the world as many stations began the online streaming of the shows and news. And it seems that nowadays the much blamed technology for digital piracy, "peer to peer", has been turned to some useful purposes being employed for online television and radio streaming.
TVUPlayer is one of my favorites, as unlike the great majority of software making available online TV, it is populated with few, but very good stations. And another advantage is that it relies on P2P sharing technology which translates into "the more viewers of the same channel, the better the quality of the stream". And this is not the only example as Joost's slick looks and extraordinary shows soon caught user's attention.
And it seems that the sharing technology continues to be exploited and included in new projects twirling it with Microsoft's alternative to Adobe Flash, SilverLight. Here comes Livestation, the latest live TV streaming service on the market that relies on P2P technology for improving the quality of the transmission and SilverLight to give the app a slick look as well as to infuse ease of use.
At present, Livestation is in beta state, but only because the list of radio and TV stations is incomplete, as during our testing we have not encountered any glitch. Unfortunately, the software is an invitation-only beta, so you will have to register in order to be granted the access to application download. The wait time for receiving an invitation seems to vary quite a lot, as in our first attempt it took about half an year to download the file and, at our second, the invitation was sent immediately in order to give a proper spin to Skinker's (that's the developing company) baby.
The ease of use of the player interface is partly because of the SilverLight use as front-end but the lack of a complex set of options adds its contribution as well. Livestation basically broadcasts stream received over a peer-to-peer overlay network and provides live TV and radio station streaming, which is not something many Internet TV software can brag with.
With slick looks and extraordinary ease of use, Livestation player has not yet reached its maturity and the ten stations available are enough proof of that. Channel list being skimpy, the service compensates by providing consecrated TV stations in news spreading and objectivity. So you can enjoy live Al Jazeera (in English) or BBC World transmissions or listen to BBC Radio 4. If these are not enough for you, there are also BBC World Service, Bloomberg television, EuroNews (English and French), France 24 (English and French) as well as the famous SkyNews.
Livestation brings, for now, mostly news stations, but, hopefully, as the service develops into something stronger, a wide palette of sport and entertainment stations will be available. For each running channel, you get direct access to its website with a click of the mouse.
Livestation Player's functionality is not extended to complex options but it comes with all the basics. The screen can be adjusted to various zoom levels going from 0.25x to 2x. Of course, you are not deprived of the fullscreen function and I must say that the quality is mighty good (not the HD most expect, but it definitely is one of the best I have seen).
Volume control is accessible both through Silverlight front-end as it appears on-screen the moment you place the mouse inside video window as well as from keyboard shortcuts and the menu bar (which, by the way, can be removed). The options are almost inexistent but there is some tuning available. You can proceed to inviting a friend to test the player and the service, eliminate the menu bar thus bringing out the SilverLight front-end, set the player to run with the system and automatically sign you in.
SilverLight's benefits are visible the moment you bring your mouse inside video screen, giving you the possibility of controlling the volume (adjust it or mute it), as well as provide information such as the currently running channel. More benefits of SilverLight consist in the browsing of the available stations or viewing the TV guide (this option is in need of full implementation).
As for the quality of the stream, the developer says that a 640kbps connection should let you use Livestation service, but the larger the bandwidth, the better the quality. However, during our testing there was one channel we had difficulties watching and that was France 24 in English. With the French version, there was absolutely no problem and nor with the other stations.
The Good
The player comes with all basic functionality and shows a pinch of what's to come. It is very easy to use as there are no complex options to be used. SilverLight adds value to the player by making it look good through the mix of text overlays with high-quality VC-1 encoded video.
The Bad
Some channels are available only in some countries and the total list of stations (both television and radio) is limited to 12.
For some channels, TV guide is partially available while for others it is not available at all.
There are no buffering configuration settings to let the user adjust just how much should be buffered before the actual stream.
The app minimizes to system tray and, during our testing, it showed quite an appetite for system resources, taking a 34.6MB bite of RAM on Vista and about 60MB on XP.
The Truth
Livestation services are in beta stage right now but it already shows a promising online television and radio streaming based on peer-to-peer technology. It streams live and not on-demand TV and content is the only thing setting the differences from similar services.
The service is not at its fullest variety of stations and the current number of channels is actually quite low, but there are promises on increasing it. Also, there are promises on including more functionality into the player, such as the possibility of recording the stream.
In order to register for downloading the file, I suggest using multiple email addresses (yes, they need to be valid) for a better chance of getting the invitation faster.
As usual, our rating for beta stage is pinned to the default three stars all the way.
Here are some snapshots of the application in action:
