We’re thrilled to unveil some big changes on Ustream! With months in the making and informed primarily by our community’s feedback, we are sharing these changes with you. Aimed at increasing the ability to discover content, improving interaction in chat and social networks, and enabling broadcast highlights, we view these changes as the foundation for new improvements to come.
We’re excited about our new design and functionality, and look forward to your valuable feedback. (Click here to see what one of our users, Chris Pirillo, had to say about our changes.) Thank you to our community that has helped us become home to some of the richest and best live content on the web since our launch in March 2007!
Here’s a short summary of a few of our new changes.
Discovering content
Aggregating an audience quickly is important for live broadcasts. To solve this we’ve integrated features that alert audiences, allowing broadcasts to amass viewers quickly and easily.
• Similar to status updates on Twitter or Facebook, broadcasters can update their Ustream status when they go live. By answering the question “What are you broadcasting?” users will be able to easily and quickly let others know what they’re streaming. These updates appear throughout Ustream and can be sent to Twitter to reach friends and followers. (For example: If you set your status update to “Showing off my new puppies!”, viewers searching for puppies will quickly find you).
• We have added categories to the Ustream header. This allows viewers looking for specific content, such as music streams, to find relevant broadcasts with one click. Each broadcaster has the power to choose the category that best fits his or her live broadcast. This provides viewers with an easier way to find content at a glance within these category buckets.
• For the first time, we’ve implemented the ability to create highlights from recorded videos. This allows viewers or broadcasters to quickly and easily identify interesting moments within recorded videos, title them, and then share them across Ustream and across their own network.
Audience Interaction
We’ve improved our chat, allowing for additional interactivity and simpler moderation.
• Broadcasters now have the ability to choose to use a social stream or chat to interact with audiences. We are launching a new feature — Social Stream — that allows broadcasters to interact with their friends and followers on Twitter in real time. Previously this was only available to users such as Ashton Kutcher, P Diddy, and Miley Cyrus.
• Follow people quickly – Simply click a username in the audience member list and click “Follow”. This allows for communities to grow quickly, friends to stay connected, and for two-way relationships to occur.
• Additional chat moderation tools, such as Time Out, Kick, or Ban, allow for greater control and more relevant dialogue.
• Our chat now has Slow Mode and Pause, which can slow temporarily pause the chat if messages are coming too fast.
We welcome your feedback! Enjoy the new Ustream!
I don’t like the huge black block that covers up the slide show when I’m off the air. This is embedded on my web site to advertise product and my live broadasts. Now it looks like crap. I’m probably going to have to do something else. I’ve tried Stickam and Mogulus, but UStream was my favorite. Please do something about this. Thanks.
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Why did you make the screen smaller? It’s the smallest screen of all the stream sites. The font is not readable. There is no room on the ustream broadcast chatroom to chat. We do not want to twitter. You should inform us if you are leaving this like it is, because if you are, I’m leaving.
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Hello,
I was working thru some problems on ustream thru the help chat.
I have a log of the entire chat. A number of people were having the same problems. We were taking the advise of a mod and doing the things he said to do, and he was working with me, and I was banned from ustream all together. I’m supposing this was a blunder on ustreams part as like I said I have the complete chat, and it was all technical chat period. That was on Thursday and ustream has still not answered my emails. Is this any way to treat your ustream users? I have a feeling it is one certain mod that has a big problem with anyone on this network because she belongs to another network, and she some how is always here.
Can someone please contact me?
netdetectives@ymail.com
thank you!
Don’t worry NetDetective.
The response time for my last 2 support tickets was only 2 Months.
Their response was a very helpful “Are you still having this issue?”
So hang in there. They obviously care a lot about their users.
/end sarcasm/
Thank you Joe for the support!!! I have tried to help all my fellow ustreamers to the best of my ability, and have even helped some set up rooms. But no I’m banned from ustream now because of a person that didn’t like my username.
You were definitely banned for using the name UstreamBotTM. That is considered impersonation and taken seriously on the Ustream chat network. I’m sorry if you feel this was a mistake.
Are you still banned at this time? If so, what is your username and ip
address?
-Ustream support
Last time I was banned a week for no reason, and no response to my email. Log your chat with these people is all I have to say there is no reason for this at all. Simple communication would resolve any problems IMO.
Ustream might want to check into who placed the ban, and why because it is because this person has another chat on another network. Now let’s tell the truth here. Do I need to name names now or what?
the Changes are terrible JUST WHY DO THIS WE DONT WANT TWITTER AND FROM WHAT MY FRIEND SAYS YOU HAVE TO HAVE TWITTER TO STREAM WELL GOOD BYE USTREAM CAUSE AFTER THIS CHANGE I DONT THINK ANYONE WILL USE THIS SITE
YOU LOSE
GOOD DAY TO YOU SIR
I loved Ustream. I really did.
Now it will not let me do anything without connecting a camera. (Not allowing audio only) and when I do, it has screwed my sound settings. (Everything thrown to the left channel (it resets my soundcard settings itself!?)
Nothing that ‘help’ has suggested has worked.
I truly hope these changes are reversed, and if they are, I really hope someone tells me, because this is my last dealing with Ustream until it is put back to what it was… what it was was perfectly fine.. what it now is, is awful.
Sorry, but goodbye.
Joe
The Covenant of Joe Show – now on Justin.tv
Yeah. I think I’m bailing as well. The video quality seems better with the new encoder but the latency is abysmal. I’m not really “live” any more. The stream seems to lag a good 20 – 25 minutes which is insane.
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Mr. Wilson, the only way you could see this as a win is if you run or have a vested interest in justin.tv because if you do, USTREAM just bought you a whole slew of new users.
WoW in a matter of days Ustream has managed to make a working fuctional site in a matter of days – garbage. Now no one’s links work, what is the point? If you can’t have a functional web page why bother with ustream? This is horrible, and if people can’t link and have pictures and have a fuctional site then I can see moving on to another carrier. You have crippled your faithful users.
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This site is catering to the big names on Ustream. We’ve have to recommend feeds
which i think is fair. If this is the case. then put everyone one the list. This should be an option. It like me say i recommend stickam so watch it instead…
i am disgusted with the new idea here. i would not mind a new irc chat interface but why take away other irc chats? some of the not pirillo popular people (pretty much everyone) like pc-addicts depend on the irc. the irc is the heart of pc-addicts.com to me and if you take away the hearts from so many people, they will die. i think ustream will not gain anything from this switch, IN fact i expect ustream to lose some shows if streamers find a new stream site that works with their irc. If you want your chat interface, fine, but dont take away our irc servers.
I too am having probs.
The first was no1 could access my shows, the view box shows blank with no arrow to access. This went on for a couple of weeks.
Recently I am no longer to log in to my show page to broadcast. I even tried signing up again under another name & acct but the page wont take the security code entered. Did this 10 times & it wont load the page afterwards. I was surprised that I was able to log in the forum but still cant get to my show page/dashboard. Guess I have to go to youtube now.
Well, something else just got changed and my account will no longer log into the chat, even though another account works just fine from here.
Goodbye Ustream, you used to be decent, but are now just an extended stream of complete fail.
I’ve noticed that when we are not on the air..it still appears that we are on the broadcast console.
EVERYONE that is live should be on the rotation. Ustream has “special” people here. They have a Mod problem too, with a lot of conflict of interest in Ustreams interest. People saying they are ustreams that actually belong to another network, trying to get folks to go there instead. Ustream be fair, get the programing back up and running as NORMAL, and get the html codes working so you can have a show page.
Arrrrrg This is not Rocket Science
it blows, thank you and goodnight. XD
Gee thanks UStream. Thanks to your upgrade I have to now search for another streaming solution for my radio show. Thanks to your upgrade I missed a week’s worth of broadcast time and my listeners are pissed with me because your upgrade no longer accepts my usb audio card and now requires a video camera that I didn’t need before you upgraded your system. Thanks Ustream, U now officially Suck!
I’ve never in my entire life would imagine that I would be so angry. I was hoping that Ustream would offer an affordable pro option where I could have complete control of the branding and advertising on my radio station, much like my social network on Ning’s platform. This upgrade strongly discourages the hope of such a possibility. I can’t believe Ustream would be so foolish to get caught up in the media hype of Twitter.
What does microblogging has to do with broadcasting? Why would you change the broadcaster to only accept cameras and not audio cards? Who’s insane idea was it to force people to sign up to Twitter? You guys made something that worked fine into a huge mess that don’t work. It would have also been nice if Ustream warned us users in advance what crazy ideas they had for their dysfunctional upgrade so we could have prepared for the obvious worse.
I have managed to square away all features of my broadcast channel except the following items …
1) my viewers are now required to perform some sort of logon in order to chat … this is quite annoying … it appears to be related to Twitter which I have attempted to disable …
2) I cannot seem to configure the “offline re-run” to work as before … I really liked being able to record my show then set it up to re-broadcast as a rerun for those who missed the live show … that is a feature I will really miss …
My broadcast last week was a disaster due to the new interface … granted, the change caught me by surprise and many of the issues were caused by me trying to figure out why stuff that used to work no longer worked … but it was not cool …
You are providing a free, advertising supported service … up to this point, the value your service provided was agreeable for the inconvenience cost related to your constant add pop ups … but if the interface remains as is, I will move my modest broadcast elsewhere …
thank you for your contribution and for considering my issues of concern …
Can we please get an update on what’s being done to fix this “upgrade”. Many of us are going elsewhere if it looks like this mess isn’t going to be fixed.
In case you can’t tell, your users are fed up with being treated like an afterthought.
I’m glad I waited on my webware 100 vote. Which ended up going to justin.tv USTREAM obvious doesn’t care about it’s users and only caters to the Leo Laportes and Ashton Kutchers usung their service.
Whoever thought the “new and improved” version of your site ought to be strung up. I am a newer viewer and am totally confused by the “improvements.” Perhaps your newer version will appeal to the 20-somethings. It will not do that for an older demographic. The solution for the rest of us: let the advertisers know how unhappy you are with ustream and, therefore, will not be buying their products advertised. Unchange the change.
I have two problems with the new ustream.
1. I liked to search for streams that just started, fun to catch people when they first come on. Now the “most recent” is those who just signed up to ustream, not those who just started a broadcast.
2. Chat. Using IE7 I can only see the chat box sometimes, on some streams. Most times the chat box dissapears when I try to use it. Did not do that before the upgrade.
Please put the chat function back the way was. The new way is simply not feasible nor user friendly enough for our group. The layout changes we can live with, but not the chat changes.
Very disappointing!
The Video Screen is kinda small.
There should be an option to allow the change of size.
S[current size] – M[youtube size] – L[HD size?] ?
Why do I have to promote other shows? I don’t want anything else than me in my page and in my player (ok for ads, I understand that it’s your way to let this service free, but I don’t want promote other shows).
Furthermore: why did you remove the banner at the top of the page? It was a good way to customize our page.
I am getting use to the new USTREAM. Our chat is working fine. i wish the screen and font were larger, but I hit control and + and it’s works just fine. I again want to thank you for being so responsive to me. Your people have been very understanding, patient(considering I don’t know what I’m doing) and professional. I’ve also noticed our viewership has increased the past week. Again, Thank you, Steve, KCJJ Radio kcjj raw
Were your designers on acid when they re-designed the site?
It’s fucking terrible and utterly confusing..
The “slow mode” just killed the chat functionality in embedded shows !
I tried to disable this but it didn’t work, people can’t type in !
Ustream used to be a valuable resource for Q&A sessions, but now there’s just no way to get the questions from guests !
Bring the old ustream back !
Tony
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Hello everyone, I am a broadcaster and after spending a day trying to figure out why my prerecorded shows were not streaming out when off-air, I came here to find a possible explanation.
Well having read through all the posts it seems fairly conclusive that the er, new ustream is a failure i am afraid, and as my predecessors on the thread seem to agree on, we would rather have a working service than an aesthetic one.
I feel a bit better now that i see it was not my pc causing the problem(s), and if ustream are reading this would you kindly update everyone on the main page so that at least we know if we are stuck with it or not…I am sure it would be appreciated either way..
Very kind regards
rwuk
Thanks again
I am very pleased with the thought and don’t feel like adding anything in it. It’s a perfect answer.
=================
John Assam
Drug Intervention New Hampshire
I like the new sleeker look but any time i log into my broadcaster it says something about a bad plug-in. Yet I went through trial and error with different plug-ins I even redownloaded the ustream publisher didn’t help. Also, this happened right after the mega update on ustream.
P.S. I have to shows on ustream but the oldest one is having the problem. I tried the new one same thing happened but only once then I was able to get in.
I agree with some of the ustremers please bring the old ustream back but keep a lot of these awesome features.
Thanks
maxpayne556
OK If you click the broadcast button, and it goes down on you which happens like every 3 minutes, it’s locked and says your already broadcasting, ok mine has been like this for 3 days.
What a freaking MESS!
OK USTREAM IS NOT EVEN READING THIS BLOG SO WHY WRITE HERE?
They have not changed anything since the diaster weeks ago!
You know all the WIDGETS they advertise you can have on your page? FORGET IT NONE OF THEM WORK NOW!!!! What a MESS!
Who the heck wants to twitter when you have live broadcast?
Twitter is for sending a message and IF THEIR WIDGETS WORKED YOU COULD HAVE YOUR TWITTER ON YOUR OWN PAGE. APPARENTLY USTREAM HAS NO PAID STAFF AND THEY DO THIS IN THEIR FREE TIME???
Thank you very much for this great post………
Thanks for the emails because I have got NOTHING in help. They even say in help that the html codes you click on in the advanced tab. That is a bold face lie. There is nothing to click on in the advanced tab to turn on html codes. Ustream turned OFF the html codes to their entire system so NO WIDGETS WORK PERIOD! Thanks again for the email addresses. That is what they say in help email support@ustream.com but I have 5 emails in they said email again, I get a generic blanket email back
Ok Great they have taken away more stuff now.
If your having a problem with your broadcaster, and have recently upgraded to Microsoft Internet Explorer 8, it won’t work correctly with ustream. Hope this helps someone.
I don’t want to Twitter. I want to CHAT. That’s what got me into ustream in the first place: the simplicity. Now… it’s a mess.
That is easy to fix Carl.
Click: My Shows
Click: Advanced
Go to the 1/2 down the page:
Display Social Stream: Yes: No: X
Click on NO that stops Twitter
and SAVE
Hello everyone..
My earlier post respectfully asking for a mere update as yet remains undone. Post 145 (previous) is also important, I too fell into the trap of struggling with ie8 until a kind ustreamer on the message board simply said ‘ use ffx’ and i accomplished a broadcast.
At time of writing : no update yet , and html remains disabled for me at least, no auto streaming, however, i asked teresa on the help desk who has updated live on air the following (i believe you can check)
1. html was disabled as it was being abused (i do not think though she means individually)
2. the auto stream has not worked since inception of the new look ustream, but ustream are aware and it has been passed to them
3. The other threads seem to filled with people having issues still, but are predominately precipitated by the new ustream
I would add i have not written this verbatim, so you can check the responses for yourself, but you will find it correct in essence.
A reasonable amount of time has been allowed for a correct response to everyones concern let alone fixes as far as i know.
It has been suggested that these posts are not being read at all by ustream, this, being my second pose infers this may be true.
If however, I am incorrect in this , please may we have an update on the main page or here from you, this is my second request, my first is at post 139 which is dated.
Thank you , Hope you can help us.
regards rwuk
Congratulations on the changes. just ask
Offline re-run “please
thanks.