Today we’re excited to announce an update to Panopto for Android that enables viewers to watch live video on Android phones and tablets. Building on our existing support for live video in our iOS app, Panopto now makes it possible to stream live webcasts to more than 99% of mobile devices worldwide.

The latest update to our Android app is available today in the Google Play Store.

For businesses and universities, the update means that it’s now possible to webcast presentations, lectures, meetings, and events to virtually any smartphone or tablet with just a single extra click in the Panopto for Windows or Panopto for Mac video streaming software.

Here’s how live-to-mobile webcasting works in Panopto

Start a live Panopto webcast the same way you normally would — launching Panopto for Windows or Panopto for Mac, selecting your audio and video sources, checking the Webcast option, then clicking Record.

 

From there, make sure you’ve got the latest version of the Panopto mobile app installed on your Android or iOS device. Once you launch the app and sign in, you should see your live webcast listed alongside on-demand videos. Simply click on the link to the live webcast, and in seconds, you’ll be watching your live stream. Panopto supports live streaming at up to 720p at 60 frames per second (60fps) in order to provide broadcast-quality video on your smartphone or tablet.

 

 

For both Android and iOS devices, you’ll be able to live stream a single feed of audio and a single feed of video — either the primary video and audio streams or primary audio and the contents of your screen. Future releases of the apps will include the ability to stream multiple feeds of video, as is possible today when viewing live webcasts on PCs and Macs.

If you’re running an event that includes both presenter video and screen content (such as PowerPoint slides or software demonstrations), and you want mobile viewers to see both feeds, you can incorporate video switching by adding a hardware- or software-based mixer upstream from Panopto. For example, vMix makes a great, affordable live production software that accepts multiple video inputs and supports real-time switching. Because Panopto recognizes vMix as a video input, the vMix feed can be streamed into Panopto, and as video feeds are switched in vMix, those will be reflected in the Panopto webcast.

Connect live with today’s mobile-first learners

For businesses and universities, live streaming to mobile devices means that your employees and students never have to miss a town hall meeting, corporate event, or lecture even when they’re on the go. And for IT organizations, Panopto’s use of HTTP Live Streaming (HLS) means that there’s no need to manually configure network firewalls and proxy servers to support live streams. All Panopto streams use ports 80 and 443, the default ports already opened for HTTP and HTTPS traffic, respectively.

For more information on how Panopto’s video platform can help your organization record, live stream, manage, and search all your video content, contact our team for a personalized online demo and a free trial of our video platform software.