As of Wednesday, YouTube officially added support for live streams in glorious 4K, which would allow YouTubers and media partners to stream regular and 360-degree videos in Ultra-high definition (UHD).
YouTube 4K streaming to 4K Live streaming
Back in 2010, YouTube rolled out 4K video streaming support on the platform, with this latest announcement, YouTube is extending 4K support for live streams both for standard and 360-degree videos. Just recently, YouTube provided support for High Dynamic Range (HDR) videos in their continued effort to improve video offerings on the video streaming platform, according to Ubergizmo.
Needless to say, users must have HDR and UHD compatible displays to take full advantage of viewing enhanced videos that both HDR and 4K delivers. At the moment, there is still a limited number of HDR videos on YouTube and they are calling for YouTubers to contribute more HDR ready content now that the standard is supported on the platform. For its first outing in 4K live streaming, YouTube will showcase the Game Awards on Thursday, 6 pm ET.
Offering 4K live streaming on YouTube will give the platform an edge in the evolving market for live stream broadcasts giving competitors like Twitter and Facebook a run for their money. Facebook and Twitter can both stream live up to 720p at 30 fps via Periscope. YouTube, however, can now live stream in 4K at up to 60 fps, according to TechCrunch.
YouTube vs Twitch
Starting today, YouTube's move signifies a huge impact in positioning itself in the live streaming space. Main competitor, Amazon's Twitch, is still not offering 4K streaming due to its lack of bandwidth. Reports say that Twitch limits streamers to only 3.5 Mbps which is significantly low, considering 4K streams require more than double of that capacity.
Google for its part hopes that this technical advantage they now have over Twitch will be enough to attract users and hosts to view and stream on its YouTube platform.
