Last year we released a faster, more social, & more flexible Livestream player, featuring a brand new design, richer sharing features and an incredible performance overhaul. Then, more recently, we released a family of embeddable widgets that can be used standalone or in combinations to add video libraries and chat to your streams.

Now the time has come to retire the old player, and we want to make this transition as smooth as possible for all our producers. If you have players embedded on your website, a blog or a social network, you may find the questions below helpful. Also remember you can always email support@livestream.com with any queries that arise.

You may be asking:

Do I have to do anything?

No. If you do nothing your embedded players will automatically switch over to the new design on the November 15th.

Will the new player retain my style settings?

Wherever possible the options set in your old embed tags will be mapped to equivalent options in the new player, but this will not be possible in every case. For instance, ‘color’ will still work, but enabling/disabling gloss will no longer have any effect.

What will happen to players with chat and/or video libraries?

These features are now superceeded by our embeddable widgets. If you have embedded your player using a JavaScript embed tag then we will be able to switch these automatically, but if you used object/embed tags then you will have to recreate your embed tag from the share page. It’s very simple, and ideally we advise recreating the embed tags in any case for more precise control.

Why can’t I use the old player?

It’s very difficult for us to support multiple versions of the Livestream player. It slows our development teams because every feature must be created and maintained twice and diminishes the user experience as many new social features are not available in the old player.

Until now we have continued support for the old player to give producers time to switch, but we hope you’ll agree that the new player and embeddable widgets are faster, more social and more flexible, so this is a great opportunity to upgrade.

To celebrate the release of Hands All Over, Maroon 5 will be performing live from Facebook Headquarters in Palo Alto, CA on Thursday September 30 at 7pm PT / 10pm ET. The live broadcast, which will include the band taking questions directly from fans via Twitter and Facebook, will be streamed on Livestream.com and Maroon 5′s Facebook Page. Fans can also watch from their mobile devices at Livestream’s Mobile platform.

After a three year-hiatus, the Grammy-winning quintet Maroon 5 have returned to the music scene with their highly anticipated third studio album, which was released on September 21. Produced by rock studio legend Robert John “Mutt” Lange (AC/DC, Def Leppard, The Cars), Hands All Over is a killer hybrid of rock, pop, funk and R&B.

To find out more about Maroon 5, visit their website at http://maroon5.com and don’t miss the celebration live at http://livestream.com/maroon5.

Livestream Producers can now create and add motion graphics containing multilingual text straight from the Livestream Studio! Any language supported by unicode is now compatible with the Livestream Studio’s motion graphics set. These graphics include the Lower Third Overlay, Scrolling Ticker, Sting & other Full Screen graphics. The Livestream Studio & Video Library also includes this update, allowing users to change any video’s title to the language of their choosing.

Alongside this feature update comes the ability for users to add links in their motion graphics just like the Scrolling Ticker. Simply edit any motion graphic text field and input a valid link; we’ll take care of the rest. Examples can be found below:

Accessing these new features is easy! Simply visit your Livestream Studio or visit our userguide for additional information.

Oscar De La Renta presented his Spring 2011 Collection in a live runway presentation today in New York City and online to a global audience of his fans on Livestream and Facebook. The show was full of whites, prints, volume for Spring, as well as many Academy Award nominee-ready dresses.

The front row welcomed fashion all stars and celebrities alike. The guests included were Grace Coddington, Anna Wintour, Andre Leon Talley, Sarah Jessica Parker. The broadcast was hosted by Erika Bearman, also known as @OscarPRGirl.

Check out some screenshots of the broadcast or the replay of the Spring 2011 Collection below. You can also visit http://livestream.com/oscardelarenta to watch short interviews with model Karlie Kloss (who closed the show) & designer Oscar De La Renta now.

Oscar De La Renta, interviewed by Erika Bearman

Anna Wintour

Watch The Replay:

On Friday September 10, Livestream brings you to fashion’s biggest event of the year: Fashion’s Night Out!

Livestream will be providing live webcasts for three different locations enjoying tonight’s festivities!

At 7:30 pm ET/4:30pm PT, watch http://livestream.com/NineWest and you’ll soak in the soulful musical performance by Grammy-award winning artist Joss Stone as shoppers celebrate the launch of the Nine West Vintage America Collection.

Catch designer Erin Fetherston on http://livestream.com/juicylive at the Juicy Couture flagship as she gives style tips and hangs out with Juicy devotees, starting at 7:00pm ET/4:00pm PT.

Lastly, tune in at 8:00pm ET/5:00pm PT for a live performance by Grammy-nominated Janelle Monae on http://livestream.com/RalphLauren as shoppers join guests like Vogue‘s André Leon Talley and actress Jessica Alba for downtown dancing in the streets.

Enjoy your night out!

Join us for the 2010 Life is good® Festival, on Saturday September 11 & Sunday September 12 live on Livestream, Lifeisgood.com, and on Facebook presented by Chase Freedom. The festival is a two-day celebration of music and optimism, featuring three stages of diverse live music, hands-on games, and interactive arts activities. The Life is good Festival is a unique music event that every age group can enjoy.

The list of performers includes Jason Mraz, Ben Harper & Relentless 7, Guster, Ziggy Marley, Corinne Bailey Rae, Galactic, Ozomatli, Grace Potter & The Nocturnals, OK Go and Brett Dennen to name a few.

For a complete webcast schedule and to watch it live online, visit http://livestream.com/lifeisgoodfestival.