IRVINE: Creative Solutions, a division of The Vitec Group plc, acquired Lightstream, a US-based tech company that builds a cloud-native live video platform, broadcast software, and creator tools with specialization in the video game live streaming industry.

Lightstream is a world leader in live streaming technology for the massive and fast growing gaming market, and has strong strategic partnerships and technology integrations with Microsoft’s Xbox and Amazon’s Twitch.

Live streaming across all industries has grown exponentially during the pandemic, no less in gaming. This acquisition allows Creative Solutions to bring its broadcast-quality hardware, mobile apps, and cloud technology to the gaming market on a global scale, and opens up new creative possibilities for storytellers.

For the past 13 years, Creative Solutions has mobilized content creators with hardware and software products spanning the broadcast, live production, and cinema markets. Integrating Lightstream’s creative suite and patented cloud production architecture with Teradek’s IP video technology and the full suite of Creative Solutions production tools raises the potential for live video content creation in every segment.

“The powerful combination of our unique cloud-native products and Teradek’s market leading hardware, apps and cloud technology unlocks truly limitless creative potential,” said Stu Grubbs, CEO & Co-Founder of Lightstream. “We couldn’t be more excited to join such respected brands and a talented group of people just as driven by the power of storytelling.”

Lightstream offers three products:

Lightstream Studio is a live streaming studio designed to remove technical hurdles and put advanced production capabilities in the hands of beginners. All powered by Lightstream’s patented cloud architecture. Via any browser, creators can bring on remote guests, mix live video feeds, brand streams with overlays, and engage audiences with dynamic motion graphics. Lightstream’s cloud architecture and unique integration with Twitch enable personalized streams for Xbox and PlayStation gamers without a PC or the additional hardware that is usually required.

Lightstream Cloud is the world’s leading API driven cloud platform for live video production. It allows developers to build creative software and live streaming platforms on top of Lightstream’s powerful cloud architecture. Production can be completely automated – programmatically triggering layout changes, combining remote feeds, compositing dynamic content, or creating variations of the same broadcast for different markets in under 500 milliseconds.

Rainmaker.gg provides the tools creators need to understand, engage, and activate their audience and brands the data and campaign tools they need to work with them. Creators get insight into their channel’s performance and a comprehensive stream management suite, including overlays, tipping, chat tools, and alerts. Brands and game publishers discover and create custom reports about creator and game performance across the world’s largest streaming platforms.

“We want to get rid of the technical barriers which make live streaming hard,” explains Nicol Verheem, Founder & Chief Executive Officer of Creative Solutions. “Merging Teradek’s video encoding and cloud distribution capabilities with the Lightstream cloud platform will immediately simplify and improve the overall quality and delivery of live content everywhere.”

Lightstream’s founders and team will be joining Creative Solutions and there will be no immediate changes to the pricing or structure of any of their current offerings. Creative Solutions will begin developing organic integrations of Lightstream’s cloud-first approach with Creative Solutions’ traditional live streaming hardware technologies.

“It’s about empowering the next generation of storytellers,” Verheem continues. “To give them the tools to tell better stories live, in real-time, without sacrificing quality.”

Lightstream builds cloud-native live streaming technology to empower more storytellers and grow the communities in which they tell them. Coming out of the Techstars accelerator program in 2015, Lightstream was the first to deploy browser-based broadcast software. Lightstream continues to innovate, offering a full creative suite to support the entire creator journey. Lightstream Studio and Rainmaker.gg give creators the tools to easily create unique content, understand and grow their audience, and engage their community. This pioneering cloud video architecture is also available to developers as Lightstream Cloud – powering a growing number of live streaming platforms and products. For more information, visit https://golightstream.com

Headquartered in Southern California, Vitec Group’s Creative Solutions Division designs and manufactures premium products for broadcasters, film and video production companies, independent content creators and enterprises. Comprising the brands Teradek, SmallHD, Wooden Camera and Amimon, Creative Solutions products are used around the world for sports, news, live events, film and television production and online streaming. Creative Solutions has manufacturing and R&D centers in the US, UK, Israel and continental Europe.

Teradek designs and manufactures high-performance video solutions for broadcast, cinema, and general imaging applications. From wireless monitoring, color correction, and lens control, to live streaming, SaaS solutions, and IP video distribution, Teradek technology is used around the world by professionals and amateurs alike to capture and share compelling content. www.teradek.com