ADDISON, TEXAS When Internet bandwidth became robust enough to stream live video over the web about 10 years ago, it ushered in the Internet broadcasting age. The potential of this new medium captured the imaginations of two forward-thinking, tech-savvy people, Cali Lewis and John Pozadzides (John P), the co-founders of Livid Lobster the parent company of Geek Beat TV.
What began nearly a decade ago as a tech news podcast produced and uploaded by Cali Lewis from her spare bedroom has evolved into the popular online weekly Geak Beat LIVE tech news show. The show now boasts 2.5 million social media followers, millions of downloads, more than a billion videos viewed and a large, loyal live audience.
With their casual, accessible style, the co-hosts deliver more than just their signature insights about the latest tech news and products they connect a world of like-minded viewers who are now part of an online community sharing the Geek Beat experience.
Besides the live webcast, there's the GeekBeat.TV website, which is rich with blogs of tech news sent in by their global contributor network. Fans can also join the 24/7 chat room and watch the Geek Beat crew at work thanks to the 24/7 video Dropcams installed throughout their building.
Lewis and Pozadzides draw millions of viewers to a video program they broadcast over broadband Internet. Instead of building a multi-million dollar TV production studio, they discovered that the all the studio functionality they need is packed inside NewTek's TriCaster. Of all the technology we use to produce Geak Beat , the two things we cannot live without are our Internet connection and our TriCaster, said Pozadzides. Everything else is replaceable.
Before TriCaster, having a broadcast-quality HDTV studio required millions of dollars of investment in a big production control room full of gear, studio cameras on pedestals and all the bells and whistles typical of broadcast stations and networks, Pozadzides said. But we're able to have that level of multicamera HDTV production capability very cost-effectively.
Ustream, Justin TV and YouTube three top content delivery networks simultaneously stream the signals sent from Geak Beat 's TriCaster. This innovative multistream strategy ensures that the hundreds of thousands of Geek Beaters who tune in live each week can access the webcast from their preferred online platform. This audience figure swells into the millions when you factor in those accessing the content on-demand or downloading it to services like Roku.
The live show is produced every Friday at 3 p.m. Central time and webcast to fans in time zones around the world. The pair occasionally deviates from the show notes to address viewers' chat room comments on the air, making the viewing experience extremely interactive.
We're always trying to give our viewers what they want, Lewis said. A few years ago, the show was entirely pre-recorded, but occasionally the opportunity arose to do special live broadcasts from major events like trade shows. When our viewers found out we had the capability to do live content, they demanded more. We knew producing a live weekly show would be challenging, but our guiding principle has always been to listen to our community. So if live is what they wanted, live is what they would get.
When cameras roll on any webcast, the TriCaster operator switches between multiple HD cameras located throughout the building and pulls together the show's video, audio and graphical elements. Standing next to a video monitor, Lewis usually delivers a fast-paced rundown of the latest tech news and gadgets while joking around with Pozadzides, who is often heard off-camera.
In some cases, these two best friends sit at a table (sometimes with guests) and exchange casual banter. Occasionally, they speak with one or more Skype video callers, who appear on screen along with the real-time chat room feed. These disparate source elements feed into TriCaster, where they're mixed in real time, resulting in a fully composited video program. Regarding the Skype capability, the pair often jokingly refer to SkypeZilla, a rack of servers custom-built to grab multiple Skype video callers and feed them to the TriCaster.
Compared to traditional broadcast studio facilities, TriCaster has many competitive and logistical advantages. Lewis said, Since everything we need for our show is all in one compact box, including the switching, keying, roll-ins, graphics and audio, this makes it easy to take our equipment on the road for live remotes. She adds that the system is easy for new crew members to learn and operate, and it performs reliably.
While we're really geeky and can certainly figure out how to get electronics up and running, we often find ourselves in a time crunch, having to set up everything we need for a flawless live remote broadcast, Pozadzides adds. One of our TriCasters is so compact that we can pack it into a 22-inch Pelican case and carry it on a plane. And when we get to the location, this one unit has all the essential multicamera production capabilities we need to pull off a live show.
Taking the show on the road has become increasingly important, since Lewis and Pozadzides are often asked to webcast live from major tech trade shows, including CES, CE Week and Photo Plus.
When a live production calls for more than a few cameras and lights, they've got it covered. They've built two production trailers one medium and one large to secure and transport all their gear. A typical load includes TriCaster(s), HD cameras and tripods, the teleprompter, audio outboard mixers, lights, and even a 15 x 30 foot custom aluminum lighting truss that goes with the physical set all of which is packed up to roll on and off the trailer and set up quickly at the remote site.
As the heart of
Most recent headlines
06/10/2025
France T l visions, France's leading broadcaster, has received the 2025 EBU ...
04/09/2025
Monumental Sports & Entertainment (MSE), in collaboration with Dalet, has been a...
30/08/2025
WASHINGTON The Federal Communications Commission has adopted its FY 2025 Regulatory Fees Order that establishes the regulatory fee rates for the broadcast stati...
29/08/2025
Australian Red Cross and SBS launch training to help workplaces in the fight aga...
29/08/2025
The National Film and Video Foundation (NFVF), an agency of the Department of Sp...
29/08/2025
L3Harris Technologies has concentrated decades of expertise across the entire enterprise to develop affordable and reliable best-of-breed solutions to rapidly c...
29/08/2025
BURBANK, Calif. The CW Network and the Pac-12 Conference have announced a new media rights deal that will extend their broadcast partnership beginning with the ...
29/08/2025
NEW YORK Gracenote has released a new analysis of its global video dataset showing that the number of FAST channels grew nearly 14% from Q1 2025 and 76% since 2...
29/08/2025
SAN JOSE, Calif. Harmonic has announced a series of improvements to its live sports streaming solution that the company said will improve fan engagement, protec...
29/08/2025
NEW YORK and LOS ANGELES Fox Corp. and YouTube TV last night announced a renewal of the full portfolio of Fox networks, including Fox News Channel, Fox Business...
29/08/2025
Budapest, Hungary, August 2025 - The integration of Microsoft Teams Rooms (MTR) with Lightware's Taurus universal matrix switchers delivers a new level of f...
29/08/2025
Frequency, the engine behind many of the world's best-known streaming television channels, today announced it will launch Studio Live, a next-generation uni...
29/08/2025
In an era when AI and cyber resilience are essential, Scality will mark the 10th anniversary of Scality Day on October 16, 2025 in Paris. This flagship global e...
29/08/2025
Disguise's In-House Creative and Technical Teams Pre-Visualised, Programmed and Delivered Content for the Experience, All Powered by EX 3+
Technology solu...
29/08/2025
Disguise will be demonstrating the latest workflows for TV, film and live events on a number of partner booths at the show
Disguise, the industry-leading tech...
29/08/2025
STOCKHOLM, Sweden Accedo will showcase Accedo Compose, its AI agent-powered modular orchestration layer that assists streaming providers in transitioning client...
29/08/2025
LOS ANGELES Cineverse has announced that it is working with Xperi to bring four of its streaming channels to automobiles for the first time as part of the DTS A...
29/08/2025
DALLAS & ATLANTA Gray Media has announced an agreement with the sports streaming service Victory+ to simulcast 17 Dallas Stars NHL games in 15 television market...
29/08/2025
NEW YORK AND CULVER CITY Comcast NBCUniversal and Amazon have announced new and extended distribution agreements that will expand the content available on their...
29/08/2025
FOOTHILL RANCH, Calif. RED Digital Cinema will feature its Cine-Broadcast Module supporting live broadcast workflows during IBC2025, Sept. 12-15, at the RAI Ams...
29/08/2025
29 Aug 2025
Kyivstar Rings Opening Bell at Nasdaq Marking Landmark Listing and ...
29/08/2025
More than half of all NFL games live on Sky for the first timeFriday 29 August 2025
Sky Sports has announced a new three-year deal with the NFL, extending its ...
29/08/2025
Back to All News
RIV4LRIES: The Trailer of the New Series With Samuele Carrino ...
29/08/2025
Get ready for an inspiring and emotional insight into the world of competitive Irish dancing with My Story: Tomi Champion of the World airing on RT 2 this monda...
29/08/2025
RT has today announced that David McCullagh is to be the new presenter of RT Radio 1's flagship Today programme, which airs every weekday at 10am, replaci...
28/08/2025
By Kristin Feeley, Director, Documentary Film & Artist Programs
If you want to tell untold stories, if you want to give voice to the voiceless, you've got ...
28/08/2025
Directed by Steven Bognar and Julia Reichert, Sundance Institute-supported Amer...
28/08/2025
Corridos have been a cornerstone of M sica Mexicana for generations, telling stories rooted in everyday life. Now, a new chapter is taking shape: motivational c...
28/08/2025
Los corridos han sido un pilar de la M sica Mexicana durante generaciones, contando historias enraizadas en la vida cotidiana. Ahora, un nuevo cap tulo est tom...
28/08/2025
Earlier this month, we promised our Verano Forever party would bring the heat, a...
28/08/2025
L3Harris will provide the Polish F-16V fleet with the Viper Shield electronic warfare system as part of an upgrade program....
28/08/2025
Bilbao, August 26, 2025 - AgileTV, an international television and video technol...
28/08/2025
Ken Wilkinson is an Emmy Awards nominated New York audio engineer who specialises in production sound mixing for film, commercial, episodic and documentary work...
28/08/2025
NEW YORK FuboTV today announced that it will launch Fubo Sports, a skinny bundle that focuses on sports with a subscription price of $56 monthly....
28/08/2025
NEVADA City, Calif. At IBC2025, Sept. 12-15 at the RAI Amsterdam, Telestream will debut its new Global Ingest strategy, introducing a next-generation ingest arc...
28/08/2025
Dr. Rhoda Bernard Releases Groundbreaking Debut Book on Accessible Arts Educatio...
28/08/2025
TAG Video Systems, the leader in software-based IP end-to-end workflow monitoring, deep probing, and real-time visualization, has named Oliver Gappa as Sales Di...
28/08/2025
AI-based voice enhancement will be among a series of innovations making their IBC 2025 debut on the DHD stand B46 in Hall 8 at the RAI Amsterdam Convention Cent...
28/08/2025
Telef nica Servicios Audiovisuales (TSA), the leading system integrator and service provider in the media sector in Spain, with the support of Appear, the globa...
28/08/2025
To fully immerse sailing fans in the world's biggest offshore yacht race, production company, Optical Media turned to LiveU's On-site Production solutio...
28/08/2025
Working with Calrec on its most recent overhaul, radio and television broadcaster, WNED has migrated to a fully IP infrastructure with multiple Type R consoles,...
28/08/2025
Cleeng, the Subscriber Retention Management (SRM ) inventor, has unveiled Cleeng Pro, the first-ever direct-to-consumer (D2C) subscription management platform t...
28/08/2025
Zixi, the industry leader in live broadcast-quality video over IP, today announced that French media distribution platform OKAST has selected Zixi to enable rel...
28/08/2025
Solution offers a streamlined, speaker-free architecture to optimize integration with premium external loudspeakers and advanced loudness metering
Nixer Pro Au...
28/08/2025
Cinegy, the premier provider of software-defined television technology, has announced a strategic partnership with Vision One Touch Film Production Services L.L...
28/08/2025
Telestream, a global leader in media workflow technologies, will debut its new Global Ingest strategy at IBC2025, introducing a next-generation ingest architect...
28/08/2025
Tier 1 operator selects Broadpeak to power high-performance, unified CDN solution across Norway, Sweden and Finland
Broadpeak, a leader in streaming and moneti...
28/08/2025
Leading video software provider, Synamedia, today announced that 24 Frames Digital, one of India's leading live event streaming service providers, has chose...
28/08/2025
Meet VisualOn at IBC2025: See What's Next in AI-Powered Video Streaming Join VisualOn at IBC2025 and discover how our AI-driven Optimizer and advanced media...
ADDISON, TEXAS When Internet bandwidth became robust enough to stream live video over the web about 10 years ago, it ushered in the Internet broadcasting age. The potential of this new medium captured the imaginations of two forward-thinking, tech-savvy people, Cali Lewis and John Pozadzides (John P), the co-founders of Livid Lobster the parent company of Geek Beat TV.
