I recently signed up for the Livestation technical preview and they invited me into the beta trial quite quickly.
Signing up is done on the website to register for the technical preview. An email is sent shortly thereafter confirming your registration and acceptance into the preview. A link to download the software is listed in the email.
When you run the program you are prompted to login. Afterwards, it appears as if the program isn’t running at all, but it is - just in the system tray. Once’s it’s able to connect it will open the player.
Stations
The stations in the US are very limited right now:
- Al Jazeera (English) - Video
- BBC Radio 4 - Audio
- BBC World Service - Audio
- France 24 (English) - Video
- France 24 (French) - ideo
Buffering of the stations are fairly quick, not really too much of a delay - slightly longer than digital cable delays.
Livestation is supposed to replicate broadcast tv and radio - therefore there are no controls to stop, pause, play, fast forward, re-wind. The only controls are volume and changing a channel - just like a regular tv and radio with no time-phasing capabilities.
All in all the application seems ok, but the future of it rests in it’s station lineup - which is underwhelming right now.