Interactive live media systems and methods

A non-transitory computer readable medium embodying a computer program executable on an server for operating an interactive control service while a plurality of viewer computing devices are each receiving, and displaying to a respective user, a respective copy of a mixed live video stream, the computer program comprising:

• computer program code for communicating, with those of the viewer computing devices capable of presenting a personal interactive user interface that is controllable by the interactive control service, to cause those of the viewer computing devices capable of the presenting to present a respective personal interactive user interface to the respective user simultaneously with the displaying to the respective user of the respective copy of the mixed live video stream;
• computer program code for receiving user input data provided by at least one user via a respective personal interactive user interface;
• computer program code for processing at least the user input data to generate interaction data;
• computer program code for communicating with a mixing computing device that is generating the mixed live video stream to provide the interaction data to the mixing computing device,
• wherein the mixing computing device is remote from the viewer computing devices and:
• generates mixable content using the interaction data;
• draws the mixable content into an overlay frame buffer of the mixing computing device;
• draws video frames of a live video into a main frame buffer of the mixing computing device;
• generates each successive frames of the mixed live video stream as a combination of at least contents of the main frame buffer and contents of the overlay frame buffer;
• and
• streams the successive frames of the mixed live video stream from the mixing computing device to the plurality of viewer computing devices.

A method of operating an interactive control service on a server while a plurality of viewer computing devices are each receiving, and displaying to a respective user, a respective copy of a mixed live video stream, the method comprising:

• communicating, with those of the viewer computing devices capable of presenting a personal interactive user interface that is controllable by the interactive control service, to cause those of the viewer computing devices capable of the presenting to present a respective personal interactive user interface to the respective user simultaneously with the displaying to the respective user of the respective copy of the mixed live video stream;
• receiving user input data provided by at least one user via a respective personal interactive user interface;
• processing at least the user input data to generate interaction data;
• communicating with a mixing computing device that is generating the mixed live video stream to provide the interaction data to the mixing computing device,
• wherein the mixing computing device is remote from the viewer computing devices and:
• generates mixable content using the interaction data;
• draws the mixable content into an overlay frame buffer of the mixing computing device;
• draws video frames of a live video into a main frame buffer of the mixing computing device;
• generates each successive frames of the mixed live video stream as a combination of at least contents of the main frame buffer and contents of the overlay frame buffer;
• and
• streams the successive frames of the mixed live video stream from the mixing computing device to the plurality of viewer computing devices.