“Magical!” that’s how National Geographic Wild Safari Live host Hayden Turner has described his experience as host of the spectacular Wild Safari Live.

Like thousands of viewers around the world I am RIVETED this week as National Geographic presents the first ever LIVE streamed safari experience. We have watched live lion kills, and water buffalo herds, we’ve watched giraffes eat breakfast, elephants take mud baths, and hippos cool off in a watering hole – all unscripted, all live, all THRILLING. The energy, the excitement is palpable, not only from the live hosts, but from the global audience in the Twitter stream.

Just some of the quotes from Hayden and Pieter:

“You have to be there as it happens – it’s the only way to feel it”

“We’ve said it, We’ve seen It, We’ve Shared it, We’ve Experienced it” –

“When you get out there and do extraordinary things like this, extraordinary things happen”

And it’s not just the event itself that is amazing to us! What is equally gratifying is to watch these seasoned and wonderful National Geographic hosts, and their audience, discover the thrill, the excitement, the energy of LIVE. VirtualArtsTV gets to experience this same thrill every time we do a multi-camera live stream as our global audiences tweets and face books their excitement about sharing an experience, live in real time that in the past would have been accessible only to a limited audience. Just like we do, the WildSafari team is personally addressing the audiences questions on camera, making everyone feel as if they are literally a part of the magical show they are watching, including students who are tuning in from all over the world.

WildSafari is streaming LIVE through this Saturday. If you haven’t watched it yet – tune in!!

And – that’s not all that’s live this week! Twitter is already abuzz with Peter Pan Live, which airs tomorrow night. No matter your opinion of last year’s Sound of Music what can’t be denied is that the excitement was contagious and at 17.5 million live viewers, the audience was passionate, excited, vocal and HUGE.

Slowly but oh so surely we are seeing more and more live streams and broadcasts, confirming what VATV has known since the launch of the live-streaming platforms in 2007 – we are entering a wonderful new world of live, interactive entertainment. The possibilities are almost endless, and the experiences will be remembered forever!