Twitter is expanding beyond amateur videos captured on smartphones by enabling its brand partners to broadcast high-quality TV-like content through Periscope Producer.

Producer marks a new stage in the evolution of Twitter's live-streaming capabilities, and follows the growth of Facebook and YouTube's live-streaming application programming interfaces (APIs).

Producer allows brands to use external cameras, VR headsets, and streaming software to broadcast professional-quality videos. Producer cannot professionalise a video itself; it simply captures higher-resolution videos.

Twitter acquired live video-streaming app Periscope for $86 million last year, and choked off its API to competitors like Meerkat.

Until now, Periscope streams could only be captured through smartphone cameras, and appealed mostly to consumers, whereas over at Facebook, the users dominating live video are big media companies, celebrities, and technologists.

Kayvon Beykpour, CEO of Periscope, said Producer "opens up new types of content for everyone to watch live".

"Periscope allows anyone to watch something with an audience, and now they're able to watch daily shows, large and small-scale events, and other live video with compelling content from creators they know and love. High-quality, produced live video can now be shared anywhere through a tweet," Beykpour added.

Where before, the experience of "live tweeting" typically required the use of two technologies -- namely, a TV and a smartphone -- social media broadcasting would bring the experience into one device.

Currently, YouTube attracts more than 1 billion unique viewers every month and Facebook has 1.71 billion monthly active users, whereas Periscope has 10 million users in total and Twitter has 313 million monthly active users.

Thus far, Twitter's brand partners include ABC's Dancing with the Stars, CBS 12, Estadao, Fusion, Louis Vuitton, The News & Documentary Emmy Awards, The Ringer, Walt Disney Studios, and Xbox UK.