To provide some background context, recall the popular news site launched an online TV network in August that streams 12 hours of live footage a day from New York and L.A. It’s a big investment, but the company is hoping its hyper-engaged user community will follow the brand into the video space, and that all that footage will produce buckets of viral content clips to spray across HuffPo and AOL web sites.

So what is the significance of the iPad app in all this? At first glance, not much. The app is simply another way for a user to watch the live stream — which features both ordinary people and celebrity guests like Bill Maher — while reading and adding comments, and sharing shows to Twitter or Facebook. Here are a couple of screenshots that show how comments can appear either stacked or tiled:

On its own, the HuffPo Live app is not extraordinary. Where it could be a real game changer, however, is the fact that the app can be slung onto a TV set using Apple TV. This means that Huffington Post has a chance to control not just a living room’s second screens but also the primary one as well.

In practice, this could occur if groups of friends watch the presidential elections on HuffPo Live and share comments in real time via their iPad — comments that would appear on their TV. If this comes to pass, HuffPo Live will have created what amounts to a walled garden extraordinaire in living rooms across the land.

But could HuffPo actually pull this off? In the short term, the answer is no, as the commenting system is too rudimentary. It allows users to like or flag a given comment but does not let users create a limited community like the ones they know on Facebook or Twitter. A company spokesperson says improved commenting features are coming soon (a Reddit-style up-or-down voting system might be one idea).

Meanwhile, bandwidth will provide another obstacle to HuffPo Live as most houses don’t have the capacity to enjoy an uninterrupted live stream on several devices at once. (Although, as Om’s recent account shows, things are improving quickly).

Still, the future prospects of a living room with a single media source dominating all devices is intriguing from both a user and marketing perspective. Will we one day see other content makers like the NFL or BuzzFeed try to do the same thing?

Video news experts explored how to go forward at an event held Tuesday at the British Consulate in New York. Here are five takeaways:

Takeaway 1: Live news is a commodity, media firms are responding

Andrew Heyward, former president of CBS News, observed that consumers now take for granted that they can see anything, anytime and from multiple angles. He says this means media companies must work to  “create something bespoke out of this commoditized raw experience.”

News firms are responding to the commodity issue with strategies based on curation and engagement. According to Huffington Post President Roy Sekoff, people no longer want scheduled shows but instead clips and highlights on which they can comment.  “People don’t want to watch a full hour of Meet the Press, they want a minute and 30 seconds of Romney saying [something].”

Even if footage of real time news and events is no longer hard to get, it can still offer new ways of attracting an audience. Ray Mia, CEO of Streamworks, a service that helps companies use real-time video, cited a phenomenon in Japan where a live-stream of events in Syria has become an ongoing forum for news discussions.

And even when live news is a pure commodity, there is still money to be made. “We can get cable news ratings just through streaming events,” said Joe Ruffolo, VP of Digital Meida at ABC News. He added that putting events like Michelle Obama’s convention speech on YouTube video leads to millions of additional, monetizable streams.

Takeaway 2: Streaming is a lifeline to young viewers

“The first time my kids plan to watch a network evening news cast is never,” noted Heyward. He says that networks have failed to engage young people in a systematic way. The streaming format presents a new opportunity to do that and perhaps teach new viewers to associate traditional news brands with a given level of quality.

Takeaway 3: We need a better marriage between video and text-based media

Traditional print-based publications like the New York Times and the Huffington Post are rushing into the video space but the results have been underwhelming. Heyward noted that many of the videos simply amount to a print reporter regurgitating a story. “There’s a glut of video but not enough quality video… This is better consumed as print – give me something new.”

ABC’s Ruffolo said his company is experimenting with building fresh types of news by overlaying different forms of textual information onto video. He says text should not be written off because it’s a fast and efficient way to consume information. Combined with video and social engagement, it has a strong future.

Takeaway 4: Metrics are a problem

As with much else in web-based media, no one can figure out how to measure what counts as success for streaming video. Even the experts at the event were unsure if it should be clicks or some more nebulous measure based on “engagement.” All they could agree on was that the status quo doesn’t work and that everyone  is waiting for some type of standardized Nielsen rating for the 21^st century.

“Analytics need to get better across board,” said Streamworks’ Mia. “The tools and technology are not there.”

Takeaway 5: Unique video experience requires a unique ad experience

Ruffolo says ABC’s goal is to “create a unique content experience for everyone” but, from a business perspective, the  ”key is how to pair that with a unique advertising experience.”

The ad industry should be blazing a trail in the new live video paradigm along with the content industries. But, as we’ve observed before, they have been slower to adapt. According to Sekoff, this is in part because “brands have to become comfortable with new forms of monetization. They also need metrics to convince [people to commit to] ad spends.”

The panelists predicted the industry will adapt soon and that the present era of pre-roll ads will evolve.

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The panel was moderated by former MSNBC editor-in-chief Merrill Brown and sponsored by Streamworks and by UK Trade & Investment.

(Image by  alexwhite via Shutterstock)

The network launches with ten hosts, “eight hours of live programming out of New York and four hours out of Los Angeles each weekday.” Highlights will be shown overnight and on weekends. Huffington Post reporters, bloggers and editors “will be an integral part of the programming, making regular appearances that will give viewers a real-time sense of what is happening on verticals all across HuffPost.”

Users can weigh in from smartphones, tablets and webcams. Each story is accompanied by a large red record button and “Join This Segment.” Users are asked to explain what makes them “a good guest on this topic” in 140 characters or less, provide contact info and then record their take. Coming this morning are segments about Mitt Romney’s choice of Paul Ryan for Vice President, Arianna Huffington talking about work/life balance, and how gun control measures in Australia could be a model for the United States.

Each video segment is accompanied by a set of “Resources,” links back to “key articles” (both from the Huffington Post and elsewhere), tweets, polls, maps, photos and charts.

The hosts are Marc Lamont Hill, Abby Huntsman, Alicia Menendez, Alyona Minkovski, Nancy Redd, Mike Sacks, Ahmed Shihab-Eldin, Jacob Soboroff, Janet Varney and Josh Zepps. The hosts come from a variety of backgrounds: Ahmed Shihab-Eldin worked for Al Jazeera, for example; Abby Huntsman is the daughter of former presidential candidate Jon Huntsman, and Nancy Redd is an author and speaker on women’s body image and former Miss America finalist.