54 THE LIVE LIFE IRL Streaming
but beyond its voyeuristic lure, JenniCam became a window into the mundane – the long, slow, dull moments of a person’s life – and evoked a kind of zen celebration of the ordinary. Ringley’s site was initially shot with a single computer webcam, at first in black and white. She added live communication via a chatroom and, in later years, multiple rooms, colour and a paywall. She ended up a celebrity with millions of fans worldwide and high profile TV exposure. “Not only did she lay out the template for how everyone does the internet now,” commented Reply All’s Alex Goldman in a 2016 BBC radio piece on Ringley, “she also just shut down her webcam and vanished.” TWITCH ARRIVES As the internet became more video friendly – and video codecs became more internet friendly – one of the first things people did was livestream their lives; the smartphone revolution combined with faster networks meant that video could be streamed live from anywhere. Social media became a natural outlet for life streaming, with platforms like Periscope allowing for one- touch broadcasting from a mobile device. But the live streaming genre that pushed the technology furthest wasn’t via weekend
streaming has left the desktop, with people live streaming their views, their passions, their daily grind from any location, using high quality streaming tools. A POWERFUL PLATFORM Pete Wilkins studied electrical engineering at university, but wrote his thesis on a live streaming video codec and reducing latency. This was years before he founded Gaming Careers (gamingcareers.com), his highly successful channel for gamers – and anyone else – looking to make a living by live streaming their skills online. “Originally, gaming was the easiest niche for live streaming content because people were already sitting at a very powerful computer with a consistent internet connection,” says Wilkins. “Now, people can do all kinds of live streams, but five years ago, when live streaming started to blow up, gaming was by far the biggest.” Wilkins started the Gaming Careers YouTube channel at the end of 2016, in response to a lack of resources for gamers trying to build and monetise their own live streaming brands. “It was still a technically difficult thing to do. People were wanting to start, but there wasn’t a lot of great information – about what equipment you would need
DIY IRL Pete Wilkins live streamed his marathon run for charity
narcissists – it was gaming. Sharing gameplay has been a huge driver of consumerised live streaming, starting with people recording, then live broadcasting their online gameplay. It spawned a whole new video content genre: esports. Twitch launched in 2011, offering a platform for gamers to interact live with fans and each other. But Twitch wasn’t just for gamers. It soon became a platform for live streamers of all kinds – some built around specific interests, many around the streaming personalities themselves. The most significant advance is that live
feedzinesocial feedmagazine.tv
Powered by FlippingBook