Reena Patel, vice president of marketing at Kink, told XBIZ that the idea for streaming live video came with the introduction of a new webmaster who helms the company's DeviceBondage site, which launched March 1.
Patel said the Kink team decided to enhance the initial live-stream idea by filming the shoots in hi-def and integrating a RealChat functionality into the site, allowing staffers to ask viewer opinions, as well as enabling viewers to tell the crew directly what they want to see — as long as it's OK with the director and the models.
"There is an assistant director monitoring the chat during the shoot," Patel said. "There's constant banter, chatter online. 'Try this,' or 'What do you want to see next?'"
Kink's first live hi-def shoot took place March 17 and another is scheduled for April 6. The next shoot will be for HogTied.com, the first site added to the company's arsenal when owner Peter Acworth founded Kink in 1997.
Patel said the first shoot went amazingly well.
"People loved it," she said. "Because it was so popular, we're expanding [live streams] throughout the site."
Kink.com now has a "Live!" section on its site, complete with a schedule of upcoming live shoots, where viewers can login and watch the live action. The four-hour live shoots are later edited down to 40 minutes and are posted on the non-live section of the site.
Patel said these live streams also have proven to be a successful way for Kink to combat piracy and file sharing.
"It was a secondary effect," she said.