Live Streaming, Coming Home

Live streaming is more than a format to us. It is a lineage.

For many of us, the spark first appeared when Kevin Rose and Alex Albrecht sat down to do DiggNation. Two people, a table, some gear, and a conversation that felt alive. It was simple, honest, and deeply human. That show did more than entertain. It demonstrated that independent voices, curiosity, and community could sit at the center of media, not the margins. It inspired an entire generation to pick up microphones, cameras, and software and see what was possible.

That energy did not come from nowhere. It carried forward from what came before it. Early satellite television and pre G4 TechTV showed that technology could be explored publicly, explained by people who cared about it, and shared without polish or pretense. Those shows treated the audience like participants, not consumers. That mattered. It shaped how many of us thought about media long before platforms, metrics, and algorithms took over the conversation.

One of the earliest moments represented here comes from a DiggNation meetup in Chicago around that era. That period was important because it was when community and media began to overlap in physical space. It was no longer just about watching something online. It was about showing up, meeting one another, exchanging ideas, and realizing that this was becoming something bigger than a show.

For us, that lineage crossed a clear threshold in the summer of 2009 when we took what we had learned and went live on location at Chicago Comic Con. Up to that point, much of what felt live in online media was still live to tape. Even shows that carried the energy of live broadcasting were often recorded and edited before release. Taking a full production live from a venue, at scale, brought together broadcast thinking, emerging streaming platforms, and real world logistics in a way we had not done before.

The photos from Comic Con capture that moment. We partnered with uFRAG.tv and streamed to their platform and other destinations available at the time, including Justin.tv as best as we can recall. uFRAG was operating its own live streaming platform during a period when several companies were exploring what live video on the internet could become. It was experimental, imperfect, and demanding. It was also the moment when it became clear that live streaming was not just something we were experimenting with. It was the direction.

That realization came in part because of what we were responding to. Around that same time, Alex Albrecht was producing gaming related content out of California, including projects like Project Lore. Much of that work, like ours, was still produced live to tape. Competing as peers forced us to think seriously about tools, workflows, and storytelling. Going live at Comic Con brought all of those ideas together in a way that changed our trajectory.

From there, our involvement in live production only deepened. Different shows followed. Different platforms. Different tools. Different audiences. We had the opportunity to participate in a third party debate in downtown Chicago that included Larry King. We produced multiple college commencements. We learned how to take live production into environments that were not built for it and make it work.

Early on, that meant turning a rental Sprinter van into a makeshift outside broadcast vehicle. It meant running cables through parking garages, solving problems on the fly, and learning what truly mattered when there was no undo button. Over time, those lessons became systems. Systems became infrastructure. Infrastructure became full outside broadcast trucks designed to handle complex, mission critical events.

That same progression carries forward to today. The tools, workflows, and infrastructure we helped develop are now being used for professional broadcasts, including major religious services like the Christmas Mass for the Chicago Archdiocese. The scale changed. The expectations changed. The responsibility increased. The core discipline stayed the same.

Live streaming became our bread and butter, not because it was trendy, but because it demanded excellence. It required preparation. It required teamwork. It required humility. It required understanding both the art and the science of live video, and respecting the audience enough to get it right.

At the same time, the heart of it never disappeared. While many of us look for ways to make a living in live streaming, the truth is that we love this work enough to keep doing it even when it is rooted in our own passions and hobbies. We do it for the craft, for the audience, for the community that forms around shared moments, and for the authentic human connection that live video makes possible. That connection is why we started. It is why we stayed. It is why we are still here.

Everything before this era was broadcast. What followed was participation.

We plan to share more of this history through a series called History of Live, where we can slow down and unpack how these early experiments shaped what the industry has become. For now, we are grateful to help found this community on Digg as a place where people can learn, share, and find their place in that lineage.

Whether you are just getting started, returning to a craft you love, or realizing you have been part of this story longer than you thought, you are welcome here. We look forward to meeting you, learning from you, and raising a glass together as we take live streaming into its next era.