Firstly the talent was fantastic. Britney Amber is always a passionate performer and she clearly gave her all. Though I do think she probably could have done with better guidance on how to use the teledong. There was a lot of tip licking and stroking too fast. I don’t think she was given clear guidance on how to use the teledong in a way that translates well with interactive devices. When she did insertion for the couple of minutes she did it, the experience was what I expected and that was the highlight of the stream.
Marketing
As many know the advertisement was present on the forum and from what I saw, also on the handy’s feeling website.
The batman theme during stream was not included in the advertisment and was unexpected. I think the stream could have gone without the theme.
Technology
The teledong has a lot of promise. When it was used properly it worked really well. I have no more comments about it.
Interactivity
I was tuned in on the stream a long time before the stream actually started. I was able to see the prep they did before the stream. Unfortunately there was no way to comment or interact with the stream so I couldn’t give any feedback.
I think the preparation was last minute, and wasn’t enough. I think regardless the technical accumen Britney has, we should assume she’s unfamiliar with the technology. She won’t know the speed capabilities of the handy. She won’t know how the teledong’s sensors work.
I think some guidance on how she should optimise her performance was necessary but missing.
In the future, talent should be “trained” on how to use the teledong. Licking the tip doesn’t translate on strokers.
This is where I think the stream really dropped the ball and unfortunately it was the most important part.
Live
You would be forgiven for thinking this was a prefab video. There was little interactivity with the performer. A staple of any stream is the chatbox. This was missing and gave the whole experience a very “not live” vibe.
Summary
Britney was a great choice and she’s a great performer but the whole thing felt like it was last minute thrown together with little prep and that made the experience feel cheap. I think this has promise for better experiences to be made in the future but more effort and passion needs to go into this.
I didn’t join the stream so can’t really coment too much.
I don’t know too much about the Batman theme, but I watched the promo vid on the site and I am sure she was wearing some kind of latex Catwoman/Batgirl type costume in part of the vid.
I am just curious as to whether they gave this thing a test run at all before going live as it sound sto me like a lot of the issues people mentioned could have been avoided. As this is the first one, hopefully it will be used as a learning curve to improve on future shows.
I also feel the show should be downlaodable along with the script for those who paid to se ethe live show, even if they were to put it out a few months after the live show.
For those who doesn’t know, I am responsible for building the solution that made this interactive live stream possible. I take full responsibility for the technical issues during the event.
I want to sincerely apologize for how this event went, especially to those who ended up paying full price for it. I will do my best to make it better in the future.
This is very true. While I did explain to her where the sensors are located and the grip I recommended her to use, I could have been a lot more thorough.
In hindsight I should have realized this, but it slipped my mind that she would hold the bottom of the shaft while using it.
By default, when a sensor along the shaft is covered, the remaining sensors between the tip and the covered sensor does not pick up on movement.
This works fine when the device is used with one hand, or when held under the balls.
However, due to this default behavior, when the device is held at the base of the shaft, then any movement above it won’t be tracked, which caused the majority of tracking issues during the event.
Thankfully, that is only the default behavior. It’s also possible to access the raw sensor data from each of 16 sensors, which have allowed me to write my own custom logic to better handle different use cases.
Yes, while planning this event, I did expect us to do more of a regular cam show, with her wearing lingerie or something similar.
However, they knew that videos of Britney in cosplay were popular. So, a few days before the event, it was decided that she would wear cosplay.
Our banner ads and other assets included Britney wearing lingerie, so I can definitely understand that it was not expected. We can definitely make our marketing more clear in the future.
Yes, the type of light sensitive sensors used makes it extremely versatile, able to handle both touch and penetration.
For future events, I will explain to the performer how the Teledong works.
As for the speed capability of the handy, I can mention that I am taking the raw data from the Teledong and processing it in real time, to create the script. This allows me to reduce or increase the length of strokes and make other adjustments, based on different settings. This way, if the strokes are too fast on the Teledong, I can account for this.
Wether it worked as intended during the event is tricky to say, due to the issue I described with the default behavior.
I should get access the raw video soon, so I will be able to tweak the settings for the script generation to make it play well on Handy and Keon.
I completely agree. From a user perspective, there was no real indication that it was live. Of course, if it was pre-recorded, we wouldn’t have included the part where the device disconnected, but that is besides the point.
As there were multiple people that were part of making decisions for the project, there were different ideas of what a live event should be like.
Personally I wanted a live chat, as letting viewers influence what happens next is a big selling point for a live show, over a regular video.
Yes, there were many aspects of this that had less planning than it really needed.
There were also parts of this that we put extra effort into. For example, we ended up ordering 2 Teledong devices for the performer, in case something would go wrong. And it just so happened that it did. When that happened, the white overlay appeared on the stream, which instantly alerted her that something went wrong. Within a half a minute, she had the new device ready and it the show went on. If we didn’t think about this, it could have been a real disaster.
As for passion, I understand that it didn’t come across that way. However, with multiple people calling the shots and compromises having to be made, it’s tricky to present a clear and cohesive vision.
Personally, I am very passionate about this project, especially as I see it as the start of many more possibilities. We have so much cool tech, all we have to do is just put it together and we can create experiences that you would only expect to find in sci-fi.
As a user myself, the things I build are first and foremost designed based on what I want to use myself. But also, it can’t just be something that has been done before, but slightly refined, it has to push some kind of boundary, doing something that has not been done before.
On a final note, as I don’t want the issues to repeat for future events, I spent the last 3 days working on custom logic for how the Teledong tracks movement as well as refined the logic for the real time script generation.
You can check it out here:
For this video, I captured the page that the performer uses to connect the Teledong. It now displays which of the 16 sensors are being covered. And as you can see, it now properly tracks the movement while 2 hands are being used.
I really wish I had it working this way during the event.
Monumental props for the transparency and openness to feedback!
I’ve long been eyeing the Teledong and very much want to get one some day to make original content, and the stream alerted me to some issues and pitfalls it may have.
I’m especially glad to hear the sensor gap behavior can be modified.
TL;DR - think of it or treat it like a series event of testing and refining, and it could propel this major leap into the future mainstream. You cannot always predict what an untrained human will do, and training is more than a short description or instruction sheet - a performance is multi-faceted and can go in so many ways.
First of all, I wanted to commend you for taking a bold step forward in this kind of tech. almost 30 years ago when I arrived on my campus and discovered the joys of un-dialup-fettered ethernet internet access (my college got a big grant in the early 90’s and laid fiber on the entire campus), the wonders of porn and tech provoked - I assume in many of us - the pipe-induced dream of this kind of interactive adult entertainment.
When the Handy and Launch came about, it seemed a lot closer, and with the advents of the SR devices, it really just became a matter of time before the real-time input could be sorted out.
And to sort these out? It takes a few live trials to get things working, because no one or even group of people involved directly in the technical development, can put themselves in the place of the generic user or performer to see what “mistakes” either would make. You can’t predict what the monkeys will do…
I worked with a at-height safety equipment company once, and we had the top assisted-brake device on the market. A redesign was optimized and tested for years inside the company’s labs, real-world with the company testers, and given to us, the pros and instructors to test out ourselves. None of us found significant flaws. Released to market, and within days, a few calls of breakage and damage came in to the brand. A few people who believed they knew what they were doing, went out and completely misused the device… rigged their ropes incorrectly, rigged the device incorrectly, and used the brake function incorrectly. This happened several times over a month, which triggered an international safety recall of nearly a quarter million devices that had been released to market. Dozens of designers, professional product testers, goofballs (like me) playing around in our own spaces, and professional end-users brought in to focus test - ALL missed what ended up being a completely obvious design mistake, because it had not been designed to be 100% misused.
I think if anyone is upset (rather than mildly frustrated) over a less-than-perfect experience in this very first of its kind event, 2 things ought to happen. 1) They should get over it… I mean, let’s zoom out and look at what this was from a different angle… and 2) maybe the folks who paid could be a great testing group to work with on a couple more events (free to them of course) to explore all the things the team missed, iron out the minor problems, and hammer out the performer instructions/tech explanation so that everyone involved has a great experience.
I’d think a performer like Britney - who has often interviewed and stated how much she enjoys the performance work and shows a curiosity for this new area of adult entertainment - with a good set of instructions/explanations and demo, would see the potential for growing their own brand and audience in this space. The potential for OF/Fansly/Loyalfans and cam performers with this tech is obvious, and you might have a path towards financial independence if major studio or MindGeek picks up the finished and polished final product package.
It’s the least I can do. Feedback is incredibly important to get this right. I never take it as hate. At the end of the day, we’re all passionate about this and we want the best experiences we can get.
I really appreciate your thoughts on this.
It is true as you say, things can work perfectly in a controlled environment, but then as soon as you put it out in the real world a bunch of unexpected issues appear. In hindsight it’s obvious, but it never crossed your mind until then.
For those who paid for the first event, our plan is to provide free tickets for our next event. This was my first thought after we had our show. I also had a meeting with FeelXVideos (the company I’m partnering with) this morning and they even brought it up. We really want to be able to show that we have learned from our first event.
I agree, being able to provide this for creators on fan platforms has a huge potential. This is especially true for custom content, making it possible for the creator to offer interactive content personalized to the user.
Right now, if you want to buy custom content and make it interactive, then someone has to script it. This adds time, on top of the time it takes for you to receive it. If you decide to script it yourself, you’re most likely not as excited to watch it by the time you are done scripting it.
With this, as soon as you receive the content, it will be fully interactive and ready to be watched.
You’d better take an actual handy and set in in hands-free on an actual dildo so she can see how her actions are translated to what viewers see in real time
This will also allow her to explain if handy actions don’t completely match her intentions so you can polish the algo further
For the actual stream it may be too loud or distracting so maybe a render like osr-emu could work
I’d recommend to have a Feature Preview
My vision is:
A woman’s hand in a white glove, that inspires clean neutral feeling
The woman is not in the camera, making the hand itself a person
On a neutral “techy” white background, that inspires high-tech feeling
Playfully touches the Teledong in different ways
Flirty strokes the Teledong, showcasing the technology
Too weak to be an actual content, but just enough for an apéritif
The video duration is around a minute, after which it seamlessly loops
Available anytime as a video
Plays on the stream before is starts to help make sure device is correctly configured and the technology works properly
On stream it reads recording of the raw Teledong data to make sure it works exactly like it will when the stream starts
You may check the forum for how to implement “vibration” in Handy, it may be handy for inplace actions idk
Didn’t have the time to watch the last vid, hopefully will join this time
You can find a cut down version of the event on feelxvideos.com, though it requires a membership for $29 a month.
I would like to share some clips from the event here on the forum, but I will just need to confirm with them if I can do that, since they have the rights to the content.
Thank you so much! We really want to make this the best we can and we’re committed to it.
Thank you for the ideas!
I agree, it’s important for the performer to be able to tell what is happening while they are using the Teledong.
On the page where the performer connects the Teledong, they see a visual representation of the input from the Teledong. You can see what it looks like here: livetoysync.com/video. Of course, it doesn’t represent how the viewers device will move exactly, but our goal is to get it as close as possible.
I would like us to be able to send over a Handy to the performer for them to see how it performs. Though unfortunately the added cost makes it tricky.
For full transparency, for our last event we sold $1600 worth of tickets. However, we had the following expenses:
Performer cut $500
2 Teledongs $160
25% Affiliate cut $400
Stream hosting $40
This left us with $500.
Which I’m grateful for, seeing that it made a profit for the first show. However, the margins are quite thin, which makes it tricky to add additional expenses.
As for showing a video while you wait for the stream to begin, with the ability to connect your toy to it, that would be really good! We don’t want people to have issues connecting their device once the stream starts and this is an excellent way of reducing the risk of that. I am adding this to the todo list.
We are currently working on a landing page for the events, where you can see the timeline of upcoming events. This will also feature a video test the connection before you purchase a ticket. Which is important, as we don’t want anyone to pay for the event, just to find out that their toy is not compatible or that it’s not working as well as expected.
You can setup a handy during the stream and stream the handy to the talent so she can get a view on how she is interacting with the handy, don’t need to get her a handy.
First off, thank you for sharing this: genuinely. I mean no disrespect with what I’m about to say, but I’m honestly floored.
Hearing that Britney Amber only received $500 for that project really stopped me in my tracks. That’s less than what many small-budget indie films pay actors who don’t even have to be vulnerable on camera. It highlights something that’s been a problem in this space for a while, performers giving so much of themselves, while the platforms reap the long-tail profits for years after.
If FeelXVideos is charging $29/month for access, the economics are way out of balance. The talent should be sharing in that ongoing revenue or at least be compensated in a way that reflects the project’s lasting value. Performers are the content, without them, there is no product.
And not being able to provide even a Handy for the performer to preview the experience? That’s just a basic production tool for an interactive shoot. It doesn’t make sense to push a “tech” experience without giving the talent access to the tech itself.
My suggestion: if FeelXVideos want sustainable, long-term engagement and reputation, they need to support the people who make it possible: with fair pay, residuals, and transparency. Otherwise, more performers will keep leaving for independent paths, and honestly, I can’t blame them. I wouldn’t want to support this as is.
Again, thank you for bringing this up. I say this with full respect: I just hope future projects can do better by the people at the heart of them. And force these mega sites to pay up or provide the “bare minimum” lol.