ETHGlobal London Hackathon – AV & Live Streaming

ETHGlobal Hackathon

The three-day ETHGlobal London hackathon event brought together some of the top minds and experts in the Ethereum Ecosystem to London. With a mix of speakers and workshops, over 1,000 attendees in 241 teams took part in the hackathon, using the 36-hour window to create and build using a range of web3 resources available at the event.

Located at The Truman Brewery, Shoreditch, the event consisted of three main areas – the main stage, three workshop rooms, and a judging area. Ahead of the event, we conducted two site visits to map out the logistics. The site visit initiated a few changes to the original brief to optimise the event output. This included increasing the size of the PA system and the size and shape of the set, adjusting the vision requirements and increasing the total number of brand-coloured uplighters. In addition, the three workshop spaces presented an audio challenge, so we provided headsets for the attendees to create a ‘silent disco’ style workshop. We also conducted a site visit with the power providers we put forward and the in-house wifi/ethernet network providers to ensure their proposals were in line with the venue and our requirements. 

For the amount of kit required, we hired a 28-tonne lorry for the video and lighting equipment, a 7.5-tonne van for the sound equipment and three vans with our cameras, headsets, and streaming equipment. To help unload (and re-load) our kit and that of other suppliers, we worked with Connection Crew who also helped us build the set. In total, we managed a team of 41.

AV & Live Streaming

Main stage

Our carpenters built a custom-made 3x6m set, which was branded with a printed material backdrop with a 16x9ft screen built into the set. An additional 16x9ft screen flanked each side of the main stage for the audience on either side, each with a 35,000-lumen projector.

To have as much redundancy as possible, we covered each AV capacity with individual operators to ensure we were appropriately staffed to mitigate any staff or technical difficulties and allow us to be responsive to any last-minute requests from the client. Our AV team for the main stage included two Sound Engineers, two Lighting Engineers, two Video Engineers, a Live Stream Engineer, a Timer Operator, a Show Caller, Stage Management, and two Camera Operators operating three cameras. We also had a Producer for the main room, in addition to an event Project Manager, to ensure the main room was operational while the rest of the venue was being set up.

It was important to the client that the music sounded exceptional. Due to the size and rectangular shape of the room, we set out a 10-area PA system to synchronise and amplify the sound across the whole room. In total, we had 20 speakers and four sub-woofers. We had a last-minute request from the client for a sound system for the after-party to ensure the same quality of sound across the whole event schedule, which we were able to achieve for them.

For the speakers on stage, we set up three comfort monitors each to ensure they felt as comfortable as possible while delivering their content. These were routed for each speaker’s requirements, personalised to their preference. E.g. one speaker had it routed to show their presentation, the timer and the main screen feed, while others had the two lectern feeds and a timer. 

One of the sponsors and speakers surprised us by wearing a novelty helmet to conceal their identity, which wouldn’t have worked with the handheld microphones. Within an hour of this problem being presented, we had a headset fitted and tested behind the scenes with the speaker ahead of them being called to the stage.

For the live stream, our Graphic Design team consulted on the digital assets, editing these to save the client time. We used the stream feed as the iMag, which contained all the assets, branding, and the PIP settings. The content, captured by two Camera Operators, was streamed to YouTube and embedded within the client’s EthGlobal community portal. 

Workshops

We sectioned off three spaces for the workshop areas. Each workshop room included a 98” monitor, comfort monitor, AV set up, a Camera Operator, and a Live Stream Engineer who also managed the audio and video in the room. We live streamed the content from the camera and the presenter’s screen to YouTube via vMix. We provided headphones for the attendees to wear to combat any sound bleed between the workshop rooms.

Judging area

We set up 16 stations for the judging area, each enclosed with a 65” screen with HDMI input and a Video Technician on hand. We provided dongles that supported all laptops with ethernet sockets.