The IBC x Google Cloud Hackfest Supported by Formula E kicked off in London Friday July 4 with a stellar cast of ITV, Sky, Channel 4 and RTE engineer teams, supported by Google coaches.
The challenge for the dry-run hack day ahead of the full IBC x Google Cloud Hackfest in September was designed to test the entire linear pipeline, which consisted of a connected series of vendor implementations in a Google Cloud environment - Veo 3 to quickly create some content, then modules consisting of Ateme, DaVinchi Resolve, Norsk Studio and Techx’s Tx Darwin live media processing platform.
The event was hosted at Google’s London HQ, with a separate Dublin location joining remotely. The two Dublin teams - from RTE - went head-to head with the eight London teams, split into groups of five, to test the production pipeline built in the G Hacks platform on Qwicklabs by Google engineers ahead of the main event at IBC2025. With an anticipated 200 participants at the main IBC2025 event, the 50 participants and ten teams made a perfect dry run trial.
The teams were greeted by a scene-setting introduction by Justin Grayston, Head of Customer Engineering, Telco, Media and Entertainment UK & I Google. Grayston explained the challenge for the day, the pipeline design details and other housekeeping details, before introducing the Google coaches, allocated two teams each.
The teams were briefed and then tasked to run their content through each vendor ‘module’ in turn, keeping to a tight timeline for the day as well as progressing through the logical production sequence.
After an action-packed day - and a break for lunch in Google’s rooftop canteen - the teams submitted their videos which were then scored by Google Gemini. The scoring aimed to account for full use of the tools and following the full process, rather than taking shortcuts - due to the testbed nature of the day.
In spite of the furious pace, the output was both technically accomplished and impressively creative, with general agreement that many of the final submissions were near-broadcast quality. The participants were universally positive about the process, working around a handful of minor challenges with enthusiasm.
The full event, the IBC x Google Cloud Hackfest at IBC2025 in Amsterdam will involve standing up broadcast infra to create a FAST Channel in Google Cloud, among other challenges.Participants will have real content from Formula E to use in their hacks, to develop real live sports use cases. Prizes will be awarded across several different categories, and participation is free - register your interest now!
Spain’s LaLiga teams with Fastly to target streaming piracy
LaLiga is collaborating with San Francisco-based edge cloud platform provider Fastly to develop technical solutions to address illegal streaming of live sports, with a special focus on the Spanish league’s football matches.
Women's elite sports revenues to reach $3bn in 2026
Global revenues in women’s elite sports will reach at least $3bn (£2.2bn) for the first time in 2026, according to new research by consultancy Deloitte.
SVOD market entering a ‘more disciplined phase’ – report
Global SVOD subscriptions have reached 2.2 billion worldwide and are on track to achieve 2.6 billion by 2030, according to Futuresource Consulting.
Gen Alpha leads shift to AI-powered TV recommendations
Gen Alpha is leading a shift towards AI-powered recommendations for TV viewing options, according to new research by Gracenote, the content intelligence business unit of Nielsen.
UK competition authority to investigate Paramount-WBD merger
The UK’s Competition and Markets Authority (CMA) is expected to launch an inquiry into Paramount Skydance's planned $110bn acquisition of Warner Bros Discovery this month.
