Software studio invited onto Microsoft’s Early Adoption Program to develop next generation Live Streaming

Despite a challenging end to 2020 and a somewhat stalled start to the New Year, we’ve been fortunate enough to have received a raft of enquiries from many existing and prospective clients wanting to fast-track their digital capabilities.

From website development for design consultancies, apps to track and trace data from cows to live streaming of events and exhibitions, there is never a dull moment in helping our clients solve the problems that the modern world presents.

Travel restrictions, remote working and social distancing measures have brought about the rapid acceleration of digital transformation, particularly the demand for virtual events. So, when the Microsoft team approached our Head of Development, Chris Coomber and invited us to join its Early Adoption Program, gaining access to the latest software and hardware releases, as well as the Microsoft development servers and engineers, we jumped at the opportunity to advance our live streaming capabilities.

Changing how we work
As Chris explains: “The last year has dramatically modified the way we work. Even when restrictions are lifted there is going to be an appetite to take meetings online and reduce unnecessary travel. We are likely to see increasing need for hybrid models combining a virtual and a real-life event for exhibitions, conferences and networking, as well as a full virtual reality (VR) experience for selling products, holidays or homes.

“There are number of new projects that clients are requesting and the team want to explore, particularly with live streaming and app development. By having access to the MS development engineers we are able to gain early insights and learnings which will help us bring Microsoft 365 to life for our clients.

“We’ve already been approached by the hospitality team at a well-known race track to give people a trackside experience by placing cameras at the pit lanes and on key parts of track to give a real feeling of being at race. Another client approached us about developing a platform for holding multiple interviews and keeping it within their own environment rather than it being through Teams.”

“VR is becoming more mainstream. Sky recently broadcast its first VR football game and has a whole “Sky Immersive” experience platform in Beta testing. However, to successfully take a live stream, code it, strip it back and then stream it back to any device on the planet takes a significant amount of development work. That’s why the invite from Microsoft is such an exciting adventure for us.”

Perfect Partnership
Microsoft approached CodeHub 200 and 4FX in early 2020 and thought they were the perfect fit, based on the types of projects they have undertaken over the years for its clients within the MS development environment. Being part of the scheme gives CodeHub 200 access to MS development engineers to help with projects, solve problems and test ideas prior to launching a new system or application.

The 4fx – CodeHub 200 development team work within the Microsoft development environment in a .NET framework and has been using Microsoft Visual Studio for many years. It has always used MS servers and although we develop for every operating system, MS is our preference for initial development of new ideas.

Developing Project Plans
The project the team will be working on together is a live streaming project with an MS focus. CodeHub 200 has developed the scope of the project, originally taken from a client specification and adapted it to form the basis of a MS development project. With the scope of works now agreed, the project can take anywhere up to a year and, although it will be a pretty rigorous process, the possibilities are endless.
Chris concluded: “We’re really excited to get going. We’ve scoped out our live streaming project for audio, video and virtual reality through a Windows app (also other platforms will be available). It’s a really exciting adventure for the whole team and for our clients.”

Interested keeping up with latest developments from the project? getintouch@codehub200.com or call us on 0203 476 5378 or 01908 369 744 for a chat.