Massively Scaled Video Platform

During COVID-19, major international conventions including WorldCon and GenCon faced cancellation.

Massive Scale Video Platform

Scaling from just 200 to 60,000+ Concurrent Users in 90 Days

Key Achievements

  • 60,000+ Peak Concurrent Users
  • 90% Cost Reduction
  • 99.999% Platform Uptime

Business Challenge

During COVID-19, major international conventions including WorldCon and GenCon faced cancellation. Need to rapidly develop and scale a platform supporting:

  • Live interactive video sessions with thousands of concurrent participants
  • Real-time chat and collaboration features
  • Global audience across multiple time zones
  • Complex event scheduling and management
  • High-quality video streaming with minimal latency

Competitor in Hollywood spent over $30M and 3 years only to have their platform fail at launch.

Technical Solution

Core Infrastructure

  • • Custom Jitsi implementation
  • • Matrix protocol federation
  • • Hybrid cloud/on-prem architecture
  • • Multi-region deployment
  • • Auto-scaling clusters
  • • Custom load balancing

Technologies Used

  • • Jitsi, Prosody, Jibri
  • • Kubernetes, Docker
  • • Terraform, Ansible
  • • AWS, Azure
  • • ElasticSearch, MongoDB
  • • Redis, RabbitMQ

Development Stack

  • • Java, Python, JavaScript
  • • React, Node.js
  • • WebRTC optimization
  • • Custom API development

Implementation Strategy

  1. 1. Architecture Design

    Created scalable architecture supporting massive concurrent user loads while maintaining video quality and minimizing latency.

  2. 2. Infrastructure Optimization

    Implemented custom load balancing and auto-scaling solutions across multiple regions for optimal performance.

  3. 3. Testing & Validation

    Developed comprehensive testing framework using Selenium and custom load testing tools to simulate 20,000+ concurrent users.

  4. 4. Monitoring & Operations

    Built robust monitoring and alerting system using Grafana, Prometheus, and custom dashboards.

Results & Impact

Technical Achievements

  • • Scaled from 200 to 40,000+ concurrent users
  • • Maintained 99.999% uptime
  • • Reduced latency to under 100ms
  • • Supported 6-day international events
  • • Successfully hosted WorldCon & GenCon

Business Impact

  • • Total development cost under $18,000
  • • 90% cost reduction vs competitors
  • • Saved multiple international conventions
  • • Generated new revenue streams
  • • Established new industry benchmarks

Leadership & Innovation

  • • Led distributed team of 35 developers across multiple time zones
  • • Managed entire project lifecycle from concept to delivery
  • • Created novel approaches to video scaling challenges
  • • Delivered solution in 90 days vs competitor's 3-year timeline
  • • Established new standards for virtual event platforms