I gathered the QLTV staff to tell them the news. We literally had 11 days to re-plan our coverage. Correction: To re-plan QuakeCon's coverage. While we had an amazing opportunity ahead of us, the dynamics of it had just changed completely. On top of that, two key pieces on our end fell off a cliff: A person offering us a mixer and compressor would be unable to attend and our efforts to secure video cameras came up empty. Everyone on staff who was attending QuakeCon was on board with the primary coverage role. Our first task was to rearrange who was doing what, re-purpose half of our hardware that we thought Lo3/QuadV would provide, and reposition staff into new roles. Our hopes for a "fuller coverage" of QuakeCon, especially the BYOC and behind the scenes coverage would likely suffer. Computers we had earmarked for video content rendering and creation were also now needed elsewhere. Jehar's intention to handle the BYOC content was far less likely because he was needed on the main stage broadcasting CTF with me.

We tested the stream intended for QuakeLive.com because, instead of our content being prerecorded and handed over to the primary broadcasting team for streaming, we were now the primary team. Everything worked from my own home setup, but there were some buffering issues. id Software had contracted with a stream provider that we would have to use for all Quake Live footage during the event. This was worrisome, since it often takes several weeks, several broadcasts and a lot of feedback to tweak and test a stream to get the best performance out of it. We had about 2 days before the streaming equipment would be en-route. QLTV’s usual streaming services could only be used for interviews or BYOC coverage. In retrospect, this is the one piece of the whole ordeal for which I wish QLTV had the power to change. Instead of going with a service we knew to work well for most, we were going with a fairly untested solution. Slava "stlava" Markeyev, QLTV's Technical Director, also tested things on his end with success, but further testing would be impossible because he was about to begin the road trip he makes each year that leads him to QuakeCon. To make matters more interesting, I was leaving town for my honeymoon in one day.

I'm A Lucky Man