Manchester chapter evening

First public outing of pixelmesh v2 at the Manchester chapter evening last night.

What looks simple on the surface, phones flashing in sync, is actually computer vision, distributed systems, synchronisation, networking, and a lot of experimentation trying to make independent devices behave like one unified display under real-world conditions.

Huge thanks to the MoTaverse, especially Diana d'Oliveira Dromey, plus Steven Warburton and Matillion for hosting such a brilliant event. Really appreciated all the conversations and feedback afterwards too.

Last night’s Manchester chapter evening was one of those sessions I’ll remember for a long time.

Huge thanks to the MoTaverse, especially Diana d'Oliveira Dromey, for trusting me with something a little different. Turning a room full of people into part of a live distributed system was either going to look amazing or descend into complete chaos. Honestly, that uncertainty was the entire point of the talk.

Massive thanks as well to Steven Warburton - CTAL-TM and Matillion for hosting the event and providing such a brilliant space for the community.

The session was powered by pixelmesh, one of the most complex side projects I've ever built. From the outside it just looks like phones flashing in sync, but underneath it is computer vision, distributed systems, synchronisation, networking, timing problems, unreliable environments, and a lot of experimentation trying to make hundreds of independent devices behave like one unified display. Last night was also the first public outing of some early pixelmesh v2 experiments, which definitely added to the pressure.

What made the demo interesting for me was that it wasn't running under perfect conditions. Different phones. Different brightness levels. Different seating positions. Different network conditions. Real people. Real unpredictability. Exactly the sort of conditions systems actually have to survive in. Watching the audience collectively become part of the system while we tested the edges of it live on stage was honestly surreal.

Really appreciated all the conversations afterwards too. A lot of people came over wanting to talk about observability, failure modes, crowd interaction, distributed systems, computer vision, and how we create safer ways to experiment with chaos before production does it for us.

Also really appreciated the feedback and conversations after the session, especially from Jitesh Gosai, Chloe Zeng, Darryl Kennedy and Vikas Mackevicius. Hearing different ideas, reactions, and perspectives on where pixelmesh could go next was genuinely valuable.

Thanks to everyone who came along, joined the demo, and trusted me enough to point their phones at a giant experimental side project built in evenings and weekends. Manchester was a lot of fun.