Virtual hackathon delivers real-world video workflows on AWS

Hackathons give organizations an opportunity to focus engineering resources on solving sticky challenges or driving bursts of innovation. These exercises can be a valuable part of a tech team’s toolkit, as AWS Partner Network (APN) Advanced Consulting Partner Metal Toad demonstrated.

On May 6, Metal Toad launched a virtual hackathon to develop fully functional video platforms for the benefit of its customers using AWS Media Services. Aside from that requirement—and a 48-hour time limit—teams were free to define their own projects and use whatever resources and technologies would best serve their objectives.

Collaborating remotely, all three teams successfully completed the challenge, resulting in a diverse set of customer-ready applications and a new set of skills across its teams. Together, they developed:

• A media analysis workflow, with image detection powered by AWS AI/ML services;
• A web-based social media platform for sharing on-demand video, built with AWS Elemental MediaConvert;
• Live streaming aerial video from drone-mounted cameras using AWS Elemental MediaLive.

Metal Toad documented the outputs of the virtual hackathon on its blog, via real-time updates on LinkedIn, and captured its teams’ project presentations on video. If you’re an APN partner considering a virtual hackathon for your organization using AWS services, feel free to reach out to your AWS Partner Development Manager to discuss how we can support your efforts.