Our First Event with HearNow.Live

Our first event took place about a year ago, and helped us realize the potential of using our expertise in capturing audio and video for recordings and streaming and bringing it to a live audience. In August of 2024, our parent company Blaze Streaming Media produced the first version of what has since become HereNow.Live at the BlackHat USA Conference in Las Vegas, NV.

We produced 10 platform stages around the outside of a 50 x 150-foot area on the floor of the Expo Hall at BlackHat USA. This area was surrounded by pop-up walls and allowed between 500 and 800 attendees to engage with any of the 10 platforms at any given time.

At each one of these platform stages, there was a 40-inch television screen next to a podium. Presenters would come to the podium, set down their laptop and connect to the TV. They were then given wireless over-the-ear mics to give their presentation.

The microphone audio, as well as any audio from the presenter’s laptop, was fed into an audio board underneath the stage that then fed a small “anchor” speaker for in-room sound, as well as our encoders for streaming. We sent this audio to our servers, which was then processed and sent to a specific web site to stream that station’s audio. This allowed us to provide this high-definition audio with extremely low latency (less than 500 milliseconds).

The live audio was made available for the attendees via QR code. Anyone who wanted to listen to a specific stage would walk up to the stage, scan a QR code with their phone, and listen to the audio directly from that stage on their own headphones.

The expo setup at BlackHat Arsenal, where we first deployed the HearNow.Live technology.

The setup gave presenters an easy way to share their content, both via the anchor speaker on site and directly with attendees to their personal device. This allowed attendees to listen while walking around the space or even around the rest of the hall, or just watch the presentation without having to strain to hear over the noise of the busy expo floor.

To listen to any booth’s audio on their own headphones in real-time, attendees could scan a QR code on their phone and listen from anywhere in the hall.

Even though it was a brand new concept, we observed more than one-third of attendees using the service and received a lot of positive feedback about the experience. This showed us that not only was there a need for this type of service from the producer-side of things, but that attendees were receptive to using it. Plus, many attendees appreciated the clarity of audio and flexibility of movement it provided in the space.

This was the first step of a journey where we are continuing to forge new paths. We are looking forward to seeing how we can better connect people and ideas at our next event!