New startup Sendrato have built a platform for wristbands to monitor and entertain crowds at very large (100k+) scale, aimed at music festivals. How does the expansion feel from the (relatively) clean world of software to the gritty reality of custom built low-cost hardware? How different is the entertainment world from the enterprise world? How do all the best practices in software we know and appreciate translate to the hectic reality of a music festival where nothing is certain, but there is one big deadline, and the show must go on.

1. Developing like there is no
tomorrow
Frank Lyaruu
Software as a Circus

3. • Est. 2001 based in Amsterdam
• Enterprise software for large companies
• Heavily invested in Java & OSGi
• Focused on sports and entertainment

4. • Senior Technology Architect
• Est. 2013
• Joint venture with Dexels
• Custom hardware for large events

6. • Sendrato Technology
• DEMO!
• Hardware from a Software perspective

8. RFID Tag
Button
Flexible PCB
LED’s
8 bit Microcontroller + 900 MHZ Radio

10. Base Station

11. Base Station

12. Base Station

14. What can it do?
• Low res positioning
• Light shows using the LED’s
• Bracelets connects
• Detect button presses

15. Why?
• Profile people
• Light shows using the LED’s
• Button press ≈ Social media like
• Social Media Connects
• Passive RFID Check-ins

17. Demo!

19. Deploy to production

20. This isn’t very agile…

21. So how did this end up in the
Agile track?

22. Hardware from a Software
Perspective

23. Agile
Lean
Rugged

24. • We can’t change shipped hardware
• We can’t update firmware in the field*
• We can update everything else
Agile wearables

25. • Keep it minimal
• Power consumption
• Put complexity elsewhere
Lean wearables

26. Rugged wearables

27. “Event oriented development”

28. Then the festival draws near…

29. … and it is complete chaos

30. Reduce dependencies
• Battery powered base stations
• Pluggable network layer
• Embedded GPS to facilitate deployment

31. Final thoughts

32. Thanks !
@lyaruu
@sendrato