The Festival Mesh

What happens when you stand in a pub in Bridlington, watch a band tear the roof off, and think “this should be on telly — and I don’t mean a record deal, I mean right now, on channel 6”?

You build a town-wide IP broadcast network. Obviously. The Bridlington Mesh is the result — a multi-venue, multi-tier, slightly unhinged thought experiment about connecting seven venues across a single seaside town into one live broadcast experience. Seven venues, seven budgets (from £0 to £815k), one central production hub, and a lot of SRT.

The Harbour Tavern runs on phones and a laptop behind the bar. The Royal Hall runs on cinema-grade rigs with £125k lenses. Same network. Same broadcast. Same ATEM. This series is the full blueprint — the venues, the ladder, the protocols, the hub, the rants about digital sovereignty, and the honest admission that I’ve spent entirely too much time on spreadsheets that will never leave my hard drive.

But if you’ve ever tried to stream a gig with three iPhones and a dream, or wondered what it would take to build a proper multi-camera broadcast without remortgaging your house — this one’s for you. Pull up a chair. The water’s fine, if a little caffeinated.