JavaPolis - Behind the Scenes

UNDER CONSTRUCTION: Networking JavaPolis

Everyone knows what a conference is like, but have you ever wondered what goes on behind the scenes? Who are those people with radios? Where do those mysterious doors go at the back of cinema rooms? And why are CAT5 network cables coming out of air vents?!

The JavaPolis team start work on the Conference months in advance and when the Conference starts they work throughout the week to ensure the conference is a success.

One of the busiest days is the Sunday before the conference - and Adaptavist were there to lend a hand.

This blog post shows just a fraction of the work carried out the day before the conference which, until now, has probably never been seen before...

There are obviously some things that are on display for all to see, like the huge banners outside the entrance (which nearly ripped off in the strong winds on Sunday):

Metropolis Business Centre

And the smaller banners inside the building, like this one being unwrapped in the main cinema hall:

Stephan Janssen and Dan Hardiker unwrapping signs for the stairwells in the Cinema Hall

But these things are just distractions to what's going on in the hidden Projection Room above:

The Boiler Room

Film reel (left), digital projector (right)

Throughout the year, this is where the latest movies are projected on to well over a dozen cinema screens at the Metropolis cinema complex in Antwerp. It's filled with huge projectors - both a digital and old-school film reel projector for every screen - each of which can be seen through the small window next to the projector (look for it next time you're in the cinema):

We're watching you...

But for one week each year, JavaPolis takes over...

Controlled Pandemonium

From left to right: Someone I didn't get the name of, Stephan Janssen (BeJUG), Valérie (Javapolis), Dan Hardiker (Adaptavist.com)

Me (dressed in my Jedi robe) chatting to Kenneth (who works for Opera)

A vast array of equipment is required - everything from network routers though to video switching:

And you thought your video was complex!

It's a bit more advanced than my hi-fi

Valérie messing with her camera

One of the most important clumps of cable is the DSL link - without this there'd be no Internet access...

DSL Lines

Before we could start on the network cables, we had to make sure the DSL cable was out of harm's way:

Alain Moran hiding the DSL cable

The DSL is linked to the network routers and switches which in turn are monitored by a few computers:

From left to right: Linux, OS X, Windows

And then there's the cabling. Lots and lots and lots of cabling. We didn't count how many miles/kilometers of cabling we used, but it was lots.

Video and audio cables

The network cables were particularly "fun" to install. From the projector room cables have to be taken to each of the cinema rooms and also the cinema hall on the first floor followed by the exhibition hall and reception on the ground floor. This sounded easy at first, but then we started to realise what was involved...

This year things were more complicated than usual because all the cinema rooms (where presentations are held) were full of people watching the latest movie releases.

Waiting for the room to empty

Getting to the cinema rooms was fairly easy - there's a door at the back of each room that leads directly to the projection hall:

Dan about to dash in to cinema room 5

As soon as a movie finished, and enough people had left the room, Javapolians would leap (literally) out of the door at the back of the room and frantically start cabling.

There's no ducting in the cinema rooms (or indeed most other places within Metropolis) so you just have to route cables around whatever obstacles are in the way.

Getting the cable around the chairs

Cabling round the doors

Cabling down the stairs

Cabling the cinema rooms was pretty easy, albeit hectic.

We then had to cable the hallway where there's two rows of tables for laptop users. This proved to be a little more tricky as there was no easy way to get the cable to the exact location where we needed it. So, we found an air vent and carefully pushed the cable through - it comes out from the roof and down one of the support posts.

Alain carefully cabling around the light trellis.

Anyway, I'll leave it there because another talk is about to start but as you can see there's a LOT going on behind the scenes to make JavaPolis a successful conference.