The Relentless Optimist

Ten days before one of the biggest events in the global sporting calendar, a decision is made - the web experience for streaming the Australian Open tennis needs to be rebuilt from scratch. It’s a race against time to deliver on what has been promised - every point, of every match, on every court, available to watch live. This is a story of one summer in Melbourne, with matches pushed late into th...

Rio de Janeiro, 2016. The first Olympics in South America. Millions of Australians expect to be able to watch every athlete, every event, 24/7. The only problem: the technology isn't quite there yet. Seven West Media has outsourced development of the streaming platform to the official Olympic Broadcasting Services. What initially seems like the safe bet, soon begins to fall apart. Days before the...

In a windowless warehouse in Sydney, a small team of digital professionals are building something in secret. It will be a new way for millions of Australians to watch television.  The deadline for completion? Just nine months away. The launch event? One of the biggest TV moments of the year. All they have to do now is make sure they are ready. The task is huge, but they’re all aiming for the same...

2001. A garden in Dublin. Three business partners are naming their radio consultancy. They choose "Absolute Radio International”. Little do they know how important that decision will become. Fast forward to 2007 and those people are at the iconic Virgin Radio and they make a difficult but decisive decision: rebrand. Absolute Radio is born but three days before launch, a legal challenge over the na...

Every year, millions of Australians stop what they’re doing for four minutes to watch horse racing’s most iconic event, The Melbourne Cup. In 2015, how they watched that race was set to change. A bold idea was about to become a reality - for the first time, the event would be live streamed to mobile phones across the country. What had led up to this moment is a story of courage, curiosity and crea...

In the early 2000s, the UK radio industry faced an existential threat: streaming was changing everything, and radio risked being left behind. The problem was clear. But the solution required something unprecedented: getting one of the most competitive industries in the world to work together. With FM and DAB, listeners could switch between stations on one device without a moment’s thought. But str...

Melbourne, 2011. Three founders have a big idea: personalised radio that knows your taste in music, your location, your favourite content. It's ambitious. Perhaps too ambitious. And whilst they're busy trying to solve that particular problem, they'll build something else entirely. The initial idea is One-to-One Cast - personalised radio. What they build is a world-leading podcast platform that wil...

Brisbane, 2023. A 25-year-old stands twelve yards from goal. Between her and history: a goalkeeper, a football, and the weight of an entire nation watching. Cortnee Vine is the youngest player on the pitch. If she scores, Australia reach their first ever FIFA World Cup semi-final, and it’s all happening on home soil. Until now, women's football had been a side story. But in this moment, everything...

A rickety staircase in Soho leads to a small office where four founders are about to do something impossible. They have an old Nokia phone, a laptop with a few dozen songs, and an algorithm. Years before the iPhone. Before streaming. Before smartphone apps. They’re about to answer an age-old question: What's that song? And in the process, change music discovery forever. Dial 2-5-8-0 down the cente...

November 2010. A 19th-century chapel in North London fills with an unusual congregation. They haven't come for worship - they’ve come for something that's never been attempted before. Sir Elton John sits at a white piano, about to make history. Not just with his performance, but with the invisible technology carrying his music into homes across Britain. One artist, one piano, and a bold gamble on...