MCM Comic Con London Main Stage: Showcalling, vMix and Live Streaming
Main Stage fan-convention work with real stakes: large in-room audiences, large online audiences, fast talent, remote contributors, three cameras, vMix, comms, and no second take.
~25,000
Natural Six global viewers
~3,000
Cosplay Central in the room
3
Cameras on the vMix cut
THE BRIEF
MCM Main Stage is not a quiet corporate room with rehearsed speakers and neat slide changes. It is loud, live and public. Cast panels move quickly. Cosplay finals have competition beats. Live-play sessions breathe at their own pace. Remote contributors add latency and a second room inside the first.
The challenge was to hold the room and the stream at the same time:
Keep the auditorium show moving.
Give the online audience a clean broadcast cut.
Direct cameras through unrehearsed moments.
Treat remote contributors as part of the live panel.
Keep every cue, graphic, feed and shot moving through vMix.
This is where showcalling and vision mixing from the same brain helps. The cue and the cut do not have to travel through a committee.
THE APPROACH
I worked as showcaller, vMix operator, stream director and camera director across Main Stage sessions.
That included:
Cueing camera, audio, graphics, stage and remote feeds on comms.
Live-cutting the show in vMix.
Directing camera operators in real time.
Managing stream output and programme rhythm.
Keeping the in-room show and online show aligned.
Natural Six Dungeons and Dragons. I directed and streamed the Natural Six live session. The broadcast reached around 25,000 global viewers. The setup used three manually operated Panasonic remote cameras and a vMix live cut.
D&D is a tricky format to direct. The drama is often in a glance, a pause or a dice roll. You cut for story, not for a fixed camera rotation.
Cosplay Central Crown Championships. I showcalled, vision mixed and streamed the live competition from the ICC Auditorium, with around 3,000 people in the room and many thousands watching on YouTube.
The job was to honour the costumes. These are pieces people have spent months building. The camera cut needs wide shots for scale, close shots for craft and the right face at the reveal moment.
Major sci-fi franchise finale panel. I showcalled and vision mixed a hybrid panel with cast live on stage and producers joining remotely on the main screen.
The remote feed had to feel like a cast member, not a conference-call window. That meant cutting to it at the right beats, covering reactions in the room and riding the latency so the conversation felt natural.
DELIVERABLES
Project imagery
Live production on site
Stage and screen content
Broadcast and stream setup
Behind the scenesWHAT IT PROVES
Across the Main Stage work:
Natural Six reached around 25,000 global viewers.
Cosplay Central ran to around 3,000 people in the room, plus many thousands online.
The hybrid sci-fi panel landed as one programme, with stage and remote contributors held together.
Showcalling, vMix, camera direction and streaming ran cleanly under live pressure.
No edit pass. No polite hiding place. Just the show, working.
