How Epic Vs. Apple Took Us Screaming Into The Future With Zoom

This morning a vast number of listeners were able to take part in the court case of the moment: Epic Games vs Apple. Because of a user error at the start of the audio broadcast of this court case, listeners were treated to a mass of sounds – yelling, screaming, music, and nonsense. This was because the call opened to all participants.

Like many users over the last year, the people involved in broadcasting this court case must be relatively new to the whole process. While we've had party calling capabilities for decades, the computer- or smartphone-based multi-caller meeting is still a relative Wild West sort of situation.

With the court case at hand, the court received an "unopposed motion for trial access filed by the Reporters Committee for Freedom of the Press and Eighteen Media Organizations." Because of the world we live in today, "given the current constraints necessitated by the coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic," the court could "only guarantee that public access will include audio which will be provided by telephone line accessing the Court over its Zoom platform."

Much like the rest of the world's first few Zoom calls, things started off awkward. After about 20 minutes of screaming, the court officials responsible for handling the call figured out how to mute the masses. Now we can move into the future – one where we don't need to be physically inside a courtroom to witness a trial.

NOTE: This may not have been the first court case to be broadcast in the world with Zoom, but it will be the first court case many remember as their initial experience with Zoom in this form. Because this case is so high profile, it'll become much more readily expected that any event (court cases included) can be – and should be – expected to be broadcast using a system like Zoom. It should be easy – so why not?

Take a peek at the timeline below to see what's going on with the Epic vs. Apple court case now and through the week. This should be interesting!