After three successful editions of Summer Camp, hosted within Qualabs, one thing has become crystal clear: the future of video tech isn’t just about tools and specs. It’s about people — curious, committed, generous people — who come together to build something that belongs to everyone.
At Qualabs, we contribute to open source because it reflects who we are. We’re engineers, yes — but more than that, we’re collaborators. We believe that sharing knowledge openly creates more meaningful progress than building in isolation. Open source isn’t a strategy for us. It’s a culture that drives how we think, how we grow, and how we connect with the world around us.
We choose to build in the open because we believe in the power of collaboration. When you invite others in, something shifts: challenges become opportunities,
problems become shared, and perspectives multiply. Our best work has never been done alone — it has come to life in spaces where shared purpose and the ability to see through another’s lens lead us to something far greater than we could achieve alone.
Community-powered innovation is at the heart of what we do! Each time we release a tool, contribute to a standard, or improve a workflow, we see how open contribution multiplies its value. Every pull request becomes a conversation. Every merge, a shared achievement. Open source makes space for diverse perspectives, and that diversity makes the output better.
And, of course, the technical impact is real. Our teams operate across streaming, cloud, data, backend, frontend — delivering solutions that are not only technically sound, but deeply relevant to the video industry. As hosts and organizers of Summer Camp, we also dedicate Qualabs engineering teams to work side by side with contributors throughout each project. It's not something we do for visibility — it's something we do because we care about the outcome, and the journey that gets us there.
For our engineers, it's a unique chance to collaborate with some of the most inspiring professionals in the industry. And for us as a company, it’s a way to keep learning, growing, and reaffirming the value of our collective expertise. This is about much more than code — it’s about building work that lasts, inspires, and connects, long after the final commit.
Summer Camp, the journey
This vision lives and breathes through Summer Camp — a yearly space for collective creation, hosted by Qualabs since 2023. It's where global engineers, technologists, and collaborators converge in Uruguay to tackle meaningful open source challenges in the video tech industry.
2023: First Steps and First Impact
In our inaugural edition, we explored projects that set the tone for what Summer Camp could become. We developed the CMCD Validator led by Will Law, which helped set a new standard for client metrics validation. At the same time, we brought to life the WebRTC Meetup Platform with Marco Vidonis — an open-source tool to support hybrid community gatherings, created by and for developers.
2024: Building on Shared Foundations
The second edition grew stronger. We tackled video processing with CMAF HAM Conversion guided by Alex Zambelli. It was a technically ambitious and highly collaborative initiative. Parallel to this, we contributed to the Common Media Library, with support from Casey Occhiallini and Zachary Cava, deepening our engagement with community standards.
That year, we truly made our presence felt.
- 23 contributors from 7 different organizations
- We worked on 2 key projects
- Delivered 2 new features into CML
- Submitted 3 PRs to players
- Built a PoC around CMAF HAM
Showcased the value of collaborative R&D in action. It was a year that reminded us: the more voices involved, the stronger the outcome.
2025: Bigger Challenges, Stronger Community
By our third year, the momentum was undeniable. We joined forces with Mike English to co-develop the MoQ Player, an experimental implementation to help test Media over QUIC use cases. In parallel, we worked with David Hassoun on VAST 2 SGAI, exploring ways to streamline ad signaling through open formats.
Each of these projects wasn’t just code — it was a moment of learning, of mentorship, and of meaningful collaboration.
Summer Camp is not just an event. It’s a reflection of our values. It shows what’s possible when knowledge is shared freely, and when mentorship, openness, and passion come together. Each edition has deepened our belief in this approach — and strengthened the bonds between contributors, sponsors, and participants.
Soon we will start planning what Summer Camp 2026 could look like 🙂 We don’t know yet which challenges we’ll tackle — and that’s part of the excitement. Because the only thing we can say for sure is: we’ll build it together!
If you’re curious about what we’ve done so far, visit the Summer Camp 2025 site and explore the journey. And if something stirs in you while reading this — maybe that’s the sign you’ve been waiting for. 😉
Let’s create something real. Together!
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