LIVE · IN PRODUCTION

A live-event donation platform

How a heavy custom backend moved onto Maravilla Cloud — and grew two new features the same week.

Project code: CASE-002
Domain: LIVE EVENTS · REAL-TIME DONATIONS
Investment: from CHF 2,000

A real-time live-event donation platform — a big-screen "cinematic" donation player, donor signup and auth, a mobile admin control panel, and an audience live-stream — lifted off a heavy custom Express + Docker backend onto Maravilla Cloud: SSR, platform auth, platform storage, no servers to keep alive. Then made better the same week — an orientation-aware signage player and a brand-new live-stream feature — because the migration left it on a foundation that could take the weight.

At a glance

Off the old backend: 2 days
New features, same week: +2
Status: Live

Map the landscape

Understand

The platform already worked — but it ran on a heavy custom Express backend inside Docker: servers to provision, patch and keep alive, with SSR, auth and storage all hand-rolled. The product was proven; the infrastructure was the weight.

The audience: The event organisers running the big-screen donation show, the donors giving from their phones, and the operator driving it all from a control panel.
The baseline: A bespoke Express + Docker stack — hosting to babysit, scaling to worry about, and custom plumbing for everything the app touched.
The groundwork: A real, working product already existed. The job was to move it onto something modern, not to rebuild it.

Draw the boundaries

Shape

The cut was about sequence, not scope: migrate cleanly first — get the whole app running end-to-end on the managed runtime — then add features once the foundation was proven. No gold-plating mid-move.

In the cut: Lift the entire app onto the edge runtime — SSR, platform auth, platform storage — a full working system with no servers to keep alive.
Then, same week: An orientation-aware signage player and a brand-new audience live-stream — green-lit only once the migration was solid.
The discipline: Move first, prove the platform, then extend. Features earn their place on a foundation that already holds.

The migrated app's sign-in screen — Same product, new front door — after the cut, donors and operators sign in on Maravilla Cloud's platform auth instead of the old hand-rolled Express backend.

Ship something real

Build

The build ran in two short working sessions. First the migration — the whole app off Express + Docker and onto the edge runtime in a single sitting. Then, once the foundation was solid, two new features the same week.

First, the migration: Drop the custom Express backend and Docker; move onto the edge runtime with SSR, API routes and platform auth/storage — a full working system, end to end.
Then, features: An orientation-aware player (portrait/landscape signage), video reel and cover modes, a donation-message queue so a flood of gifts displays in order instead of fighting — and a kindercam, where an audience member queues to live-stream to the big screen with the operator's approval.
The stack: Maravilla Cloud — SSR, platform auth, platform storage, realtime channels and media rooms. No Docker, no servers.

The operator's live broadcast control room — The real control room, running on the new runtime — fire tiered donations (Spark · Flare · Beam · Super), cut between scenes, trigger the test beacon, and watch the running totals climb.

Hand over the keys

Hand over

The team handed over a modern app with nothing to keep alive — no Express server to patch, no Docker to babysit. The big-screen player, the control panel and the new live-stream all run on the managed runtime, ready for the next event.

The donor-side donation screen on a phone — Ready for the next event — donors give from their phones and choose their impact on the big screen, from a Corner Display to a Full-Screen Takeover.

The takeaway

A platform migration plus two new features is usually a multi-week line item. It wasn't here — because the runtime does what the old custom backend and Docker did by hand, and the FastTrack sequence — move first, prove it, then extend — keeps the work honest.

That's why "two weeks max, usually faster" is a floor, not a boast.

POST-LAUNCH

Live on Maravilla Cloud — migrated off its custom backend, with two new features shipped the same week.

Built on Maravilla Cloud

None of this was bespoke infrastructure. Every capability below is a Maravilla Cloud building block — so the engagement spent its time on the product, not the plumbing.

Edge Runtime Platform: The whole app runs SSR on the edge — the custom Express backend and Docker are gone.
Authentication: Donor signup/signin and the operator's control-panel login, on platform auth instead of hand-rolled.
Storage: Platform object storage for the app's media and assets — no bespoke file handling.
Realtime Channels: Live donation events and the message queue pushed to the big screen in order, and the kindercam hand-off coordinated between operator and audience.
Media Rooms: The kindercam itself — an audience member live-streams to the big screen, with the operator approving who goes live.
Push Notifications: Web Push keeps the team in the loop between shows — donation milestones and kindercam requests land straight in the browser, no native app.

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