ASHLEY DRIVER

Mediaverge was formed by a management buyout of Altech Multimedia when it closed down in 2018.

Some notable achievements in this time were:

• I consulted with a large vehicle tracking and fleet management company to develop a tool to analyse large data pools of historical low level radio device communications and detect anomalies and faults. This was done using C#.net and Blazor, and interfaced with a complex microservice based backend utilising Kafka, Redis, MSSQL and Azure amongst other technologies. It was successfully used to identify and resolve a number of hitherto undetected reliability issues.
• Designing the architecture for a European public transport driver breathalyser system, including the backend management system and the device interfaces, as well as implementing many of the components.

Some of the Industry domains and activities I was involved in with Mediaverge varied from:

• Supporting and maintaining traditional Set Top Box software and deployments.
• Augmenting a commercial systems/building automation platform with computer vision and machine learning capabilities.
• Narrowband IoT tracking device backend management systems.
• Web application development (C#.net, js bootstrap)
• Development of a smartTV product with associated backend management systems and factory production applications with a UK based software development company for an Arabic customer.
• Integration of new technologies into existing systems, increasing capabilities and improving overall performance. For example the design and development of a highly secure ARM Trusted Execution Engine based SSL client authentication system for backend communications between a smart TV deployment and a microservice based device management backend.
• Proposed technical solutions for systems and applications based on customer requirements.
• Coordinated with other engineers to evaluate and improve software and hardware interfaces.
• Conducted code reviews to identify potential areas for improvement.
• Collaborated with management, internal and development partners regarding software application design status and project progress.
• Participated in agile development processes, including daily stand-ups, sprint planning, and retrospectives.
• Enhanced system security by implementing robust encryption algorithms, safeguarding sensitive data from potential threats. I have a broad understanding of Public Key Infrastructure applications, encryption, transport level security and Digital Rights Management systems.
• Mentored junior developers, sharing knowledge and expertise to support their professional growth and development within team.
• Created proofs of concept for innovative new solutions. (For example enhancing Sigfox radio signal trilateration based device location sensing accuracy with machine learning, rapid development of dashboards and interactive device simulators for IoT device deployments etc).
• Extensive use of Jira, Confluence, git and Slack enterprise tools for collaborative development.
• My programming language experience has evolved over time. In many cases, in particular when working on the linux kernel and with open source applications, C and C++ is still involved (and rarely assembly code) but for higher level application development I have worked at various times with C#.net, nodejs and react, Java (on Android and with Spring Boot), a lot with python (for backend prototyping and development and many smaller applications and utilities including ML applications), as well as bash scripting.

Altech Multimedia designed, developed and manufactured digital television and data reception devices for satellite, terrestrial, cable and networked television, and design and develop interactive multimedia applications.

My main achievements during this period were managing a team of experienced engineers, and the development of a sophisticated satellite delivery Video on Demand product including the headend broadcast software and Digital Rights Management integration.

• In 2012 I was appointed as a Solutions and Application Architect reporting to the CTO of the rebranded Altech Multimedia (was Altech UEC).
• The role included an advisory and mentoring aspect on a number of ongoing projects, as well as being actively involved in technical development of products and systems from inception to deployment.
• This period involved rapid technological advances in embedded hardware which became capable of running full linux distributions and accommodating browser/webkit and open source components for applications running on these devices, as well as with integration into cloud based backend systems.
• Industry-wide the demand for broadcast television receiver devices began to be eclipsed by streaming technologies and despite prototyping an AndroidTV product the company was wound down in 2018.

My main achievements in this position involved bringing a number of successful Set Top Box products to market in South Africa and internationally.

• Prototyping and development of PayTV set top box devices, with development shifting from C to C++ and embedded linux and starting to incorporate Python and Webkit JS bindings.
• In January 2007 I decided for personal reasons to relocate to Cape Town, which gave rise to the opportunity to continue working for Altech UEC and start up a remote office. This involved starting and growing a development team focusing on risk reduction in the implementation of new technologies. Aside from operational and personnel management in the office, this included many opportunities to develop on cutting edge technologies.
• As Department Manager of the Cape Town office my scope of work involved leading a team of up to 10 other experienced software engineers, focusing on the implementation of new technologies for platform development, as well as managing the department as a whole.

I was appointed to the position of Senior Engineer to lead a team of 8 software engineers to develop the platform and drivers for UEC’s DVR3000 Personal Video Recorder product, commissioned by Multichoice South Africa. This included:

• Analysing and specifying the API for the Video Recorder middleware interface
• Analysing the system bandwidth and driver design performance requirements
• Handling the prototype set-to-work and subsequent hardware refinements in conjunction with hardware engineers
• Implementing all required drivers in conjunction with the chipset manufacturer
• Researching and integrating a custom high performance streaming filesystem and conditional access (rights management) requirements
• Upon deployment this was the world’s first ever dual (i.e. supporting two independent TV displays) commercial PVR solution, involving a number of world first technical innovations. The product was highly successful.

• I joined Altech UEC as a junior software development engineer, writing device drivers and doing prototype development for Set Top Boxes, including prototyping, demonstrating and establishing the platform for Altech UEC’s first commercial Personal Video Recorder product, (subsequently deployed in Latin America for the SKY-LA satellite television operator).
• Development was primarily in C running on Real Time Operating Systems.
• I developed a reputation for expert debugging and problem solving, such as for diagnosing and fixing a bug in the uCOS real time operating system interrupt locking code which was causing interrupts and critical sections to be exposed to context switches on extremely rare occasions. Hitherto this bug had been prevalent enough to cause customer complaints and was a very high profile issue.

Barclays Private Bank is the private division of Barclays Bank plc. based in Mayfair, London, offering personalised banking to wealthy clients.

• I worked on a contract basis as a support analyst, reporting to the Technical Support Manager.
• Maintenance and troubleshooting of infrastructure on a 500 user LAN, primarily running NT 4.0 and MS Back Office products, spread over 3 sites in central London, including supporting to varying degrees equipment such as switching hubs, Compaq servers, SNA controllers, CAT5 patching, ISDN lines / COLT circuits, Videoconferencing equipment etc.
• Supporting in-house and third party software systems, in particular market data information feeds (Reuters Live, Datastream, Topic, Bloomberg.) for trading desks and banking managers.
• Developing ad-hoc support tools and admin databases in C++ and MS Office.

Debex Electronics was part of the De Beers Research Labs complex in Johannesburg. They were involved in the development and production of electronic and computer systems for the diamond industry.

• I was employed as a Development Engineer, reporting to the Technical Director, and was involved in the development of ore extraction and security systems relating to diamond mining and security.
• In 1996 I was appointed project engineer for the manufacture, installation and support of Scannex machines (Personnel X-ray Scanners for security applications), and associated online databases and remote diagnostic systems.
• I was also involved in extracting diagnostic information from these and other systems (eg SCADA – Adroit and Insight) across a (primitive!) WAN for centralised monitoring and remote diagnosis, and involvement in the development of associated front end monitoring applications.
• Maintaining in-depth documentation for these systems, e.g. software and testing specifications, wiring diagrams, mechanical drawings etc.