BACKGROUND
I was a self-taught programmer who grew up with BASIC on an old Commodore64. After discovering Microsoft's XNA framework and delving into the world of C# and dotNet, I rekindled my love for programming by releasing indie games for the Xbox 360 console.
After the early-years of bedroom coding, I gained full-time employment at a great software house in Shropshire near where I am currently based. Through that employment I have enjoyed working in the broadcast industry for nearly a decade, specialising in broadcast graphics automation and operation. It has been an incredibly varied role involving working alongside top-tier broadcasters such as the BBC, live-events for BMW and the first ever PUBG live tournament, amongst others.
My primary role involved building graphics automation systems for live television. Some of these systems also had to obtain, aggregate, transform and output huge amounts of live data from multiple sources. This data was then used to populate the broadcast graphics using renderers such as Viz RT, which are then composited down-stream over live video feeds.
One common event for us was the BBC Election specials programmes for which our system had to consume massive amounts of data over several days. The system also featured many user-friendly control interfaces which allowed editorial staff to control and drive the graphics on-air, instead of hiring dedicated trained operators. 9 years of election programmes is a great way to learn about building great user-interfaces and experiences.
Alongside these events, I got involved in similar projects for eSports - specifically the PUBG Global Invitation 2018 event held in the Mercedes Benz arena, Berlin. Following the huge success of the project our software was commissioned for use for the PUBG North American 2019 and 2020 leagues weekly live shows.