Contracted to work for Arqiva initially from the "Farncombe Consulting Group" but now from "Cartesian" after a takeover.Working on Smart Metering projects:Currently working on CSPN transmission kit (TK) commissioning and hardening. Commissioning comprises working with field engineers to ensure sites are set correctly according to processs. Tools used include Comarch to test site alarms, Eltek power management systems to monitor site alarms.To automate the hardenings task wrote a TCL/Expect framework of scripts and latterly, when made available, Ansible playbooks.Documented the hardening process.Update/add to scripts as and when required by security or changes in the Sensus equipment. Scripts were managed under SVN but are now under GIT.Involved in the CSPN TK hardening processs in a consultative capacity.Raising tickets and problem solving on the CSPN and Sensus environment.Heavily involved with the Thames Smart Metering Enduring rollout, testing of the infrastructure, meters and meter installation equipment, OSS and BSS systems. Other tasks included requirements capture in Jama and at the very start generating various reports from the Enduring database (MySQL).Specified and ran test for the CUFIS endpoint - from acquisition through to installation and meter read.CUFIS is a mobile based device used to get meter readings. Heavily involved with Thames LRS (London Rapid Startup) rollout, testing of the infrastructure, meters and meter installation equipment. Thames LRS was a prototype to the Thames Enduring solution. Tasks included assembling and testing of racks pre-installation, building a meter test rig, analyzing meter data and integration and system testing of LRS.Specified the JIRA ticket lifecycle for CSPN. Involved in testing the JIRA installation for CSPN.Requirements capture and addition of CSPN test cases in to Jama.

Worked on an automated build and test system for OpenTest a set top box testing system as part of a Continuous Integration project. Software changes were built, deployed to virtual machines (VMware) and smoke tested all controlled by Jenkins.Worked at Telenor (Norway) as an associate developing a suite of set top box test scripts based on OpenTest. A highlight was some text recognition scripts using machine learning and OpenTest's optical character recognition functionality - worked very well indeed.Worked at Pace as an associate developing a suite of set top box test scripts based on OpenTest.Worked with YouView developing a script on OpenTest to enable them to find the source of a very slow memory leak. The leak was found and YouView were very pleased.As part of the HbbTV initiative specified a suite of tests for MPEG-DASH an adaptive bit rate video streaming technique over HTTP. This also included some DRM elements. Implemented a DRM key management server used by many TV vendors to test MPEG-DASH.As part of work while on the "bench":Oversaw the transition from Office 2003 to Office 2010.Writing tenders for work.Wrtiting Statements of Works for prospective clients.

Contracted to Broadcom, BristolWorking as part of the Set Top Box division, bug fixing digital subtitles in Broadcom's in house middleware.Seconded to the Digital Television Group to work on a software port of a Philips Consumer TV middleware to a Broadcom platform, charged with the task of writing an HTML5 media plugin for an Opera browser port (in C++).Other duties included bug fixing on the Philips TV platform middleware.

Writing TCL test scripts for DTG's MiriATE based MHEG5 test suite.Writing TCL scripts and an XML test schema to enable navigation around menu based test suites for enhanced batch testing. Customer support

Contracted to TopUp TVProduced TCL test scripts for Mirifice's test system MiriATE to automate TopUp TV’s Testing.

Writing demonstration TCL test scripts based on the DTG MHEG test specification for customers including Sony and DTG. All tests were run on the MiriATE test system. Development of the MiriATE Java based GUI, fixing bugs and introducing new features including IR remote keyboard functionality.

Linux based IP Set Top Box development in C on a dual core MIPS.Writing and maintaining drivers for various peripherals including those for IR remote control, digital video output, clock and configuration blocks.Integrating the AC3 (Dolby) decoder and creating a test harness for certification. Certification passed.Adapted and successfully ran application software on an emulator well within schedule allowing time for further testing before tape-out.

Working in C on a MIPS based Satellite Set Top Box for DirecTV. Operating systems used were pSOS and uCOS.Writing off-chip drivers for including those for IR and the front panel.Porting existing smart card and modem driver software to DirecTV’s RTOS abstraction layer (pSOS to uCOS)

As part of Business Unit Digital MediaWorking in C on a MIPS based uController for DVD/CD drives. Operating system used was MQX.Supporting “engine” control software for multi-speed, multi-format DVD/CD drives.

Working in the Systems Laboratory (embedded C).Project Leader on teletext project of a 2-4 person team. EPG, ACI and stand alone OSD capabilty introduced.Teletext customer support.Wrote an MHEG5 ASN.1 parser demonstrating digital teletext on Philips’ TriMedia platform for the MediaCast trade fair. Developing demonstration applications to showcase the potential of Philips’ product offerings.

Working in the Software Design Centre on the Floorplanner of Philips' in house chip design system. Written in Pascal.

As part of European Union backed venture between ST Microelectronics and Philips semiconductors. I worked on RAM and ROM generators and also pad generators on Cadence design system. Written in Lisp.