Author Archives: Orry

Converting Media Made Easy

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I few months back I launched my new software brand, Atomic Wasteland, and with it a new app I’m developing to convert video and audio files between different formats. It’s called SmoothTranscode, and it’s based upon the popular and feature filled FFmpeg software, aiming to be a simple solution to convert media files between different formats. It’s still in beta and under development, but it already works quite well so why not try it out for yourself.

Robots with Style

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After two month of design and development, today we launched the updated website for the FIRST Robotics team Systemetric, found at systemetric.org.

This is the first website I have worked on which uses the new Joomla 1.6 CMS. It makes use of many new CSS3 properties, including gradient backgrounds. Custom modules and plugins were also developed for the site to include YouTube videos and YouTube channels in pages, as well as to integrate user login with the Collabtive project management system used by the team.

A Player You Can Sing Along To

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One of the most important assets to a radio stations website is the one thing that is most often overlooked, the player people listen to the station on. It’s not easy to design a good player, as you want it to be small so it doesn’t get in the way while also allowing listeners to interact with the station. Because of that, when Erewash Sound started broadcasting full time on FM, I knew the player is something that would have to be closely looked at.
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Manic March

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It’s been one of those non stop months for me, kicking off with the launch of Erewash Sound on the 6th. The launch was an all round success, aided by special guest Robert Lindsay of My Family fame, with a lot of listeners since tuning in and showing their support. Work has now also started on a new building for the station, intended to be complete by September, hosting new high tech studios and other facilities.

A few days after that I was off to New York for the FIRST NYC Regional, in which Systemetric ranked 47th out of 63 teams following an issue with the power supply to the robot’s Wi-Fi adapter in one match, and a drive code bug in another match. We were however first out of the crate and running, and the robot did perform well in other matches so overall we are satisfied with the robots performance.

Since coming back I have been working on a new radio player for Erewash Sound, to go live in the upcoming weeks, containing visual updates to incorporate information about the on air presenter and links to other pages of interest. The update comes with a revamped backend to allow easier expansion in the future and better mobile support, bringing a better mobile player as part of the update, in particular for the iPhone which will act like a native application when saved to the home screen.

Keeping Up With The Times

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The great thing about working as a developer for a radio station at the moment is the influx of new technologies that being adopted. The challenge is implementing them, particularly given the rapidly changing nature of them. For example we’ve recently seen the announcement of services such as RadioDNS, the UK Radio Player and iTunes Tagging as included on the FM receiver on the iPod nano.

On top of this we’re also seeing a revival of existing technology, such as RDS RadioText which is now being included on many portable and table-top radios. With the large numbers of listeners with access to these technologies, it’s becoming more important for stations to jump on the bandwagon to be able to compete. Simply sending out the station slogan on the RadioText is no longer sufficient, listeners expect to be able to look at their radio and see which song is playing.

I’m particularly looking forward to the launch of UK Radio Player, designed by the BBC to be the first central radio player for British radio stations. Not only will it provide a simple platform for listeners to find their favourite radio stations online, it will also provide new opportunities for us to interact with listeners and easily promote the station. No doubt I intend on getting Erewash Sound on UK Radio Player as soon as the details are firmed by the BBC and made available to radio stations.

Long Hot Summer

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What can I say, it’s been 30C in Cambridge, great news to some, a bit too hot for my liking. We’ve also seen some excellent tennis from Andy Murray at Wimbledon, with an amazing match on Monday played under the new roof.

I’ve got a few projects I’m working on, including an updated site for Erewash Sound and a new site for the Systemetric robotics team. I’ve just finished off a mobile radio player for Erewash Sound, and it’s an exciting time with their launch on FM radio growing closer. I’m also going to try an bring myself round to updating this site, putting up a few useful articles in the process.

It All Comes to a Close

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I may be a few day late in saying this, but those dreaded GCSE exams are finally over :D On the downside, I now have to wait eagerly until late August for the all important results.

On top of that the new Erewash Sound Website finally went live tonight, the aftermath of 7 months of design, coding, recoding and smashing up the computer by both myself and Dan Martin. It was all worth it though, especially as it is arguably one of the best community radio station websites out of all the licensed stations in the UK, and it can only get better over time.