Portfolio

Selected Projects

These are client problem-to-solution case studies, not generic portfolio snapshots. They cover media pipelines, business-critical integration, architectural evolution, infrastructure migration, and specialist automation.

Each case focuses on a real operational pain point: throughput bottlenecks, fragmented systems, fragile legacy runtime assumptions, or format-driven workflow complexity that standard tooling did not solve cleanly.

Project Lens

How I Approach These Systems

Start with the business-impacting failure mode, not an abstract stack discussion.

Map constraints fast, especially where internal domain knowledge is partial or fragmented.

Deliver systems teams can run, observe, hand over, and evolve without heroics.

Distributed Media Processing Pipeline

Built a production-grade ingest, transform, and tracking backbone for high-volume media workflows that needed throughput and traceability.

Key Outcomes

  • Scaled to thousands of files per minute.
  • Enabled traceable state tracking across millions of assets.
  • Delivered robust observability and operational control.

Node.js | Kubernetes | MongoDB | Redis | Prometheus | Grafana

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Inventory, Sales and Royalty Integration System

Built a centralised integration platform that unified inventory, accounting, and ordering workflows for cleaner SKU and royalty reporting.

Key Outcomes

  • Unified fragmented data sources into a single source of truth.
  • Reduced reconciliation effort through automation.
  • Improved reporting consistency for operational teams.

SilverStripe | MySQL | Dear Inventory | Xero | EDI

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Media Proxy Generation Evolution

Delivered an initial proxy-generation system quickly, then evolved it toward modular containerised services as scale and operational demands increased.

Key Outcomes

  • Automated previously manual production tasks.
  • Improved deployment consistency with containerisation.
  • Set groundwork for horizontal scalability.

Electron | Node.js | FFmpeg | ImageMagick | Docker

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Legacy PHP Migration to Hardened Linux Stack

Migrated a legacy IIS-hosted PHP application to Linux containers while preserving behaviour, integrations, and day-to-day operational continuity.

Key Outcomes

  • Achieved no-rewrite migration with production continuity.
  • Improved security posture with hardened Nginx controls.
  • Implemented automated TLS lifecycle management.

Docker Compose | Nginx | MySQL | Certbot

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DVD Authoring Tool (Node.js)

Created an automated DVD-Video authoring pipeline for repeatable audio/video delivery, with ISO generation, menus, chapters, and progress monitoring.

Source: github.com/carlardron/dvd-authoring-tool

Node.js | FFmpeg | ImageMagick | dvdauthor | Docker

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