Syed Hasan Jalil

Responsible for the complete technical delivery of the LGI Project Dawn CPE, this included the design/specification analysis, system test documentation, test design and training material. I had been responsible for the CPE System Integration of the SeaChange Middleware and Empathy Lab UI on the Broadcom RDK (Reference Development Kit) platform working in California at the SeaChange facilities for several weeks.

I created all CPE software builds and ensured that the software build ran on the Broadcom Reference Platform. I produced all technical documentation required by LGI for the CPE System Integration and attended customer sites to deliver Feature Release build and installation training.

Over the eleven years I have been responsible for the DTV platform architecture including new product development, feature enhancement, growth and platform capacity, obsolescence and platform operability issues.

Key player in the Integration of new STBs including PVR, MPEG2 HD and MPEG4 HD STBs from Pace, Samsung and SA on to the Virgin Media DTV Platform.

Lead Technical System Integrator on the Next Generation DTV project to unify the three legacy cable platforms. Technical sign off on the Nagra Next Generation CAS and eventIS SI platform. Led a full team of technical system integrators including full vendor management to successfully launch Virgin Media Next Generation DTV platform across a Main and Disaster Recovery site with 54 Regional Headends.

The Virgin Media Next Generation Platform Lab strategy, specification, designs and build was led by me. Fully functional and operational labs representing the live production platform configuration were delivered to the Lab Operational team.

Track record of delivering complex DTV projects in parallel with minimal number of resources, keeping the cost of project delivery as low as possible. Examples are taking full responsibility of conducting DR Platform testing whilst the Main Platform was serving live customers Advising the business early of the feasibility of migrating from QAM64 to QAM256 on the Virgin Media broadcast and VoD platform, this enabled capacity expansion of DTV services and the introduction of additional HD services using the same infrastructure.

At Virgin Media I worked extensively on the legacy SeaChange VoD platform which was based on a Service-oriented architecture. Each VoD platform function was made up of a SOA application designed to provide a defined set of functions. The Asset Manager on the SeaChange platform was a one of the services running as a discrete element to ingest various types of content with particular profiles. On the Virgin Media Next Generation VOD project I was responsible for evaluating the two proposed solutions from Ericsson and SeaChange during the Proof of Concept process. I had evaluated the Adrenalin SeaChange Next Generation web-centric video platform for multi-screen support that also uses service-oriented architecture to deliver video assets to thousands of device types across multiple networks. On the Ericsson proposal I evaluated the Asset Management System that enables content from multiple sources, verify that the content meets requirements, automatically correct metadata errors, and stage and store content until served to subscribers. I also evaluated the Akamai CDN (Content Distribution Network) architecture proposal and the integration of the Digital Asset Management platform with the CDN.

Responsible for the Systems Integration of the MultiScreen on Demand Platform with IP Devices such as iPad and PC. Running Proof of Concept with the MOD vendors and a key player in evaluating and selecting the MultiScreen on Demand vendor for Virgin Media.

I was involved in the development of embedded code in C++ running on top of a Motorola Power PC 860 with PSOS RTOS of the DVB SimulCrypt compliant scrambler. I used the EST debugger to develop and single step through low level code.

I obtained full certification and integration of the DVB SimulCrypt compliant scrambler with the Nagra CAS. I also gained experience of several other CA systems and was instrumental in the development of other products in the lab that included Indus descrambler.

Technical Head-End Architect responsible for the architectural design of TBS equipment integration, with acquisition equipment and routers to implement full redundancy. Responsible for all DVB compliant testing of TBS Encoders and Multiplexers, carried out all the Site Acceptance Test (SAT) in Bromley and the Factory Acceptance Test (FAT) in France for the TBS equipment, enabling successful completion of all contractual matters with TBS and C&WC

Integration - Worked on Proof of Concept (PoC) demonstrations which consisted of implementation of GI’s DVB MPEG-2 compliant digital television head-end system over the C&W and Telewest fibre network. Gained very good experience of systems integration of third party equipment (e.g. Tandberg Teletext strippers, Barco Modulators etc.) with the main stream GI products

Software Development - Initial designs of the DVB STB were to use the JMI PSX Real Time Operating System running on top of a Motorola Power PC 860 to implement DVB parsing and running the EPG on a main board. A communication board had a Motorola 68331 running the VRTX RTOS ( North American STB hardware & software) controlling all the r.f. circuitry and front and rear panels
I designed and implemented in C a complete Inter-Processor Protocol (IPP), a GI proprietary protocol for communications between the 68331 and the power PC. This was a design encompassing eight real time processes using queues to transfer data between each of the processes with the PSX RTOS
I wrote a C program for serial diagnostics running on a PC and sending commands to the serial port of the 68331, and processing the response.

Worked directly for the International Technical Manager I was responsible for many projects both in Europe and the Asia Pacific with frequent travel. My role focused upon providing technical support to both country Technical Managers and Project Engineers. I was responsible for incorporating new products and ideas into our main interactive TV systems

Software Development - All aspects of the software life cycle were a part of my job function. I was responsible for dictating protocol and design ideas to sub-contractors, third party software companies and liaise with customers and fellow developers as well as writing and maintaining the software projects in C and C++.

Software Support - The support role I offered was employed by countries world-wide. I offered specialist software knowledge used to support our proprietary pay-TV system. I was responsible for major installations, software upgrades, testing, commissioning and training the trainers.

I worked as a Systems Engineer in the Electronic Systems Division within the Control and Signal Processing Department. I worked on a wide variety of Digital Signal Processing and Communications based projects, which included:-
1. Advance Avionics Architecture and Packaging for modern fighter aircrafts
2. PC based Plessey FIR digital filter chip evaluation board (MODEM Simulator)
3. PC based Post Processor for a ground probing radar to detect buried objects underground.
4. UNIX based (VME BUS 68020) signal acquisition system for the Joint European Torus (JET) nuclear fusion experiment near Oxford. Only a small amount of work on this project

I was involved in the software specification, design, development and testing of the above projects. The software to control the systems was written in Microsoft C, MASM and Occam

For the Digital Filter Development System, I specified, designed, developed and tested a complete library of low level routines to control and configure the board in Microsoft C

My main project at ERA was the design and development of a real-time post processor for a Ground Probing Radar to detect buried objects underground. A complete PC based system which incorporated a transputer to carry out continuous processing of raw data transferred from a transmitter/receiver was developed by me. I designed a very simple but powerful computer architecture which used a size ten transputer motherboard with size two 2 Mbytes DRAM daughterboard for the master transputer and a size four SCSI TRAM to log raw data on an EXA-BYTE tape system. This was the first real-time signal processing unit (1991) in the market which read data from radar, processing it in real time, logging raw data on an EXA-Byte tape and displaying the raw data or processed data on the screen continuously. I brought this project from a verbal specification to a marketable item, selecting appropriate boards in the market and writing the software in Microsoft C, MASM and Occam

I worked on two major projects at GEC, which were a Navigation Computer Unit (NCU) and an airborne communications system

The Navigation Computer Unit required software update which was written in PLM51 and ASM51 for the Intel 8051 processor. I made software modifications to modules, which were concerned with Remote Display Unit (RDU), Multi Function Display (MFD), True Air Speed (TAS) and Fuel Flow software calculations. This was all safety critical software and documented to a very high standard following the rule of a software life cycle

I designed, developed and tested some of the software on a Data Base Management System associated with the NCU, which was written in C on PC’s.

I also designed, developed and tested software for a Test Set to monitor the data buses on the NCU in PLM51 and ASM51 for the Intel 8051 processor. This work required a good knowledge of software Interrupt for the 8051.