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[jimdhope]

I can't believe how much trouble I've had trying to create an HbbTV App This a relatively short post this week, as I'm sure some of you will be glad, we've been working on the garden and due to the amount of work it is taking to level it, I've not had as much time as I usually would to sit down and write. Whilst I was studying towards my degree I was asked to investigate what it would take to set up a Radio Station. The College has just got a new principal and he was keen on the idea of setting one up having had great success at his previous college. I loved this idea and dived straight into figuring out what equipment was needed, what licenses were required and looking at possible ways we could run the station. Unfortunately, when I delivered my initial findings the idea had been shifted to the back burner due to the college merging with another education partnership. Since then, all of that research has been kicking around my head and, like many of my other thoughts, has taken on a mind of its own. For example, what if it wasn’t just a radio station? What if it was a full-on media publishing business ran by the community, Web/Print, Radio, TV (both live and prerecorded) as well as the radio side of things (including podcasts)?  I know there are companies like Global and Bauer who do this at a commercial level but what about at a community level? Around here I know of only one community radio station (Beverley FM) and I’m sure there’s some podcast kicking about (they seem to be everywhere) since Estuary TV closed its doors a few years back we no longer have a somewhat local TV station (they were based in Grimsby), we only have Your TV which seems to be a national TV network masquerading as a local TV station (similar to how Bauer and Global have taken over the local radio stations and now only run a few local bit of programming each day under a national brand (Hits Radio & Capital)).  This of course got me thinking about how folks could tune into each of these theoretical community services. The first thing that popped into my head was a website that could feed an app for phones and tablets as well as integrations for smart speakers. That would easily cover the Radio and print side of things but what about the TV?  I had some hope that Freely would be the answer, for those that aren’t aware of Freely it has been created by the group behind Freeview and Freesat, Everyone TV, and runs over the internet rather than through Satellite or Arieal. I initially thought that it would work on a similar standard to Freeview and Freesat which both work on variations of the DVB protocol.  There is an IPTV version of the protocol called DVB-I. I have found various open-source projects based around DVB-I and found that I don’t have a clue about any of the programming languages used or where to start with their demo applications. Something for another time then. There also isn’t a lot of information about what protocols Freely uses as their current plan seems to be working directly with device manufacturers such as Vestel and Hisense on brand new TVs rather than releasing an app for existing TV and Smart TV Boxes such as the Apple TV or Google Chromecast etc.   My next thought was about the apps that come preinstalled on most Smart TVs. How do they work? Well, it turns out they use a system called HbbTV or Hybrid Broadband Broadcast TV. After looking into this method I found that it’s basically a wrapper for smart TV to show websites or web pages as apps and uses web creation tools such as PHP, HTML, CSS and javascript.  This I thought might be a simple solution. Create a website and somehow find a way of getting it on to my TV for testing. As I have a rebranded Vestel TV this was relatively simple. Add a .txt file to a USB stick with the web address inside and I can see the site and have basic interaction with the website.   I’ve been searching for tools to make the app creation process simple, and I thought I had come across a solution in a PDF on the HbbTV website.

The solution was called MPAT and it has its source code available on GitHub. The only problem is that when I tried to install the software on my webserver, I got errors everywhere and after playing whack a mole for a day and a half, I gave up with a plan to learn a boatload about compose and the other things involved to get it to work. I was really hoping everything would pan out with MPAT as it was based on a fork of WordPress called Bedrock. I had thought about possibly installing bedrock and somehow finding a way to install MPAT on top but again I'm not sure how I go about doing this.  In the end, I used one of my holding sites (https://jabi.uk) and created a basic app that had a holding message and a live test card from the BBC’s R&D team. If you have a Vestel-manufactured TV and would like to give the app a go and see its development over time, there are instructions on the app website. If you don’t have a Vestel-manufactured TV that supports HbbTV then you should just be able to load it in your TV's built-in web browser and give it a go.  I’m going to continue playing with both the sites I’ve set and trying to see if I can somehow get the MPAT software to work because I think it’ll be a great starting point to help develop for these TV platforms, be it for this project if it ever comes to fruition or for another project in the future. As I tend to run these things in a docker container, I’ll park it on a repository once I have it running and can always redownload it if I need it. I’ll of course make it public should I ever get MPAT working.  Do you think you could help me get MPAT working? Would you be interested in setting up a community media company? Let me know in the comments (either here or on your social platform of choice) I’d love to hear your thoughts. 

[jimdhope]

Part 3 of my accidental Event Rig Series is out! The Budget LED Lighting Rig I discuss the beginning my theory of (Lighting) Everything... I'm 100% sure this will expand in the future and design three basic lighting rig of different sizes and budgets. I'll warn you now none of the are super cheap because if you buy cheap rubbish off ebay you'll have a horrible time (trust me I know). You can check out the full post here: https://jimhope.me/blog/2024/05/12/budget-led-lighting-rig/?feed_id=8&_unique_id=6641041aae252 I'd love to know what you think. Pop a comment below.

[jimdhope]

The Carnaby Production House

In my last post, I described how I have had an idea for years about building an eco-village and with the help of Generative AI I was finally able to get some of those ideas onto paper. I wanted to share another idea that I had with you that may be a lot more achievable even if I don’t have the money to fund it myself. Those who know me know I love the arts and love working behind the scenes to…

[jimdhope]

Using AI to generate content and images.

Using AI to help me visualise a grand plan I’ve had in my head for years. I’ve been playing with a few Generative AI tools over the last few weeks to generate images for my blog posts as I don’t always have time to get Photoshop fired up on my aging laptop. having AI tools available to be able to do this is amazing, and to be honest my design pales in comparison to the things that these AI tools…

[jimdhope]

A small audio rig for bands

Event Rig Series – Part 1: The Local Bands Sound Over the years I’ve had the opportunity to work with a variety of artists at different stages of their careers from local pub bands to international artists. It has been an absolute blast and nothing beats the buzz I get when doing a live show, be it in front of 10 regulars in the local pub or at a stadium in front of thousands, the same things…

[jimdhope]

Just a quick post to say I have added some helpful calculators to the projects menu. I’ll be growing these out over time but I thought I’d add the ones I use daily for now. You can find them in the projects menu at the top of the website. So far I’ve added my updated Energy Cost Calculator, an Instalment Plan calculator, a Burns Test calculator and an Agreed Reads Calculator that I use daily. I plan to add some more tools over the coming weeks and months related to all sorts of industries, not just energy.

[jimdhope]

Ideas for a basic Blackmagic 2110IP live production system.

Blackmagic’s NAB Presentation was nuts! They launched some amazing products but it was nuts! Blackmagic has certainly been busy over the last few months. I can’t believe how many new and updated products they announced on Friday in their pre-NAB show stream. I unfortunately didn’t get to watch it live and had to wait for the little one to go to bed first and I’m glad I did. I couldn’t have…

[jimdhope]

Using a Blackmagic ATEM Switcher With Dante Audio

I've expanded on my theory on how to use Dante with certain Blackmagic switchers. As I lost my original post I thought I'd refine and rewrite it and go into a bit more detail.

A match that could be made in heaven! As you may know, if you have seen any of my previous posts, I had a bit of downtime recently (mainly due to me being an idiot) and I have lost a lot of my old posts (somewhat down to me being an idiot and partly my backup corrupted). One of my most popular posts shared my theory for using Dante Audio with a Blackmagic ATEM Vision Mixer, and unfortunately, I…

[jimdhope]

Another Addition to the Hope Clan

Blake Stephen Hope Born on 6th March 2023 at 14:48 weighing 6lb 9oz I’ve been a bit quiet over the last few weeks, a big part of that is due to the latest addition to the Hope Clan about a month ago (another factor is I kept breaking my website every time I tried to post but that’s a post for another day). Due to Abi’s having preeclampsia, it was decided that Blake would be induced. Cue a…

[jimdhope]

Freely: The Future of Free TV in the UK

I may be a bit behind the times when it comes to the launch of Freely, but I am excited for its launch. I'd love to hear your thoughts on Freely and how it may change the UK's TV landscape in the coming years.

I may be a bit behind the times when it comes to the launch of Freely, but I am excited for its launch. This post has been sitting on my phone for a few weeks now having written it whilst waiting in hospital corridors, a story for another time maybe. I’m glad that I finally remembered to post it though as I’d like to hear your thoughts on Freely and what it means for the future of TV in the…

[jimdhope]

Energy Usage Calculator 2.0

I've upgraded the Energy Usage Calculator To find out more about changes and improvements check out the blog post.

With Energy Pricing as high as it is, I thought it might be time to upgrade the Energy Usage Calculator. A few years ago I created a web tool to help me whilst I was at work as on a near daily basis I was helping customers understand their bills and why they cost so much. It was very basic but more complicated than it needed to be. Over the last couple of weeks, I’ve been redesigning the tool…

[jimdhope]

Now On Mastodon!

Just a quick update as it’s been quite hectic over the last few weeks between work and getting ready for child number 2’s to arrive. that he is making it difficult already. When I’m not working or going back and forth to the hospital I’ve been working on some work-related projects that I can’t share but I’m hoping when I get a little time to start making a few changes on the website… Once I can…

[jimdhope]

I've got a new addiction: AliExpress!!!

How much would it cost to build a full-stage setup on AliExpress? Lately, I’ve been really into something new. It all started when we got our hands on a 2010 Nissan Qashqai and needed some parts for our CarPlay radio. Now I can’t stop thinking about it! Ugh, can I just rant for a sec?Why can’t car companies just use the same dang connectors for their media systems? Nissan is the worst with…

[jimdhope]

Expanding the Blackmagic Ecosystem

What if Blackmagic covered the whole event ecosystem? In my last post, I mentioned the idea of a Blackmagic ecosystem and the idea just wouldn’t shift from my head. So, me being me, I went down a bit of a rabbit hole and may have come up with a rough plan or what I would like to see if it ever came to fruition. Whilst I was at it I may have jotted down a few notes about how I would improve…

[jimdhope]

Blackmagic's NAB Update

So Close to the Perfect 4K ATEM It’s been a while… around 7 and a bit months to be nowhere near exact. If you read my last post you can probably guess why. For those that haven’t, We welcomed Scarlett into our lives on the 13th of August and it has been a whirlwind of no sleep and screaming ever since, only about half was the baby! But it’s that time of year again when I just have to say…

[jimdhope]

Setting Up Cloudflare Tunnel

Setting Up Cloudflare Tunnel

Access your home lab without opening ports on your firewall. We recently changed our internet service provider from Vodafone to TalkTalk and one of the things I didn’t think about was accessing my home lab from outside the network. I just thought that I could open a few ports and Bobs your uncle. Turns out that TalkTalk’s Modem doesn’t allow you to open certain ports, which wouldn’t be a problem…

[jimdhope]

Google Adsense: What a pain in the ...

Google Adsense: What a pain in the …

Oh Yes! This is a rant. Before my website was demolished and the number of posts went from close to 200 to about 12, I have been in a battle to get ads added to the site. The original reason they were removed is that I changed my domain name as my previous domain name was about to renew and my registrar decided to up the price, so I moved to a new one and got jimhope.me instead. This is where…