Senior Engineer
Pushing into harder problems — video codecs, media pipelines, and startup pace.
The Startup Chapter
From a stable software house to the fast and uncertain world of a startup — I joined a company building video codecs and ActiveX controls. The problems were harder, the timelines were tighter, and the stakes of getting it wrong were higher.
Video codec work demanded a deep understanding of algorithms, bitwise operations, and performance at every level. A 5% regression in encoding speed meant real product impact. You learned to profile before you optimised, and to optimise only what actually mattered.
What I Created
- Video streaming and playback software
- Protocols for LAN based video streaming
Ownership at Scale
At this stage I started taking ownership of entire subsystems rather than individual features. That meant writing the design doc, owning the implementation, running the code review, and being accountable for the outcome in production.
ActiveX controls brought me into the world of COM interfaces, browser plugins, and the messy reality of shipping software to thousands of different end-user environments. Defensive programming and thorough testing became non-negotiable habits.
What I Learned
I led a team delivering video streaming and playback solutions at a time when platforms like YouTube were just emerging, and streaming was becoming critical in the medical domain. Through this role, I gained experience in project delivery, client communication, and cross-border collaboration with American clients. I also honed my skills in optimizing algorithms for streaming performance, learning how to balance quality, latency, and reliability in real-world applications.