front matter
It started with a drum kit. In the summer of 2019, a friend of mine got me into drumming with an electronic kit, and I embraced it wholeheartedly. Sometimes I would actually play the drums, but I spent a rather larger proportion of my time writing code to interact with my drum kit’s configuration using MIDI SysEx commands.
When the COVID-19 pandemic hit, I suddenly had rather different priorities in terms of considering the audio/visual needs of my local church, both while we were worshiping remotely and considering how we might meet in person again. This involved learning about protocols such as VISCA, NDI, and OSC (for cameras and audio mixers) as well as more software-oriented integration with Zoom, VLC, PowerPoint, Stream Deck, and more.
These projects don’t have huge amounts of business logic. Almost all the code is integration code, which is at once frustrating and hugely empowering. It’s frustrating because of protocols that are obscurely documented or aren’t really designed for the kind of usage I’m trying to achieve, or are just inconsistent with each other. It’s empowering because once you’ve cracked the integration aspect, you can write useful apps really easily, standing on the shoulders of multiple giants.