.svg){kind=logo}
IP Network Engineer
ITN - Full Time
Designing and maintaining core broadcast 2110 infrastructure as well as supporting traditional corporate network functions.
The role focuses on designing and maintaining ST 2110 broadcast infrastructure, ensuring seamless, high-performance media workflows. In addition to broadcast systems, I also manage traditional corporate networking, including wired access, Wi-Fi, and IPTV, to support reliable connectivity and efficient operations across the organization.
May 2024 - Present
Network Consulting Engineer
Cisco CX Solution Validation Services - Full Time
Responsible for the design, implementation and testing of various technology stacks for Cisco's largest companies.
Role involves working with large multi-national corporations and providing direction and guidance on how we can best validate and test their network infrastructure to ensure reliability and performance. Designed and implemented network designs and constructed test plans and automated test cases to improve efficiency and reusability of testing.
Sept 2023 - April 2024Network Engineer Intern
Cisco - Full Time
Worked in a team responsible for maintaining lab space used for testing operations.
Responsibilities included maintaining and planning the expansion/improvement of infrastructure, working in a team to plan such maintenance/upgrades, planning testbed deployment, from initial scoping phase to full testbed availability, and working with architects and engineers to solve problems.
July 2021 - August 2022
Sound Designer and Operations Director
Starburst Theatre Foundation - Volunteer
Leading the design, implementation and operation of sound reinforcement for our month long panto run during the festive season and various other events taking place throughout the year. Since March, I have taken on the role of operations director which will see me oversee the day to day running of our property and working out how we can best manage money and resources to secure the future for the charity.
All profits go the Starburst Foundation, which raises money for children with challenging disabilities
Nov 2021 - Present
Full stack developer
Self-employed
Designed, developed and hosted websites for a variety of clients. Ranging from simple static HTML based websites, to full responsive PWAs backed with bespoke CMS.
June 2015 - Present
Technical Theatre Technician
Farnborough 6th Form College - Freelance
Planned, designed and operated sound and lighting for a mix of internal and external events.
Planned and implemented a new structured cabling network to future proof the theatre for the rise of IP transport used for lighting and sound.
March 2019 - September 2020
FoH Team Member / Waiter
McMullen & Sons Ltd
Started off as a food runner, and then progressed to be a waiter, serving customers food and drink with a smile.
June 2017 - September 2019My Skills
Programming
Networking
Cisco - CCNP Certified
Other
Containerisation / Virtualisation
VMware
Linux
Storage
System Administration
Linux
Windows Server
Security
Projects & Work
Large SDA Scale Validation
Worked closely with customer to design a testbed that accurately represents their large scale environment in our testing space. This included over 60 switches and internal testing tools to simulate scale.
Deployed SDA across 5 sites using both MAN and SD-WAN topologies to connect sites. This included all ancillary services such AD, DNS, DHCP and a central certificate authority. Deployed CC and mDNAC along with virtual networks and verified traffic flow and reachability. As a result of the scale requirements, a compute solution to run over a thousand virtual switches was required, which took considerable planning in hardware and storage capacity to achieve.
Technologies involved: IOS-XE (9300, 9500, 9600, 9800), SDA, ISE, AD, vCenter/ESXi
DC power designed and implemented, the IE switches will be formed into a REP ring for failover and availability testing.
Starburst Studios Network Deployment
Refurbished an old village hall as part of a team and converted it into a collection of dance studios and vocal rooms as well as storage and office space.
No infrastructure existed in the building so it was necessary to design and deploy a network solution. This consisted of running 50 Cat 6 runs to various positions for APs, CCTV and office computers. The budget was also very tight, so second hand equipment and open source software were used where possible. The resulting network needed to cope with over a hundred simultaneous clients during periods of high demand, so I selected the Cisco 2802I APs and 9800-CL WLC due to their abundance secondhand and the 9800-CL not requiring licensing. 3650 switches and UCS M3 provided the switching and compute required for the solution.
We need some longer patch cables ;)
Private 5G Proof of Concept
Worked as part of a small taskforce to put together an industry first proof of concept for a private 5G solution.
I led and standardised testbed deployment for similar projects in the future, and worked closely with the project team to iron out networking and performance issues.
Technologies involved: NCS, IOS-XE, PTP, GPS, 5G vRAN and RU
5G Cloud Core Testing
Designed the physical deployment of a large scale 5G VNF and CNF testbed with over 50 planned servers being used.
Planned for future testbed requirements as the silicon shortage meant that some servers had expected delivery dates of over a year
Became involved in the ACI fabric deployment and ensured that the OOB management network was performing as expected
Technologies involved: ACI, UCS, ASR 9K, IOS-XE
High-Speed SP Network Testing
Planned and deployed hardware layout
Worked with engineers to introduce delay into the network for testing
Optimised PSU connections due to high power demand
Technologies involved - ASR 9K, NCS, Nexus
Sound Engineering
Designed, installed and operated sound as a volunteer for Starburst Theatre's annual Pantomime in aid of children with challenging disabilites
December 2021Web Development
Carl Lyons Studio
Built using React and PHP, I worked with the client to design a bespoke CMS to power the site, including features such as automatic watermark generation, and secure private vaults for holding client work.
June 2020 - September 2020Technical Theatre Technician
Planned and implemented a new structured cabling network to future proof the theatre for the rise in lighting and sound data over IP networks. Ran over 1KM of structured cabling. Accounted for future capacity by placing DMX and RJ45 ports all over the theatre in positions required currently, and in the future. Terminated all of the runs in a central rack complete with the associated networking equipment.
August 2020