When the time came to write our final exam project on November 1st, I did not expect to end up at TV 2 Denmark, a large national television station. As a part of our education, we have to write a final project in collaboration with a real company or organization. The circumstances just happened to be right, regarding finding a project that led us to TV 2 - one of our group members had just finished his internship there.
Who would have thought that TV 2 would be willing to dedicate resources to a small group of computer science students from UCL? I was excited to get started.
So, what's the final project about?
We have to make a software application, written in the Java programming language. It has to calculate the effects of delays caused by live television.
Let's set the the stage with some background knowledge first (this might get a little technical).
A TV channel has a channel guide; the place where you can see which shows will air - and when. However, this entire schedule can be pushed forward as a result of unexpected delays, primarily caused by live television. This means that a show which was supposed to air at 20:00, might actually first air at 20:04.
Now, in order to inform their viewers about such delays, they display the delays as pieces of computer generated graphics, overlaid onto live television. It contains simple information about the program and how much of a delay there is (example: program Y starts in X minutes). Fortunately - for them - the program which generates the information is already in service. But that doesn't mean we can't re-create it, in our own way. So that's what TV2 had in store for us.
In order to accomplish this task, we are going to be working with their internal systems, API endpoints and databases. So there is a lot to get integrated into to say the least.
What's it like at TV 2?
Even though our stay at TV 2 only will last us 3 months, I can tell that being a part of such a big company as a student is a mind boggling experience. The scale of everything is so, well, to put it short: big. They have several large server rooms which provides them with the necessary IT-infrastructure. Their streaming service, TV 2 PLAY, is even hosted from here.
The sheer size and complexity of their integrated systems is unlike anything I have seen before. Another thing to get used to is the large development team present here, so they are actually able to allocate a lot of resources on us, which is very generous of them. On the first week we got handed a laptop which comes pre-installed with software that enables us to use their systems and allows us to access their API endpoints - TV 2 got nothing to spare.
We have been hard at work since we started working on our final project. There is a lot of systems and tools to learn, such as Docker (a tool to containerize systems), GitHub - and not to mention Java. I have never written an application in Java before, but luckily it's a very similar programming language to C#, which I worked with before. Once you learn the syntax differences, it gradually becomes easier.
TV 2 also has a lot of different facilities I want mention, so here goes.
1. Operations center
This place is interesting to mention because this is where they overlay computer graphics onto their TV channels. We were fortunate enough to get a small tour of this place as we wanted to see the environment which our software would thrive in. This is manned 24 hours a day in case something goes sour and needs human interaction.
2. Developers lounge
This is where we hang out most of the time. It has all the facilities you can ask for as a developer. Nice green plants, lots of other developers, a large LEGO monkey (yes, indeed), comfortable couches, easy access to toilets and of course, coffee machines. Did I mention the coffee is free and you can have as many cups as you want?
It was heaven for me (the coffee part).
3. The central garden
This is an outdoor garden right in the center of it all. It's a nice place to go if you need fresh air or stretch your legs. It also has a pond with fish and nicely maintained plants. I imagine is a very nice place during the summer (too bad it was a bit cold when we were here). It also houses an array of parabolic antennas used for live television broadcasts, so not your average garden after all.
4. The cafeteria
This is where the ~300 employees eat lunch in teams, and the price is very cheap too - a single all-you-can-eat buffet for just 29,- DKK ($4.20 a day) . They make high quality meals with a lot of variation, so you will always have something new every day. They also sell individual food items such as sandwiches, juices, soft drinks and such like any other cafeteria would, so it's always possible to have something to eat, even if you can't make it to lunch or dinner. There is free carbonated water at your disposal as well.
We ditched our home-baked foods the moment we found out this place existed.
What about when we are done?
I am positive that our final exam project is going to turn out good. After all, the end of being a student is closing in - with just two more months left before I finally get my AP degree in Computer Science.
I am really looking forward to getting a full-time job. Sometimes I look back at when we had just started out - and I can't help but wonder where all that time went? I feel that I have become well equipped to tackle what ever assignment is thrown at me, but no matter how much I learn, there will always be something new to discover in this kind of profession. I'm cheerful that I got the chance to see how the work environment at TV2 is like.