firmware – Airtame

Why join the Airtame engineering team?

Airtame — Fri, 01 Jun 2018 12:46:55 +0000

There are 27 nationalities represented in our organization, and we’re looking to diversify even more. Here’s why you should join Copenhagen’s most exciting engineering team.

Product

Airtame is a wireless streaming device which helps people work better. It’s powered by embedded Linux on custom-built hardware, with a diverse software stack ranging from our carefully-tuned firmware and high-performance C++ streaming engine, to our cross-platform Electron/React desktop application and Golang Cloud platform.

Technology

How do you make video streaming with high quality and low latency work in poor network environments? How do you integrate four different operating systems? How do you scale cloud backend to support tens of thousands of concurrently connected devices? These are just some of the many difficult challenges we face every day, and we work hard together to solve them. It’s an exciting opportunity to work alongside software, hardware and firmware deliverables with tasks that aren’t repetitive.

We have experts across the entire spectrum of technology. It gives everyone the chance to learn what they don’t know and challenge their own way of thinking. More than that, it’s a unique spread of technical knowledge, something we put it to good use every day working with the complexity of the product. Team structures are fairly flexible, and we’ve had several people start working in a specific range of activity, then gradually move to other areas of problem-solving.

Our talented engineers work with different tools, languages and types of infrastructure, and they are driven towards producing high-quality, maintainable code and software. Frequent code reviews, linting, and pairing are all integral components of our engineering culture. Significant ownership and responsibility over projects is key to our organization. Every developer is able to have a an impact on the direction of the product, and the company as a whole.

Our engineering teams

Streaming team:

In charge of the high-performance streaming pipeline, written in C and C++. And our cross-platform Application, made in Electron and JS.

Cloud team:

Working on the cloud-based administration portal for the Airtames and our upcoming internal digital signage platform called Homescreen. The tech stack here is Golang, React, AWS.

Firmware team:

Leading the efforts on the OS running on the Airtame. They cover everything from the bootloader, Linux kernel, to networking and graphics.

Infrastructure team:

Making sure our internal and external services are up and running. They do Docker, AWS, Ansible, Puppet and Jenkins.

QA team:

Ensuring the quality of our releases. They focus on both automated and manual testing. The tech stack is Python, JS and Jenkins primarily.

Community

In the past, people have relocated to work with Airtame’s Engineering team, and we pride ourselves for our sense of community.

Work is a nice mix of laidback and laser-focused. We know when to work hard, but we make sure to have fun along the way as well. Once per quarter, we host internal hackathons to get the creative juices flowing. No idea is too big, wild or crazy, and some of them might even be implemented afterwards. We value a relaxed environment where socializing is encouraged, but never mandatory. Sometimes, we even pack our toothbrush and go off-location. Here’s the Airtame team at the last offsite event, Workathon 2017 in Corfu, Greece.

Flexible work hours make all the difference to balancing work/life. That’s why 20% of an engineer’s working hours can be used to work on anything they want. It fosters creativity and independence, and we know for a fact that hobbies can lead to solid ideas of implementation.

We’re remote-friendly, something that has been put to good use by several engineers in the past. Airtame is made up of many different nationalities and clever minds, and no one should feel weighed down by the fact that they’re far from home.

Check out this Favro board we made about the Airtame culture.

What does the team say?

“Airtame is a great place for engineers who thrive on learning. I really enjoy our team breakfasts and roundtable discussions, where I can level up my knowledge in areas ranging from hardware design and kernel development to browser APIs and frontend frameworks, plus lots more in between. With 20% time, quarterly hackathons and flexibility to move between projects, I’m constantly developing my skill set, which helps keep my work fresh and engaging.”

Andrew Keating, Lead Software Engineer

Join the team!

See the full list of job openings here. To learn more about what others think of us, take a look at our company overview.

Ready to join our ambitious team? Send your CV and application to tech-jobs@airtame.com letting us know why you would be a great fit. We can’t wait to meet you!

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Airtame 2.2: Probably the best streaming ever for professionals

Jessica Navarro — Sat, 07 Jan 2017 09:38:13 +0000

In our latest firmware update, 2.2, we’re excited to announce a major improvement to our streaming, plus some swanky additions to Airtame Cloud. Read on to hear more about what’s new and improved in Airtame 2.2.

News ?

Probably the best streaming ever for professionals

Our firmware team outdid themselves.

In this 2.2 update, we revamped the streaming process. The Airtame device now receives and displays content from your computer better than ever before. We’d go so far as to say that Airtame offers probably the best streaming ever for businesses.

With this new streaming experience, there are:

✅ No more video/audio artefacts for silky smooth video playback
✅ More predictable delay between the computer and TV

This involved a lot of refactoring. The new code is cleaner, so it’ll be even easier to build on top of it when we develop new features. This also means we’ll be able to find bugs and fix them much faster, if bugs do happen.

Improvements to Airtame Cloud

Airtame Cloud, for those unfamiliar with this feature, lets you manage multiple Airtame devices from the Cloud without having to get up from your desk. Because life’s too short to spend time walking from Airtame to Airtame.

This update includes 4 major updates to Airtame Cloud:

✅ Update and reboot your Airtame device remotely
✅ Organize your devices into groups by location, or basically anything else.
✅ Keep tabs on what your device is up to, e.g., streaming, installing a firmware update, or displaying a dashboard.
✅ A fine-tuned look for an even sleeker user experience.

Interested in signing up for Airtame Cloud? Create an account here.

Improvements ?

Better at loading heavy dashboards

We’ve optimized Airtame’s resource consumption, which means more resources are available for those heavier dashboards.

More intelligent understanding of device’s behavior

We improved how we collect statistics on the Airtame device’s resources. This information helps us understand how devices behave after a long time without rebooting.

Smoother setup for some enterprise networks

The Discovery protocol that we use to let your computer know that there are Airtames on your network is now following the SSDP standard. This will fix a small problem some enterprise setups had where Airtames couldn’t be found on the network.

Even more network support

We’ve introduced support for Aruba Airgroup discovery. If you use Aruba’s AirGroup, you’ll be happy to know that you should have no problem finding Airtames on the network.

Bug fixes ?

Another day, another bug squashed. Here are some of the things we fixed:

We took care of an issue where the pin code wasn’t displaying, while Pin Code Connect was enabled. Sounds annoying, but now you shouldn’t have any problems.

Before this update, if you plugged Airtame into your TV before your TV was ready (e.g., not turned on yet), it would get a little confused and wasn’t able to detect the right screen resolution. With this update, whenever the TV is ready, Airtame will figure out what the best resolution for your screen is. ?

When you tried to disconnect from WiFi, the button wasn’t completing the disconnect (ugh). We took disciplinary measures, so it’s behaving as it should (yay!).

Go update your device ?

Ready to update your Airtame device? Here’s how to check if you have the latest firmware.

Next to your listed Airtame device, click the gear ⚙ icon. In the Device Management window, click the ‘Updates’ tab. This window will tell you what firmware is running on your device.

?Just a tip for Cloud users: after you update to 2.2, you can control when your devices update from the Cloud. To do this, you should switch off automatic update in your settings.

Questions? Feedback? Write to us.

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App Update 1.8: New app design

Jessica Navarro — Wed, 06 Apr 2016 09:06:30 +0000

It’s time for another product update! Our team has been hard at work to bring you the latest update to the Airtame application (that nifty software that runs on your computer).

This 1.8 application update continues to bring improvements to design and user experience. This update includes a new app design that we’re excited to show you!

Highlights

The 1.8 application update includes a new app design, among a few other important bug fixes.

New app design
New Electron software framework
Known bug fixes on Windows

New app design

It’s always been our aim to make the Airtame application simple to use. Our new design is a result of lots of customer feedback and research.

The average Airtame user is using our product during stressful situations: a big sales pitch to a client, a lecture in front of a full classroom, and so on. By removing any unnecessary steps to start a stream, we’re making the Airtame app as dead easy to use as possible.

How to stream with the new Airtame app

Along with removing unnecessary steps, the new design includes handy guides that help the user through the streaming process.

To start a stream, simply click “Start” next to the Airtame device you want to stream to. The stream will start instantly. Once you’re streaming, you’ll be asked if you want to add audio to the stream. Clicking this button lets you play audio and will also optimize the stream to play videos. If you do not need audio, then do not click the button and your stream will continue as usual.

Before we released the update, we showed the new app to testers who are customers like you. The feedback we received was mostly along these lines …

Just updated to the latest 1.8 software. The new interface is much more clean. I like the new button for connecting and think choosing modes is much easier now.

Jacob Olsen, IT Support, Semler Services

General Fixes

New Electron Framework

Our current Electron framework has been updated to the latest version 1.7, providing better stability, better support, and newer features that we’re excited to tinker with.

Windows bugs fixed

There were some Windows users experiencing an issue with the Airtame application capturing the content of the computer screen, in order to stream to the TV. This problem affected those with a newer Intel Graphics driver and specific screen resolutions.

There were also some who couldn’t see the application on the computer. Both of these bugs are fixed

Go update your app

You’ve heard what’s new, now go update your software! When a software update is available, the Airtame application shows a green alert banner that asks you to restart the app.

Update your Airtame computer software.

IMPORTANT: If you experience any problems related to this update, please go to our website and download the latest version of our software and install it. This will replace your old version and fix any issues caused from the update. If you are still experiencing problems, please let us know.

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Firmware Update 1.7: Improved WPA2-Enterprise support

Jessica Navarro — Sun, 06 Mar 2016 10:57:02 +0000

We have a new update for Airtame’s firmware (that nifty software that runs on your Airtame device) and it includes some improvements that we can’t wait for you to try out. The last 1.6 update focused on stability. This 1.7 update continues on that track to keep improving the foundation before we move on to begin adding new features.

Highlights

The 1.7 firmware update includes:

Improved WPA2-Enterprise support
Expanded support for older TVs (CEA/VESA)
Other bug fixes and improvements

WPA2-Enterprise support

We have added further support for WPA Enterprise EAP-TLS (certificates). This is something that was specially requested by larger enterprises. We are therefore very happy to announce that it is now possible to upload your own custom WiFi certificates to your Airtame and thereby allow the device onto your certificate-based network.

As you can see in the image below, this means in your Airtame’s settings, you will now have the choice between Automatic mode or EAP-TLS mode.

General Fixes

CEA/VESA video support modes

We’ve added CEA and VESA video modes for older displays and resolutions. Some customers experienced issues when plugging Airtame into the HDMI port of older TVs and computer monitors. This added support should fix most instances.

In general, Airtame can be configured to a 16:10 aspect ratio that many computer monitors and projectors use today. The two resolution settings we’ve added are:

1920×1200
1280×800

To find out how to adjust the output resolution, read our help article here.

Bug fixes and improvements

In general, there were various bug fixes that have improved the stability of the device.

Go update your firmware

Now that you’re caught up on the changes included in this new product update, make sure your firmware is updated to 1.7! Your firmware should update automatically when it is connected to the internet.

You should expect the update to take around 15 minutes to complete, depending on your network.

Update the Airtame device’s firmware.

If you are still experiencing problems, please fill out a form on support.

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Desktop Update 1.7: Improved discovery, notifications, and more

Jessica Navarro — Sun, 06 Mar 2016 10:06:06 +0000

We have a new update for the Airtame app (that nifty software that sits on your computer) and it includes some great improvements.We’re constantly working to make the user experience as simple and smooth as possible. The last 1.6 update focused on stability.

This 1.7 update continues on that track to keep improving the foundation before we move on to begin adding new features.

Highlights

The 1.7 widget update includes some different bug fixes and improvements that will greatly improve the ease of use. The more noteworthy improvements we’re proud to share are:

Improved Discovery feature
Added a “Device Busy” message
Fixed a “Cannot Connect” bug
Improved search field
Fixed Windows bug causing crashing
Fixed bugs on Linux

The 1.7 release for the desktop application improves our discovery functionality, which has been an ongoing process for a while. We’re excited about this release, because we know it will make a lot of our users happy.

Attila Sukosd, Airtame CTO

Improved Discovery feature

Discovery is when the Airtame software finds (or “discovers”) the available Airtame devices connected to your WiFi network. We made a lot of improvements to this and fixed several bugs related to this process.

Connect to IP to Discovery

If the widget discovers a device after you have connected to it with its IP address, it will automatically merge the new device with the IP. This will make your user experience much more consistent and organized.

Changing a network

Changing a network is now detected by the Airtame software. This is a bug fix that will now allow your list of available devices to refresh.

Windows bug fixed

There was a bigger Windows bug that was not discovering devices. This is now fixed and your Airtame devices should show up nicely in your app.

Note: If you’re interested in reading a bit more about the technology behind Discovery and how to enable/disable it, check out our help page on Discovering Airtame in Your Organization.

General Fixes

Device busy message

If you try to connect to an Airtame device that is already in use, you will now receive a “Device busy” message.

Previously, you would receive no indication if you tried connecting to a device that was being used by another person. This added feature will make Airtame even easier to use in a multiple user workplace.

Fixed a cannot connect bug

There was a bug that was not allowing some people to connect to Airtame devices. There should no longer be any problems connecting to a device that appears on the widget’s list of available devices.

Try again button fixed

When you use the search field in the widget to try and connect with an Airtame’s IP address and it fails to find a device, there is a “Try Again” button that shows to the right side of the search field. In some cases, this button didn’t work, but now there should be no problems.

Fixed Windows bug causing crashing

There was a bug on Windows that was causing the widget to crash at startup. The widget would crash if the app icon was clicked repeatedly 3 or more times. This is now resolved.

Fixed bugs on Linux

Several fixes and changes were made for Linux users. For example, the application was renamed from electron to airtame-application. In addition, a bug that was crashing the widget because of Discovery was fixed.

Go update your app

Now that you’re caught up on the changes included in this new desktop update, go update your software!

When a software update is available, the widget shows a green alert banner that asks you to restart the application.

Update the Airtame computer software.

Not sure what version you’re running? Check here.

If you are still experiencing problems, please fill out a form on support.

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Product Update 1.6: Fixes and fine tuning

Jessica Navarro — Wed, 06 Jan 2016 13:00:47 +0000

It’s that time again. We’re excited to announce a new software and firmware update for Airtame!

As always, we’re so grateful to our community of Alpha and Beta testers in [the Airtame forum]. We really couldn’t have done it without your feedback and support!

Focus on stability

With the 1.6 update, you’ll see more stability. We’ve heard your feedback and we’re constantly working to improve performance.

Our focus for this release was to strengthen the basic user experience. As a result, we’ve smoothed out bugs and fixed some issues from the previous update.

The 1.6 release has a usability and stability theme. We included a large amount of bug fixes and improvements to the widget software and device firmware, which we hope people will notice intuitively. There aren’t a lot of new features this time around, but we do have a lot of ideas and initiatives we are excited to work on in the future.

Attila Sukosd, CTA @ Airtame

Highlights from this update are:

Better memory management
Dashboard feature improved
Ethernet connection stability improved
Bugs on Windows platform fixed
Usability on Mac improved
Various bugs in Manage Device fixed
New Help & Guides tab

Update both firmware and software

Before going over the details of the update, let’s first quickly talk about firmware vs software.

For starters, software is the application running on your computer (i.e., the Airtame widget), while firmware is the code running on the Airtame device.

This means there are two places where you should check for updates:

Firmware is updated through the Manage Device panel under the Updates tab. You can either check for updates manually or receive automatic updates.

Software is updated through the widget. When a software update is available, a green alert banner will ask you to restart the application.

Our Help Center has more information on How to update your Airtame’s firmware and PC software app

Note: Your Airtame device should be connected to the Internet in order to update.

Better memory management

In general, the application will use less memory, freeing up resources for other uses. As a result, you should experience fewer crashes.

Dashboard improvements

We introduced a resources constraint for the Dashboard feature. This will make sure that the Airtame doesn’t get overloaded and crash if the dashboard is too heavy for the device to run.

Another improvement is that your dashboard will now load automatically after Airtame has been rebooted or when you switch between WiFi networks.

Ethernet connection stability improved

We were having some issues with the Ethernet connection, but this was a bug that has now been fixed. Expect better stability when using an Ethernet connection to your Airtame.

Bugs on Windows fixed

There are a couple main issues on the Windows platform that have been fixed.

We removed the opening animation on Windows that was making it difficult to click on the widget. Our team nicknamed this bug the MC Hammer bug, because the widget would jump from side to side whenever someone tried to click on it. Funny nickname aside, the MC Hammer bug is now fixed.

There was also a Windows-specific bug for displays with a higher resolution than full HD, which is resolved.

Usability on Mac improved

We made some small fixes on Mac that make a big difference.

We’ve added a copy/paste function in the Manage Device panel. This means that you can now copy/paste a URL for a website or dashboard into the Dashboard settings. Before this new function, it was necessary to type out the URL. We’re all pretty happy about this one around the office.

Another fix for Mac is a Dark mode version of the Airtame widget for OS X. If you have your Mac set to Dark mode, the Airtame icon will now appear in white in the menu bar.

Various bugs in Manage Device fixed

After the last update, the app sometimes wouldn’t register that Manual Mode was on. Now, there shouldn’t be any problems with this.

We also worked on faster loading when connected to an isolated router without internet connection. This means Manage Device will load faster when not connected to the Internet.

Another function we fixed is the Disconnect button that disconnects Airtame from your WiFi network.

New Help & Guides tab

We have a new Help & Guides tab available directly on the Widget. This is part of our growing efforts to improve user support.

In this tab, you can find a quick tutorial on how to use the CONNECT WITH IP function, plus more to come.

Fine tuning the UI

While our 1.5 update included some great new features, such as the Airtame widget and the connect with IP function, the 1.6 update finetunes our main functionality even more so.

We continue to tweak the look and feel of the Airtame widget with the overall goal to be as user-friendly and intuitive as possible.

Now that you’re caught up on the changes included in this new update, go download it!

Update the Airtame software and firmware

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Improvements and structure

Jonas Gyalokay — Tue, 07 Apr 2015 14:21:20 +0000

It’s been a really busy few weeks as we sprint towards our goal of releasing the devices out in public release and we’ve made some great strides in a short space of time. The team has grown by 50% since the end of the year with additions throughout the dev team to more than double our existing resources within a short period.

The additional manpower means that we’ve been able to do some really awesome things that we’ve been wanting to do for a while – one such thing is that we’ve built an entirely new tray (the software you download for your desktop) from scratch under one unified platform using node.js within the past month.

Since our last update, we’ve managed to overhaul the entire underlying structure in that time. Under the new platform, we’ve also unified the desktop operating systems. The previous platform (QT framework) had to have separate builds for each operating system and meant that any features we wanted to release had to be built separately each time. It’s a big improvement that is much more stable and makes it easier and faster for us to include and release new features across all of the platforms at once, as opposed to having to build entirely separate features for each individual platform. This basically means that we’re able to more effectively roll out new features and will enable us to focus on delivering smaller updates on a frequent basis from now on.

Linux support

With the move to the new platform, we’re also happy to announce that we’ll be able to provide full Linux support from v0.1.6 onwards! Our long-suffering Linux users have had to use patchy early versions, and had (very) limited support – but not any longer. From today, you’ll also be able to get the new Linux tray directly from downloads

The new version of the PC software also comes in a stand-alone version that means that Airtame can run without the need to go through an installation process. For organizations (or anyone for that matter!) that have guests that instantly want to use Airtame without previously having the software installed, can simply run a .exe file that will launch a basic version of AIRTAME that enables them to stream – and when finished, nothing is left on the computer/device. This not only dramatically decreases the time on a PC to start the first stream but also opens up the possibility of allowing non-admin users access to Airtame quickly and effectively.

Firmware

For the firmware running on Airtame, we’ve also released v0.1.6 which also includes a big improvement in a module we have been working on since the end of last year. It’s the module that handles the video stream from the computer and “Decode module” (basically the part that receives the stream from the dongle, so it can be seen on the screen). Until now we have been using the standard module provided by Freescale, the manufacturer of our processor chips. Whilst it would have been great (and much easier!) to continue using this, the module provided had some bugs that meant we simply didn’t (and couldn’t) have full control over how the video stream that was being handled. With our new shiny module that we’ve crafted in-house, we’re able to control all aspects of the video stream.

1080p resolution

In terms of features, this means that the 1080p output resolution is out of “extreme experimental version” to be made available as standard. This will give a much sharper resolution for text and graphics, without having to compromise on the stream.

There are also some small (but great) improvements such as improving the WiFi scanning module (which means that we can find local AIRTAMEs much more effectively), and fixing cases of the missing cursor for Mac 10.10 (Yosemite) users.

Public beta!

The final announcement is that we will also be launching public beta with v0.1.6 – so as soon as we receive the new devices from the manufacturer, we will commence shipping to those waiting ASAP. We’re shipping another 4.750 devices that will increase our BETA community to +7.500 members across the globe preparing us for the public launch in Q2.

This will be done with our new master distributor after the lessons learned from the initial early release (up to 10-12 weeks delivery time & multiple devices going MIA). We’ll be able to offer much more efficient shipping options, but there will be more info on this at the end of the week 🙂 We’re looking forward to your feedback on the differences & also welcoming those waiting members to our ever growing BETA community at forum.

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