About

A bit of background...

Welcome

Simon Cooke, SPC Media LTD, ASP.NET developer

SPC Media is a limited company formed in 1999 by Director / Developer Simon Cooke to provide technical development services for Internet and Multimedia development companies. A graduate from Sheffield Hallam University with a 2:1 BSc (Hons) Computer Studies degree, Simon initially had a key role in a number of projects for BBC Interactive Northern Ireland. Building on a client list delivering projects across various sectors for both private and public companies, SPC Media have continued to adapt and deliver solutions.

Once upon a time....

BBC Microcomputer

Well, this is where it all started. From the age of about eleven or twelve as the home computing era was upon us, I was lucky enough to have one of these beasts for a home computer, the mighty BBC B Microcomputer. With a massive 32k memory to fire out the latest Moon Raider, Pac-Man and Space Invader games, I started to wonder how Pac-Man moved by a key press and how a missile travels up the screen. Dusting off the BBC Basic book I took my first steps into the world of coding.

A few more key presses later and I had graduated from Sheffield Hallam University with a 2:1 in Computer Studies BSc. This included a year working at ICI in Runcorn as a database ABAP programmer using SAP. My first job as a graduate was with British Aerospace near Manchester, again as an Analyst/Programmer on a Unify database system. While both these jobs were great experience, I was always drawn to the bright shiny lights of the multimedia world. It was after being dazzled by a PC application that actually played audio and video, a revelation in 1995, that I knew what area I wanted to work in.

Knowing the Lingo

Countless job applications and doors were knocked on and it was Media Vault in Widnes, a company set up by Halton College that gave me the chance to become a Director Lingo Programmer. Learning Director and Lingo was a breath of fresh air and it was really enjoyable to push on with the latest education game or training CD-ROM title.

When the downturn in the 'new media' industry hit approaching the year 2000, I needed a new challenge and just around the corner was a four week contract position at BBC Belfast. Pushing on with more advanced Lingo programming on CD-ROM and Shockwave applications, I was with the BBC for two years. Now I had started to move into web development with new toys like Flash/ActionScript and classic ASP. Even databases had found me again with Microsoft SQL Server 2000.

For the next three years I worked for numerous enterprises in Belfast and Dublin producing more CD-ROM applications and websites with CCEA and the Nerve Centre in particular. Director Lingo was great to work with and I was sad to see it fade out of fashion as the internet began to take over. Here are a selection of CD-ROMs I worked on over the years.

Armada Survivor, The Nerve Centre
Armada Cannon Game, The Nerve Centre
Armada Salvage, The Nerve Centre
Two player chess, CCEA for Channel 4
Northwest Film Archive, The Nerve Centre
Bombardier Plane Jigsaw, BBC Interactive
The 50's, The Nerve Centre
Memory Game, WRG Manchester
Tecnology and Design resource, CCEA
UK Athletics for schools, BBC Interactive
News mixing desk, BBC Interactive
Multi-user collaboration, eMergeSmart Dublin.

.NET Down Under

My next adventure was to live in Sydney for three years from 2005 and experience working with a couple of Australian website development companies, @www and BlueArc. It was great .NET experience working with their content management systems on high profile client projects, in particularly Video Ezy a nationwide DVD rental company. My approach to code design was improved with code generators and the Three-tier architecture approach.

At this time I started to develop my own side projects, taking on all aspects from interface to database design. By producing a property website, this allowed me to learn ASP.NET integration with Google Maps and PayPal that I didn't have chance to mix with in work projects.

Video Ezy website, @www Sydney
Power Sponshorship, BlueArc Sydney
Property WebShop, SPC Media
Property WebShop, SPC Media

To Manchester and Beyond

Now based in Manchester City centre, in recent years I have worked with CCEA, EAFA, Culture Northern Ireland and Northern Ireland Screen in a number of ASP.NET website projects. See the Clients section for more details of recent projects.

Continuing to keep up with change as the development frameworks, technology and platforms evolve, especially with the popularity of mobile devices, SPC Media look forward to working with you.