Robert Harmless

Help organizations manage and integrate large media libraries by building automation workflows, system integrations, and infrastructure that supports the full lifecycle of digital media.

• Led large-scale media migration between platforms (over 1 PB of video assets)
• Analyze a team’s systems, workflows, and business processes to find the right solution

Developed web and media-platform solutions across two major initiatives

• Media Platform Replacement: implementation lead replacing Saddleback's legacy media platform with Sardius, from discovery through migration validation and handoff.
• Drivetime Devotions Website Migration: moved the site from C1 CMS to Umbraco Cloud and rebuilt the front end from React to Razor, with APIs tying in Transistor podcast episodes.

Developed full-stack solutions for media content management, optimizing web and mobile applications while integrating third-party services and streamlining analytics for informed decision-making.

• Refactored web and mobile applications to deliver dynamic content and improve user experience, while building custom tools for managing and distributing media across platforms
• Implemented analytics tracking in the CMS (Umbraco), creating a system to easily track analytics in various widgets, enhancing custom data collection to understand user behavior
  Building analytics into every component of a new Umbraco site

  The church started a new website from scratch in Umbraco. They needed analytics on every part of every page, without a developer stepping in each time.

  On the old CMS, Composite C1, analytics were hard-coded. Each one had to be requested and needed development work. The data was defined in Universal Analytics, and the setup was custom for each object. The church also chose not to migrate from that system.

  They asked me to build the elements and processes so Google Analytics would be included in every object automatically.

  I set up Google Tag Manager and GA4 for the new site. Then I learned the new CMS and built tracking into the components themselves, with an analytics settings panel, data attributes, and link handlers. Every block an editor placed on a page could be tracked without extra work, and the data followed one uniform schema instead of a custom one for each object.

  Now, when a content manager adds or changes a page or a component, the analytics follow with it, in a lot more detail than the old site had. A content manager can customize the data or turn analytics off in the panel, and it updates instantly.

  Reports and Insights could measure the new site from day one. Editors got analytics on their content without writing any code. Later I built on the same library to track video plays in JW Player and YouTube.

• Created video analytics tracking for JWPlayer and YouTube with custom milestones, improving reporting capabilities and insights

Supported and co-led the Video Infrastructure team in implementing media workflows and systems. Actively contributed to planning and executing migrations and infrastructure projects, ensuring they met organizational needs. Served as a technical mentor, resolving complex issues and providing hands-on support to team members

• Collaborated on the development of system architecture, focusing on specific solutions for business needs, improved performance, and reduced operational costs
• Played a key role in coordinating major system integrations upgrades, ensuring smooth transitions for both technical teams and end-users
• Worked closely with leadership to create budgets and prioritize projects, ensuring that technical initiatives aligned with business objectives and available funding
• Mentored team members while providing technical support to team members, encouraging growth while ensuring the efficient operation of the media infrastructure

Developed and maintained backend infrastructure to support media workflows, integrating third-party tools and enhancing systems to improve content distribution, analytics, and team collaboration

• Led the migration of podcasts to Transistor and expanded distribution across multiple platforms, improving audience reach and enabling advanced analytics tracking
  Moving Saddleback's podcasts to Transistor

  Saddleback's podcasts kept growing, but our in-house system couldn't keep up.

  Podcasts ran on Media Manager, the system we'd built ourselves. It was older and carried technical debt, and the development team didn't have much time for it. More podcasts kept getting added, and they were getting hard to manage.

  I led the search for a new platform. One of the teams recommended Transistor.fm, and after comparing a few options we chose it. I learned how the platform worked, moved every podcast over from the old system, and trained each brand manager on the new tools.

  Transistor made distribution simple. Apple Podcasts was and still is the main platform, and now we also reached Spotify, Google Podcasts, Amazon, and others. I built a process that pulled Transistor's analytics through its API and organized it into tables, so the Reports and Insights team could use it in Power BI. We also connected Apple, Spotify, Google, and Amazon so we could see listener analytics from each platform.

  I connected Transistor's API to the rest of Saddleback's systems. Staff could embed podcast players, for the latest episodes or a single episode, in our CMS, Composite C1. One podcast taught through books of the Bible, and listeners wanted to look up a book like Matthew and find every teaching on it in order. Podcasts are linear, so I built a tool in Composite C1 where staff could create a group, such as a book of the Bible, with a title, description, images, and a short tag. Each episode was tagged when it was uploaded, and the website and mobile app pulled episodes from Transistor and showed them in those groups. That meant updating the website and the app to use the new source, and the app got a version update so it worked on newer devices.

  It was a lot of work just to change the podcast source, but it paid off. Podcasts were much easier for the brand managers to manage, and they looked nicer. The wider distribution reached more listeners, and we had much better analytics.

• Automated workflows for webcasts and video requests, including approvals, integrating MS Teams, Trello, Azure DevOps, and AirTable to streamline communication and task management
  One request form for webcasts and recordings

  Staff across many teams didn't know who to ask when they needed an event webcast or recorded.

  The church was growing, and more teams wanted their events streamed or recorded. About three rooms could webcast and record, and there were studios and other spaces for video. But each team had its own form, and different teams managed different rooms. Staff had no idea which form to use or who to talk to.

  I built one webcast request form with Microsoft Forms and Power Automate. The requester only had to say what they wanted. The flow got the request to the right place without them needing to know which team handled which room.

  When someone submitted a request, they got an email right away saying it was in progress. The flow figured out which team managed that room and sent approval cards in Microsoft Teams, first for using the room and then for the webcast itself. Once a team decided, the requester was updated automatically and everyone had the same information. After approval, the flow created Azure DevOps tasks for the broadcast team's webcast lead to set up and run the event. If the webcast needed to appear on a church webpage, not just YouTube, it also created tasks for the web team.

  Staff could request everything in one place without knowing which team managed what. It also improved communication between the internal clients and the teams managing the rooms and technology.

• Built custom analytics pipelines to gather insights from platforms like Akamai, YouTube, and MAPP, providing leadership with actionable data for strategic decision-making
  Measuring online attendance with Akamai logs

  Leadership wanted to know how many people were attending an online weekend service.

  At a live service, the ushers counted the people in the auditorium about 30 minutes in. So we decided to match that by counting the people who watched at least 30 minutes of the online weekend service.

  At the time we were streaming through the Akamai CDN to the website, mobile apps, and three TV apps. Our TV-app vendor could show how many people viewed a video, but it didn't have the tools for this custom 30-minute metric. I was asked to find a solution and build it with Azure's low-code/no-code tools.

  I found that Akamai's server logs recorded how much each unique IP address was watching. I used Power Automate to trigger and orchestrate the process so the data was always delivered. It pulled the Akamai logs from an FTP server into Azure Storage, then a C# Azure Function counted, per day, the unique IP addresses and devices that watched 30 minutes or more. The results went to an Azure Storage table. From there, the Reports and Insights team pulled the data into a Power BI dashboard so leadership could see recent attendance, and the data team moved it into a proper data warehouse.

  This was the first time online weekend attendance, using the 30-minute metric, could be measured, and it ran automatically every day for years.

• Implemented and administered DAM systems, with metadata structures and workflows from production through archive
• Streamlined live-event post-production by integrating capture, transcoding, and delivery tools
• Ran the video production network: fiber, SAN storage, DAM, servers, and workstations
• Planned yearly systems projects and budgets with leadership, vendors, and integrators; edited live events, curriculum, and marketing content

Filming, editing, asset management, and distribution for live events and marketing: studio shoots, jib operation, on-set digital imaging technician, transcoding, editor workstation support, and delivery for web and DVD.

Camera, jib, and dolly operation on single- and multi-camera projects; teleprompter setup and operation; directing and switching live and web events; and consulting on video system setups and workflows for several organizations.