feat(post): chromecast standalone project #481
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These are mainly comments on the format 😉
One thing, though: I wonder if we shouldn't introduce the Chromecast principle with a simple diagram (the web or mobile app sends instructions to the dongle, the dongle loads the URL of the Chromecast app and receives the instructions, it requests the video, plays ads, etc.).
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| thumbnail: "/images/posts/2026-01-04-new-chromecast-project/thumbnail.png" | ||
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| Chromecast can be a notoriously difficult platform to develop for. Over the years, the hardware has evolved significantly; while recent models are powerful, early versions are easily overloaded and struggle with modern web overhead. |
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This first paragraph is used on the homepage of the blog (= in the list of posts). And I think it lacks "something" to give reader an idea of what the post will bring. Maybe merge the next paragraph with this one?
Or: there is a metadata tag that can be used to specify which text to use on the home page, if you don't want to screw formating up.
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| Chromecast can be a notoriously difficult platform to develop for. Over the years, the hardware has evolved significantly; while recent models are powerful, early versions are easily overloaded and struggle with modern web overhead. | ||
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| At Bedrock, we faced a specific architectural challenge: our Chromecast project was living as a single route within our massive main web repository. While this "monolith" approach worked initially, our rapid growth eventually turned it into a bottleneck. |
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"massive main web repository" -> could that be a link to the blogpost about maintaining that 10 years old project? I think there is one such post.
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Great idea ! The only one I found is this one : https://tech.bedrockstreaming.com/2021/09/06/web-best-practices.html
I think it is close enough to add it as a link
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| As the project scaled, we hit a wall with two primary issues: | ||
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| **User Dissatisfaction:** Performance wasn't meeting our standards. One of our major clients has massive Chromecast traffic, and the laggy experience was becoming a significant pain point. |
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Why was performance bad? One sentence is enough.
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| **User Dissatisfaction:** Performance wasn't meeting our standards. One of our major clients has massive Chromecast traffic, and the laggy experience was becoming a significant pain point. | ||
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| **Developer Dread:** The team grew to worry whenever a Chromecast ticket appeared in the sprint. Because it was tied to the main web project, it meant dealing with long, complex and painful developer experience. |
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One could argue painful DevXP must be a pain for "web" devs too. Why was this specific to chromecast devs? Maybe the chromecast parts where too tangled in the web repo?
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| 1. **Bloated Dependencies:** Because the Chromecast app was part of the main website, it was loading tons of irrelevant Javascript. We were essentially forcing a low-power device to carry the weight of a full desktop site. | ||
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| 2. **Deployment Velocity:** Our build and deployment processes were tethered to the main web project. We needed a workflow that allowed us to move fast without being slowed down by the main site's release cycle. |
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On these two points, there is a "why" explained 👍. I'd love to the the same thing on the two points earlier where I commented :-)
Or maybe this "brekaing free" section should be merged with the "The Trouble with the Monolith" section? Afterall, the two points in each section seem quite similar?
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You're right !
Now that I added some details on the previous part (previews comments) I think it looks very similar to this section so I think I will merge those two.
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| The results didn't just meet our expectations—they shattered them. By decoupling the project, we saw a significant and measurable increase in both stability and speed. | ||
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| ### Core Performance Metrics |
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There is one 3rd level title here, but it's the only one.
Use such a title if there is another 3rd level title later, but not if it's the only one?
In the current state of the post, I would remove the ###.
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| **Note:** We are still in the process of migrating our entire user base, but the data from the new implementation is already showing all the benefits. | ||
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I would write down something saying UserXP is much much better.
Metrics show it, and I would also say it to be 100% clear.
Also: in the problems at the beginning of the post, in addition to UserXP, there is DevXP => I'd love the see if DevXP is better now in this "results" section 🙏
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Regarding DevXP: does this (smaller? more focused) repo help with AI-assisted development, for example? Has the duration of on-boarding of new colleagues been greatly reduced? Maybe cycle-time for new features has been reduced?
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A metric you could show (if it's interesting) could be duration for builds. Maybe build time is now much shorter?
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| 2. **Deployment Velocity:** Our build and deployment processes were tethered to the main web project. We needed a workflow that allowed us to move fast without being slowed down by the main site's release cycle. | ||
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| ## 🚀 The Solution: Chromecast Standalone |
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Purely from a "form" perspective, I think a schema or image somewhere around here (= 1/3 of the post) would help make it more "breathable" 🙏
Article to showcase the success around the Chromecast Standalone migration