Archie

“We need an application that can control and monitor all aspects of our installation.”

— Envoy

What is Archie?

Archie is an installation control application. Built from the ground up in NodeJS and React, it represents the culmination of years of experience designing and deploying permanent installations, and addresses the specific needs the Envoy team requires.

I designed and created the entire system over the course of 8 months. Archie took it’s code name from an early concept- develop 3 apps (named Archie, Baxter, and Charlie). Each app was intended to function interdependently, each handling separate tasks. After a series of diagramming and architecture exercises, I merged the 3 app concept down to a single code base. I iterated through the early phases of design- diagram, pseudocode, proof of concept, until I was ready to prototype.

Archie is a behind-the-scenes agent designed to facilitate all aspects of installation control and monitoring.

Archie runs all day, every day, listening, thinking, and reacting to all aspects of system state.

Features

  • Multiple communications protocols

    Archie uses a built in MQTT broker (Aedes), streamlining installation and lowering package dependencies. Custom-built MQTT, HTTP, and Websockets APIs are all employed in Archie’s communication framework.

    Archie monitors all running applications, listens to their heartbeats, and controls running applications via PM2.

  • Scheduling system

    I vetted and integrated Bree, a NodeJS scheduling library. Archie consumes schedule information from the backend (on demand), and Immediately fires show control commands based on precise timings.

  • Concurrency

    Archie leans heavily on NodeJS and Javascript async functionality. As a centralized control application, it can act and react, spawning workers when needed, switching context and handling cleanup depending on task.

  • Front end features

    Archie has it’s own frontend, a React app that can program Archie’s configuration for a specific installation network.

    An installation’s application topology can be very complex, with multiple apps targeting different aspects of an experience’s layout. Archie helps centralize control, allowing at-a-glance information about the PCs and programs running in the system.

  • Realtime dashboard

    Archie monitors any server in any complex installation. These apps or processes can be any running program, from media playback systems made in TouchDesigner, to realtime graphics made in Unreal Engine and beyond.

    Users can sculpt and access a customized dashboard that reports (in realime) the state of any server connected to or controlled by Archie.

  • On demand sync

    I needed to allow CMS users to access some of Archie’s system functionality. For example, a user might want to immediately preview new content on a targeted display in an installation, without needing to load or access a separate control panel.

    Archie handles communications and control during system sync, elegantly pausing playback and restarting all affected apps in it’s domain.