Alex Barstow
Full Stack Engineer at Glimpse
Boston, Massachusetts, United States
Summary
🤩
Rockstar🎓
Top SchoolAlex Barstow is a Full Stack Engineer with nine years of experience building and improving web video playback and streaming experiences, now based in Boston. He spent the bulk of his career at Brightcove where he progressed from JavaScript engineer to senior software engineer on the web player team, and currently develops full-stack features at Glimpse. Alex is an active open-source contributor to the prominent video.js ecosystem, shipping accessibility, mobile iOS fixes, ad-plugin resiliency, and streaming protocol improvements that improve playback across browsers and DASH/HLS formats. He pairs front-end polish with systems-level thinking—fixing subtle bugs like iOS fullscreen and seeking behavior while also addressing manifest and quality-change edge cases. Earlier roles as a co-founder and in arts-focused nonprofits reflect strengths in product thinking, user research, and communication that inform his engineering decisions. He holds degrees in sociology and music performance, a combination that underlies his attention to user experience and collaborative craftsmanship.
9 years of coding experience
13 years of employment as a software developer
Bachelor of Music Viola Performance, Bachelor of Music Viola Performance at New England Conservatory of MusicBachelor of Arts (B.A.) Sociology, Bachelor of Arts (B.A.) Sociology at Tufts University
Github Skills (18)
accessibility10
javascript10
ios10
testing10
front-end-development10
video-player10
player10
html10
videojs10
video-streaming10
hlsl10
mpeg-dash10
ads10
mobile-development9
debug9
Programming languages (6)
Github contributions (5)
videojs/videojs-contrib-ads
Apr 2017 - Jun 2021
A Tool for Building Video.js Ad Plugins
Role in this project:
Front-end Developer
Front-end DeveloperContributions:8 reviews, 14 commits, 32 PRs in 4 years 2 months
Contributions summary:Alex primarily focused on improving the video.js ad plugin, addressing caption persistence issues and enhancing the integration with iOS. Their contributions include fixing bugs related to caption display during ads, improving the snapshot functionality for iOS, and modifying the play middleware to correctly handle autoplay. They also refactored code, removed unnecessary imports, and added features like allowing custom video.js autoplay settings, showcasing their focus on maintaining and improving the plugin's functionality.
videojsadshtml5-videoprerolljavascript
videojs/http-streaming
Aug 2018 - Nov 2022
HLS, DASH, and future HTTP streaming protocols library for video.js
Role in this project:Full-stack Developer
Full-stack DeveloperContributions:31 reviews, 19 commits, 27 PRs in 4 years 3 months
Contributions summary:Alex primarily contributed to the `videojs/http-streaming` repository, a library for HTTP streaming protocols. Their work focused on addressing bugs and improving the user experience, including fixes related to fast quality changes and their impact on IE/Edge browsers. The user also worked on features related to DASH manifest updates and text track handling. These contributions demonstrate a focus on ensuring correct and performant playback across different browsers and streaming formats.
dashjavascriptstreamingwebrtchls-stream
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