GitHub Repo
defiantsystems TV App
App Instructions:
Press the Up and Down arrows on your keyboard to navigate between songs.
Press the Enter key to play a song.
Press the Space key to pause a song.
Project Summary
A custom TV-style interface built with LightningJS, designed to emulate the navigation and layout experience of modern smart TV applications. Built as a learning and demonstration project to explore front-end development for non-traditional display platforms and gain hands-on experience with LightningJS, the same framework used in professional TV app development.
Project History
A recruiter called me on a Friday about a developer role that required LightningJS experience. The company wanted to schedule an interview — great news. These things usually take time, so I figured I had a few days. Over the weekend I skimmed some docs and thought, I should probably build something with this. With two kids, though, weekends are chaos, so I pushed it off until the work week.
By Wednesday I finally sat down to start learning. I opened the docs, and right on cue the recruiter called again: “They want to interview you tomorrow morning.” Perfect. I was already in dev mode, so I dove in.
The challenge? There are basically no up-to-date LightningJS tutorials. Even AI couldn’t help. So I went old-school — just me, the docs, and trial and error. It felt like learning to code again from scratch. Break things, fix things, repeat.
After hours of poking around, I had something working. I wanted to make it more ambitious, but time wasn’t on my side. LightningJS is familiar yet strange — close to web dev, but different enough to make you rethink how you build.
In the end, I’m proud of how it turned out. It’s loosely based on an old project from my bootcamp days, but cleaner and more refined. I even pulled in some music I wrote over a decade ago — something I rarely share these days. It felt good to bring that creative side back into my work.