diff --git a/.gitignore b/.gitignore
index 197c94213aca2c81b0f973b69caee31984636f3e..5e9041cc27593f8d3206ffc4a68d4f71b2908cdf 100644
--- a/.gitignore
+++ b/.gitignore
@@ -51,3 +51,7 @@ infra/dev/nomad/tmp/*
 /docker/snmp-exporter/tmp/
 /docker/snmp-exporter/snmp.yml
 /.vs
+
+Lib/*
+Scripts/*
+pyvenv.cfg
diff --git a/docker/jupyter-lab/requirements.txt b/docker/jupyter-lab/requirements.txt
index c5c2a40c26443ebb2f29cc2d5c1e8d153d743b39..9f13475ae97e4ad830e1975e32776a22378a4dc3 100644
--- a/docker/jupyter-lab/requirements.txt
+++ b/docker/jupyter-lab/requirements.txt
@@ -5,7 +5,9 @@ notebook-as-pdf
 PyPDF2==2.12.1 # until https://github.com/betatim/notebook-as-pdf/issues/40 hits a notebook-as-pdf release
 jupyterlab-git >= 0.50.0 # BSD-3
 jupyter-collaboration >= 3.0.0 # 3-Clause BSD
-jupyter_server_nbmodel[lab,rtc] # BSD-3
+
+# disabled as it breaks on JupyterLab 4.3.5 (cells do not run)
+#jupyter_server_nbmodel[lab,rtc] # BSD-3
 
 # high-level access to station components.
 # NB: tangostationcontrol will also install lofar-station-client. The latter
diff --git a/infra/jobs/station/rpc-server.levant.nomad b/infra/jobs/station/rpc-server.levant.nomad
index 4fd85a1968ba83de42d52f68f9cccc5f6933e752..5eaa7ed45ff5f1cba6fcc7ab9ad36a3fce3d8e4e 100644
--- a/infra/jobs/station/rpc-server.levant.nomad
+++ b/infra/jobs/station/rpc-server.levant.nomad
@@ -17,7 +17,7 @@ job "rpc-server" {
       }
 
       port "metrics" {
-        static       = "8000"
+        to           = "8000"
         host_network = "station"
       }
     }
diff --git a/tangostationcontrol/devices/sdp/statistics.py b/tangostationcontrol/devices/sdp/statistics.py
index 9df897b95477916dee6b1b064541d2dbb00509ef..a0f809f24f5fb3b1b29b59d6dfc11ea30e438b2f 100644
--- a/tangostationcontrol/devices/sdp/statistics.py
+++ b/tangostationcontrol/devices/sdp/statistics.py
@@ -189,7 +189,7 @@ class Statistics(OPCUADevice):
 
                     # decode payload
                     try:
-                        message = json.loads(payload.decode())
+                        message = json.loads(payload)
                     except (json.decoder.JSONDecodeError, UnicodeDecodeError):
                         logger.exception(
                             f"Could not decode message payload as JSON {topic=} {message=}"
diff --git a/tangostationcontrol/rpc/messagehandler.py b/tangostationcontrol/rpc/messagehandler.py
index 475c39557832c17c7690fbe500854fa335ce8db5..06cce144692dc9ed4b60675c502787c4e40186ae 100644
--- a/tangostationcontrol/rpc/messagehandler.py
+++ b/tangostationcontrol/rpc/messagehandler.py
@@ -138,7 +138,7 @@ class MultiEndpointZMQMessageHandler:
 
                     # decode payload
                     try:
-                        message = json.loads(payload.decode())
+                        message = json.loads(payload)
                     except (json.decoder.JSONDecodeError, UnicodeDecodeError):
                         logger.exception(
                             f"Could not decode message payload as JSON {uri=} {topic=} {payload=}"