Why I'm building Fanatical Live Switcher

I had this idea two years ago. I finally opened Xcode and started. Shut out to Cherard, a friend I shared the idea with. He asked me about the progress several times after.

The story is mundane. I'm a dad. My daughters play sports. I want their grandparents and aunts and uncles — the ones who don't live in town, the ones who can't make the games — to be able to watch. So I started streaming.

I started with a GoPro, then my wife bought me a Mevo, then I saw some footage another dad was creating with multiple views, switched in real-time. It was cool, I as hooked.
My bag of gear grew my setup became more complex, each iteration was for a good reason, but added complexity and provided learnings. It was all built around the Mevo MultiCam app. Multiple cameras over run from an iPad — that's the right shape, portable easy to setup. But every time slipped it to the background it disconnected my stream. I often missed my kids play because I was too distracted watching and cheering to switch the carmera. Something about the camera management. What if I could have instant replay, then if I missed it I could rewind and make sure it’s included and maybe multiple view of the awesome moment.
This list grew, and after enough games it stopped feeling like rough edges and started feeling like the wrong tool.

For two years I sat with the idea: somebody should build the version of this that actually does what live-streaming parents want. ANY camera. Instant replay, color correction so different cameras look the same. RTMP to anywhere — YouTube, Facebook, a private link for grandma. All on the same iPad

.

Two years of "somebody should build that." Then six months ago I opened Xcode and started.

I'm a software engineer, but iOS isn't my space — and I have progressed in my career to the point I rarely write code any more. So this has been a slow build. I've spent more time than I want to admit on the audio pipeline alone. Getting NDI working over without dropping frames was its own multi-week saga. The replay feature took a complete rewrite. There are things I still haven't shipped. There are bugs I haven't found yet.

But the app exists, on a real iPad, streaming real games. My daughters' games. The people who couldn't make it have been watching.

I'm starting this blog because I want to build the rest of this in public. Not the polished founder narrative — the actual receipts. What I picked, what I broke, what I had to throw away. The tradeoffs that matter when you're trying to fit broadcast-quality production into a tablet that can do anywhere and deliver a great experience.

If you're a sports parent who's been there — fighting your tool instead of watching the game — I want you here. If you're a software person who wants to see what a year of solo iOS dev looks like in practice, you too. If you're just curious how much of a real broadcast studio fits in an iPad, stick around. If you think I might be nuts for doing this you’re likely right.

The first post is mostly hello. The next ones will get into the parts that were harder than they should have been.