08/08/2026
Stress testing new gear in the heat in advance of the Italy City Council meeting on Monday. I am trying something a little different and am doing some testing to ensure everything goes as smoothly as possible.
Apart from the OG GoPro and old android phone I had laying around, all gear in the photo is 100% funded by Watchtower readers since formation in March 2026.
This is a hobby that doesn't pay personal bills. Thanks to Italy, I am now facing thousands in legal fees to fight for accountability over situations that should've never escalated to arrests. Ellis County DA Lindy Beaty REJECTED the charges for both of my arrests, if that tells you anything.
I don't run ads and I don't take sponsorships. This work is literally not possible without my readers supporting me.
Instead of using the roughly $1,000 in total donations from my readers towards my legal fees or even travel expenses, I have spent 100% of this money on gear to help improve what Watchtower can offer. I pay for gas and lunch out of pocket and I log my miles.
I don't go out of my way to ask for monetary support because I don't expect it. That being said, I am still very thankful for those that choose to go out of their way to support me beyond social media. Every dollar matters in this economy and I try to make sure I utilize your support responsibly.
This post is in part fueled by showing my readers that have chosen to support me where their money is actually going.
That said, social media engagement helps me the most. Monetization doesn't pay anything worth singing about, I'll show you the payouts. Engagement matters because it helps push my content in front of other people. Spreading awareness about my work is the absolute best way to support me.
But of course money makes everything turn. So in the name of financial transparency, and since a select few people seem to think we make so much money from these endeavors, I figured I would blog about what I've spent the last few days of my life figuring out, and what I chose to spend 70% of Watchtower's current funds on.
Welcome to the new (work-in-progress) mobile production studio for Watchtower. Here is a little behind the scenes on work that goes into this that people never get to see.
I was finally able to get both cameras' thermals under control while they sit in the shade in 95 degree heat. Not bad for a GoPro and Galaxy S7 Edge!
The GoPro + MediaMod combo was being a bit problematic even with no battery. Apparently the first thing it shuts off during overheating is the HDMI output. It made the HDMI source flicker off/on until temp came down. I was able to fix that by disabling on-board WiFi and switching the wireless source to the phone instead of the camera. The GoPro now runs off an encoder that can send the signal over the internet for me. No more thermal throttling. Awesome!
The next problem was the phone. An android device released 10 years ago still using the original battery isn't exactly the best device to rely on. I worked around this by creating my own RTMP streaming app, and I hyper-optimized how the app interacts with the phone and camera from a power perspective. I added in some proactive throttle techniques like auto-fallback to lower quality and added the ability to disable the camera view while the stream is still in progress. The results were impressive.
On the optimized cam app that I will release in the future, 25% battery net me about 40 minutes of 1080p streaming time at 75 degrees ambient, when before with generic RTMP apps from the Play store, the phone would overheat and throttle after 10 minutes. Outside temp test was more impressive. 30 minutes of streaming without power used roughly 35% battery in 95 ambient with no throttling. On power, the phone never dies and never throttles even with the battery constantly charging. The combination of options gives me wireless HD streaming camera performance in a device valued at roughly $50.
Direct sun test was a bust as expected. GoPro and S7 Edge both overheat and go into full thermal throttle within 10-15 minutes. I had to try anyway just to see because real data is good to have.
I dubbed the app zCam for now, named after my software company, and it will eventually be released for free. It will be available on iOS as well. It is an app that lets you easily reproduce the wireless streaming component of what I am doing with nearly any phone made in the last 10 years. Most similar apps require you paying ridiculous fees for various features like ability to zoom. On iOS I found most apps required you to pay to use .5 zoom. This was one of those situations where sometimes you just have to make the better thing yourself rather than deciding which inferior solution you want to pay for.
The show is controlled remotely via OBS Studio. I can loop various video segments and bring in the live camera feeds at will. The result is a live stream that I can run for hours on end, handled as a completely live and dynamic broadcast. This will allow me to not only live stream council meetings in a professional format, it will allow me to run content-relevant segments and live interviews all through one production before and after the meeting.
I apologize in advance for any tech issues on Monday. I am still working on getting everything finalized. As you can see, a lot goes in to figuring this out.
Highlighting the right moment at the right time can start an unstoppable chain reaction. Those are the moments I seek out.
The Watchtower Streaming Studio -- coming to a small tyrannical Texas town near you..
Just make sure they have good T-Mobile 5G coverage or good wifi. Right now, internet is still the biggest bottleneck and point of failure. I will need to get set up with Starlink at some point, but that will need to wait until Watchtower can afford to pay for it. Right now the $50/mo hotspot is a stretch.
I don't care to make money from this at all, but I would like Watchtower to be able to sustain itself without me having to personally come out of pocket. That would be sick, and it would enable me to never stop this hobby. Work isn't work when you enjoy what you do.
Special thanks to Otto The Watchdog - Watchdog News Network and his team for giving me the knowledge and shortcuts needed to figure this all out at a rapid pace. I'm learning from the best.
P.S.: I am slowly catching up with work and conversations, but still very busy. If I have told you I am going to follow up with you, and you have not heard from me, please send me a new email. It is too easy to lose track of messages over messenger, text, etc. Email is the best way to get in touch in a way that keeps it easy for me to bounce around lengthy conversations. I absolutely apologize for my atrocious response times. I'll work on doing better. Still jugging a lot right now.
