Telemetry Publishing Brief (June 2026)
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This brief is written for non-technical readers. The engineering detail lives in ADR-001 and the MOV to MP4 transition status.
What happened, in one paragraph
Every Phenom recording captures a rich sensor story: GPS position, compass heading, device motion. In early June the app switched its video format from MOV to MP4 (a necessary modernisation: better web playback, Android compatibility). Two side effects slipped through: the on-screen sensor overlay went blank during playback, and the small data file that travels with each video (the sidecar) silently stopped reaching our servers. Users saw phenoms publish with no GPS or sensor data. Both causes are found, both fixes are written, and the recovery is sequenced below.
The fork in the road
The two fixes were written independently, and they quietly disagree about a business question: should the sensor data live only sealed inside the video file, or also as the separate sidecar file that websites, partners, and our Android app can read easily?
Both fixes edit the same screen of code. Without a deliberate decision, whichever merged second would silently erase the other team’s intent.
Why the sidecar matters today
The sealed-inside-the-video copy is tamper-evident and travels with the file, which is excellent for evidence. But three things still need the separate sidecar file:
The sidecar costs roughly 0.3 MB next to a 100 MB video: the storage price of keeping both copies is effectively zero, while removing it breaks the Share-with-HUD feature, web access, and all Android sensor data.
The decision and the path back
After a structured architecture review, the ruling is: keep both copies. The video-only model is a legitimate future, but only after three hard conditions are met (Android catches up, the share feature no longer needs the file, and we can prove data recovery after social-media re-encoding).
The single blocking item for step 1 is restoring the GitHub billing account so code changes can be tested and merged again.
Where to follow progress
| What | Where |
|---|---|
| Execution tracker (all work items) | PhenomApp #198 |
| The merge that restores GPS data | PhenomApp #199 |
| Original defect report | PhenomApp #194 |
| Engineering decision record | ADR-001 |
About the images on this page
All three diagrams were AI-generated and carry embedded, durable C2PA Content Credentials signed by the SanMarcSoft agent identity, the same provenance technology the Phenom app itself embeds in every published video. Right-click, save, and inspect any of them with a C2PA verifier to see the practice we preach.
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