(BNS) How I Used AI To Transform My Job

David Steer, a veteran vision mixer working the World Cup in Mexico, had a problem that sounds trivial until you hear the stakes. He needed to convert proprietary video files for a Grass Valley Kahuna switcher, but the only software that could do it—Kwatch—was PC-only. For years, he ran Parallels on his Mac just for this one clunky program. When he bought a new M5 MacBook Air, he refused to install Parallels again. A colleague on a Discord server joked: "Why don't you just get Claude to write you a Mac version?" Steer, who had zero coding experience beyond tinkering with BASIC on a ZX Spectrum as a kid, decided to try.

The problem that unlocked everything

Steer is a vision mixer (called a technical director in North America) working live sports broadcasts, including the World Cup in Mexico. His job involves combining video sources on a switcher, and one recurring headache was converting proprietary video files called "wipes" into a format called SWS that only a clunky PC-only program called Kwatch could produce. He had been running Parallels on his Mac just for this one piece of software. When he bought a new M5 MacBook Air, he refused to install Parallels again. A colleague on a Discord server joked: "Why don't you just get Claude to write you a version of Kwatch for Mac?"