Building Spark Media Player
A native media player for iPhone, iPad, and Apple TV — built and published by Redrip Solutions, with an Android version in development.
The Challenge
Spark Media Player needed to bring live TV and large on-demand film and series libraries together in a single app, for users' own content and subscriptions, without the playback problems that usually come with handling many different stream formats reliably. It also needed to feel genuinely native on three different Apple screens — iPhone, iPad, and Apple TV — from one shared codebase, and to stand up to a specific risk this kind of app attracts: other people cloning or rebranding it rather than respecting the product as its own.
What We Built
- Live TV with a full programme guide (EPG) and catch-up, alongside film and series libraries with resume positions, favourites, and watch history
- Picture in Picture and Keep Playing in Background, for watching while using other apps
- Multiple profiles with a parental PIN, and iCloud sync of profiles, favourites, and history across a user's devices, with passwords synced securely via iCloud Keychain
- A provider onboarding system where users sign in with a short service code, including automatic server re-discovery if a provider moves address
- A sports fixtures feed that merges and deduplicates multiple data sources into one reliable schedule
- Film and series details and trailers, sourced via TMDB
Technology
- Built natively in Swift and SwiftUI for iPhone, iPad, and Apple TV
- An Android version is in development using Kotlin and Jetpack Compose, supporting phones, tablets, and Android TV
- Two playback engines — AVPlayer and VLC — selected automatically per stream for the widest possible format support
- A custom backend API powering provider onboarding, service codes, and the sports fixtures feed
- Security hardening throughout: obfuscated secrets in the shipped app, private logging, and anti-rebranding measures to protect the product from being cloned
Results
Spark Media Player has reached about 20,000 downloads, with a 4.6★ average across 577 App Store ratings. It's live on iPhone, iPad, and Apple TV today, with an Android build — phones, tablets, and Android TV — now in development as the next stage of the product's growth.