shockervision

[Kung Wu]

Excellent feedback, all of you. Thanks!

I want to do some digging into why its so shoddy from a technical perspective.

So to this day it still constantly freezes up or loses connection regularly McShocker? Or was that experience unique to Fever?

[Kung Wu]

KungWu
When it works, it's a rebroadcast of the video board (which includes all the animations)
Under normal circumstances, it's late to start, stuttering, and occasionally just drops out.

ironically, the illegal rebroadcast feed of a couple years ago was more stable.

So you are currently subscribed and getting the dropped signals and freeze-ups?

[owenc]

I want to do some digging into why its so shoddy from a technical perspective.

I watched it last year a couple times at Larry Bud's when it was real, real bad and it really looked like it was mostly a bandwidth issue. The stream quality was pretty low to start with but all the choppiness, freezing and locking up was almost certainly a bandwidth issue. I thought at the time it might be the bandwidth at LB's but the second time I had my laptop and checked and while LB's internet access isn't great it is certainly enough to keep up with the stream. Also at the same time you were all complaining too so it wasn't just limited to LB's.

That really leaves either bandwidth coming out of the data center or between the roundhouse and the data center. Last year I sort of assumed it was probably bandwidth between the chuck and the data center but I suppose it really could be coming out of the data center.

If someone who has access wants to test the next time it is acting crappy you could try pinging the IP address that the stream is coming from during the game. If it really is a saturated link between you and the streaming server then ping times should go up and you might even get packet loss. Right now from us to 216.58.245.101 it is 30ms which is pretty good. I'd expect to see that in the 200-300ms or higher if there is a saturated link. I'm not sure 216.58.245.101 is where the stream comes from though. That is the IP address of the web server where you log in though.

Chris

[owenc]

One interesting thing is that reverse DNS for 216.58.245.101 is really messed up. It resolves to 8 different hosts, only 1 of which is a valid host name:

$ host 216.58.245.101
101.245.58.216.in-addr.arpa domain name pointer media.
101.245.58.216.in-addr.arpa domain name pointer northwest.
101.245.58.216.in-addr.arpa domain name pointer pittsburgh.
101.245.58.216.in-addr.arpa domain name pointer rockymountain.
101.245.58.216.in-addr.arpa domain name pointer vod.
101.245.58.216.in-addr.arpa domain name pointer www.
101.245.58.216.in-addr.arpa domain name pointer www.nmnathletics.com.
101.245.58.216.in-addr.arpa domain name pointer image.

An IP address should resolve to 1 (and only 1) host name and if it is talking to the world that host name should be fully qualified. Now this isn't going to cause problems for steaming or a web server but it would for things like ssh or sending email. Broken DNS like this is just a sign of sloppiness though.

Also there are only 2 name servers for nmnathletics.com and they are both on the same network. Again not a huge deal but definitely not the right way to do things.

Chris

[Ixiah]

On a good note - Shocker Radio actually got through its first game without losing the broadcast. That happened in the post game :)

[owenc]

On a good note - Shocker Radio actually got through its first game without losing the broadcast. That happened in the post game :)

What happened in the post game? Audio get shut off early?

Chris

[ShockerEngr]

What happened in the post game? Audio get shut off early?

Chris

someone tripped over a power cord in press row...it took out the radio broadcast too.

[BOBB]

Received a follow up response from the department...

Q: Is there enough profit in the service to warrant expenditure to improve? Otherwise cancel
A: Not a profit motive, service to fans.

Q: Guarantee service Sunday?
A: Guarantee folks are working on it and there have been many complaints.

Unanswered: difference between technology for volleyball broadcasts which seem to work.

[Bigshotmaker]

I took the advise and called the AD office,they connected me to someone who told me they have put in a totally new system called a tricaster and it will be fully functional after the Charleston Southern game.

[shock-it-to-me]

I took the advise and called the AD office,they connected me to someone who told me they have put in a totally new system called a tricaster and it will be fully functional after the Charleston Southern game.

AHHH, the TRICASTER. Powered by the Flux Capacitor, no doubt...

[WstateU]

AHHH, the TRICASTER. Powered by the Flux Capacitor, no doubt...

Yeah baby, that should do the trick!

[The Mad Hatter]

Here is information on the tricaster in case anyone is interested:

http://www.newtek.com/tricaster.html

[_kai_]

So on a quick read of the Tricaster stuff, does that mean that the quality of the SV stream should be infinitely increased? I saw that they mentioned HD on the Tricaster site. That would be great.

[RoyalShock]

What I have found interesting is how high schools and jucos can offer a better product at no cost to the consumer. That's pretty bad.

Good to hear about the tricaster. I believe we recently installed one of those at church for our service broadcasts. Definitely an improvement.

[_kai_]

http://www.utsports.com/allaccess/

Tennessee has a great site for live games and archives. It would be nice to get something like this eventually.