Paul Barber writes a rather magnificent letter to the FL re: Player's failings

[Oscar]

Cancelled mine a couple of months back. Awful service.

 

[Albumen]

Having read the letter again, and I'm no expert, it does look like we are laying the ground to claim breach of contract.

Yup, my thoughts too. We have the infrastructure in the stadium to competently run a website and streaming service surely.

 

[Springal]

Yup, my thoughts too. We have the infrastructure in the stadium to competently run a website and streaming service surely.

You underestimate the kind of resource needed. Even the BBC outsource their online streaming / iplayer to 3rd parties... and they are a broadcast organisation!

 

[blockhseagull]

The problem lies with FLI

 

[Garage_Doors]

Cancelled mine a couple of months back. Awful service.

I think thats what Paul's letter was about.

 

[skipper734]

Anything other than a perfect experience on match days with player is unacceptable. The poor bandwidth on the highlights is very 90's, and here we are, nearly in 2014.
Not that long ago we received a real time picture and sound transmission from a match, from a spectator using technology that a lot of people carry about on their person. Obviously this only allegedly theoretically might have happened!

 

[Muzzy]

Well the numpty's finally got back to me..,

Thank you for your email.

Apologies for the technical issues you have faced during the past commentary.

If you face any issue do let us know real quick so that we can sort it out or raise to the higher support team for further investigation if required.

Please feel free to contact us if we can be of any further assistance.

Best regards
Ruth
Customer Services

How can I have any further issues? In my original email I stated that I had cancelled my subs!

Totally and utterly inept in every way possible.
If I ran my business as they do I wouldn't expect to last 5 minutes.

 

[Carrot Cruncher]

Well the numpty's finally got back to me..,

Thank you for your email.

Apologies for the technical issues you have faced during the past commentary.

If you face any issue do let us know real quick so that we can sort it out or raise to the higher support team for further investigation if required.

Please feel free to contact us if we can be of any further assistance.

Best regards
Ruth
Customer Services

How can I have any further issues? In my original email I stated that I had cancelled my subs!

Totally and utterly inept in every way possible.
If I ran my business as they do I wouldn't expect to last 5 minutes.

Did they really say 'let us know real quick'? Bloody hell!

 

[Cian]

2. The feed from the BBC. ISDN is pretty reliable but isn’t exactly cutting edge technology. Given the low cost of dedicated bandwidth one could argue this should be in play. At the very least I’d expect more than one ISDN link with some kind of monitoring software on it to check when it is up /down and the BBC to be able to prove it’s not them (or equally perform to prove that it is)

Having thrown away more time than is sane on using other IP audio links, we keep going back to ISDN (although using an AAC codec, not an ISDN voice codec) in work - this being a mid-sized radio group that happens to own Talksport*. Once you introduce any form of "dedicated" IP link that runs over the general internet you're asking for trouble with anything that's latency dependent. And they need to get connectivity in 24 stadia at least per year, all of which will have ISDN lines fitted but god knows what net connection.

I strongly suspect the ISDN link is not the cause of any of the issues.

*although I've nothing to do with them at all, GB/Island of Ireland groups are 100% operationally seperate.

 

[pauli cee]

I was thinking about this over the weekend (I have in the past fixed such things for a living albeit in the fraction of the timescales this has been going on for)

According to Insider, the broadcast is transmitted to Perform via ISDN from the BBC which is then hosted on a server by Perform so, to me, the problem is likely to be in one of 2 areas ;

1. The server hosting the content. This could be a number of things
a. Incorrect software patches
b. Incorrect network settings (speed / duplex) or just not enough bandwidth
c. A faulty server – If we knew the IP address of it, you could test this relatively straighforwardly during the next game or if other teams were hosted on the same server (i.e if the commentary went down but the IP address was still reachable, the server hardware is not at fault)
d. Some kind of concurrency limit incorrectly set (which is where my money is given it occurs more often at games with less away fans)

2. The feed from the BBC. ISDN is pretty reliable but isn’t exactly cutting edge technology. Given the low cost of dedicated bandwidth one could argue this should be in play. At the very least I’d expect more than one ISDN link with some kind of monitoring software on it to check when it is up /down and the BBC to be able to prove it’s not them (or equally perform to prove that it is)

3. Lastly, we could all have rubbish broadband connections and duff browsers and mobile phones. Obviously, this is what Perform think is the issue and have been saying so for years. FFS.

With a methodical test plan, you could get to the bottom of this quite easily and quickly.

As also you say, excellent letter Barber (but also about time)

my thoughts exactly.......

 

[Muzzy]

Did they really say 'let us know real quick'? Bloody hell!

Yup, The wording is exactly as I received it! Incredible!

 

[seagullsovergrimsby]

Just watch the 'extended' highlights of Saturday's game. The HQ option is a bit like viewing a game through a fish bowl. I've watched far far better streams.

As I've mentioned before there used to be 3 options - low , medium and high. This season there are only 2 options - low and high but the optimum quality is worse than what medium used to be. The club have been doing test streams on YouTube of the DS and U18s games which you can watch in proper HD quality.

 

[Iggle Piggle]

Having thrown away more time than is sane on using other IP audio links, we keep going back to ISDN (although using an AAC codec, not an ISDN voice codec) in work - this being a mid-sized radio group that happens to own Talksport*. Once you introduce any form of "dedicated" IP link that runs over the general internet you're asking for trouble with anything that's latency dependent. And they need to get connectivity in 24 stadia at least per year, all of which will have ISDN lines fitted but god knows what net connection.

I strongly suspect the ISDN link is not the cause of any of the issues.

*although I've nothing to do with them at all, GB/Island of Ireland groups are 100% operationally seperate.

After I posted it came to me that you would need bandwidth at each stadium as opposed to BBC offices. I had in mind a point to point circuit rather than DSL but 72 x charges for that are going to be too high. That said at the rate prices are coming down its possible long term.

My money is on some kind of incorrect infrastructure setting at the perform end.

 

[Seagull73]

I saw exactly who it was and the group contained several heavy NSC users and those who'd probably put themselves in the superfan category. Thought it was pathetic personally.

I think you will find it's the people who criticise them who put them in the 'superfan' category.

 

[Comedy Steve]

2. The feed from the BBC. ISDN is pretty reliable but isn’t exactly cutting edge technology.

It's rock solid reliable. In 3 years at the station using it to dial up other stations and unmanned studios it never failed once. I am pretty certain the feed from the BBC will be operating at 100%, 100% of the time.

 

[Acker79]

It's rock solid reliable. In 3 years at the station using it to dial up other stations and unmanned studios it never failed once. I am pretty certain the feed from the BBC will be operating at 100%, 100% of the time.

And aren't the club essentially saying they've ruled this out when they talk about listening to the feed all day?

 

[Lord Bracknell]

Whilst Paul Barber is doing his best, he gave the impression at the Amex gathering this evening that he's not very optimistic about getting the problems resolved.

 

[Green Cross Code Man]

As I've mentioned before there used to be 3 options - low , medium and high. This season there are only 2 options - low and high but the optimum quality is worse than what medium used to be. The club have been doing test streams on YouTube of the DS and U18s games which you can watch in proper HD quality.

This has been bothering me too. I don't often use the live stream but have subscribed as I enjoy the highlights. I wonder what justification they have for reducing the quality of service whilst keeping the same high prices?

 

[bigboyo0]

I signed up but stopped all the time sometimes ok but most of the time s--t

 

[Herr Tubthumper]

Whilst Paul Barber is doing his best, he gave the impression at the Amex gathering this evening that he's not very optimistic about getting the problems resolved.

If this is the case then he should pull the Albion from the deal. He cannot continue to promote or sell this product; it is utter utter shit. Sadly, I will be better off going out for the afternoon than enduring the frustration and disappointment engendered by Player.