New Cornell Athletics Website

[jtwcornell91]

[quote Scersk '97]Notice that ICS (Internet Consulting Services) is a local (Syracuse) company.  Syracuse, Colgate, Ithaca College, RPI, RIT, and Clarkson are some of their other clients.  One hopes that a local company will be more responsive to Athletic's needs.[/quote]

Are they in some way descended from i2sports?  (E.g., is Chris Fyall associated with them?)  I think I was happiest with the video service when they were doing it.  (Encoding technology was less advanced when Age did it, plus I never got the QT stream to work under Linux.)

Thank-you email to Jeremy Hartigan to follow...

[Al DeFlorio]

Eight days from the Bucknell kickoff and no new news about "RedCasts" on the web site.  Anyone heard anything more?

[CornellFan]

Al,

I have not heard anything.  What also bothers me is the potentially limited customer support.  CSTV offered 24 hour a day support if there was technical difficulty with the video/audio feed.  (I had to call just about each basketball game due to interruption in service)  I am not sure we can expect the same level of service from this new provider.  I am concerned about the lack of news/information from Cornell Athletics about RedCasts.

[Trotsky]

As of today, the site reads:

Cornell Redcasts

View or listen to many of your favorite Cornell sports with live streaming video and audio at home or at work on your computer. More information, including sports, events and subscription information will be available shortly.

[DeltaOne81]

[quote CornellFan]Al,

I have not heard anything.  What also bothers me is the potentially limited customer support.  CSTV offered 24 hour a day support if there was technical difficulty with the video/audio feed.  (I had to call just about each basketball game due to interruption in service)  I am not sure we can expect the same level of service from this new provider.  I am concerned about the lack of news/information from Cornell Athletics about RedCasts.[/quote]

By the end of the season, CSTV limited  their 'support' to a webform you filled out and hoped someone replied to you before you missed most of or the whole game.

Oh, and back when they did actually have a phone number you could call, the only answer I ever got was "oh, we're not carrying that game". Oh really? you mean in the middle of the 2nd period you decided not to carry it, huh?

[Jacob '06]

[quote DeltaOne81][quote CornellFan]Al,

I have not heard anything.  What also bothers me is the potentially limited customer support.  CSTV offered 24 hour a day support if there was technical difficulty with the video/audio feed.  (I had to call just about each basketball game due to interruption in service)  I am not sure we can expect the same level of service from this new provider.  I am concerned about the lack of news/information from Cornell Athletics about RedCasts.[/quote]

By the end of the season, CSTV limited  their 'support' to a webform you filled out and hoped someone replied to you before you missed most of or the whole game.

Oh, and back when they did actually have a phone number you could call, the only answer I ever got was "oh, we're not carrying that game". Oh really? you mean in the middle of the 2nd period you decided not to carry it, huh?[/quote]

Yeah, I think with a smaller set-up it is more likely that our feedback will actually make it to the people on-site and they can fix the problems. CSTV was all about not giving real answers and just reading the script.

[CornellFan]

CSTV did remove the phone number from their website, but I had the phone number at home (saved on my computer) and I used it the entire 2006-2007 basketball season and during the lax season--- calling on weekends and at night (sometimes at 9:30 pm) and always got a person on the phone-- and always had the problem(s) resolved within 15 minutes.  So.... the live customer support continued--- they just decided to hide from their customers by eliminating the phone number from the website!

I will post the CSTV customer support number on this board (when I find it at home) for future reference in case any of you decide to use CSTV for Cornell's road games.  

I tend to buy one month opponent subscriptions for Cornell basketball road games.

[DeltaOne81]

[quote CornellFan]So.... the live customer support continued--- they just decided to hide from their customers by eliminating the phone number from the website! [/quote]

Yeah, sounds like great customer service to me ::rolleyes:: (eye rolling not directed at you, but at CSTV).

Besides that, when video went down, CSTV was entirely powerless to help. All they could do was ask you to try a different browser or reload the plugin, even though 40 of us were all getting no video at the same time (after they got through their once-per-call lie about the game not being carried). They had absolutely no means of communication to the school to check on what was going on or even inform them.

That's why we had to set up informal chains of communication ourselves, such as calling or texting other eLFers who were in section C, so they could tell the camera guys, who could then figure out that a cable came unplugged (this is how it got fixed more than once).

Was the problem usually resolved within 15 minutes? Sure. Did it have anything to do with CSTV rather than just the Cornell employees at the school figuring it out on their own? I highly doubt it.

[CornellFan]

Actually, CSTV does not "control" the camera/audio quality.  When you complain to CSTV, they have a direct line to Ithaca and then upon getting CSTV's call, Cornell addresses the problem (usually some undergrads working the camera/microphones).

So, you are right-- CSTV does not itself resolve the issues-- but they do relay the problem to Cornell.  

Now the issue is.... what happens with this new service?  How do we contact Cornell if the audio or video fails?  Do we get refunds?  CSTV was very good at giving refunds when the service went to crap for more than 30 minutes.

I sure hope Cornell takes care of this problem before November's basketball season.

[jtwcornell91]

This sounds like a whole lot of FUD.  We know almost nothing about the new service and yet you're convinced the sky is falling on the customer service front.  OTOH, CSTV explicitly designed their webcast last year to work only on a single browser/OS combination, sticking their finger in the eye of Mac and Linux users.  At least we know the new system is supposed to work on a wider array of platforms.

[KP '06]

I just noticed this and haven't seen it posted elsewhere:
http://www.news.cornell.edu/stories/Sept07/SlopeMedia.da.html

Slope Media Group also has signed a deal with Cornell Big Red, the university's intercollegiate athletics department, to give viewers unlimited free access to online broadcasts of varsity sports games, pre-game events and interviews with players and fans.


Sports broadcasts begin with the first football game of the year against Bucknell University, Sept. 15 at 7 p.m., and future highlights include the Cornell vs. Duke basketball game on Jan. 6, 2008, from Durham, N.C.

Live broadcasts run 24 hours a day on Slope TV at http://slopetv.com/ and CUTV Channel 111, and on Slope Radio at http://sloperadio.com/, where more information on SMG and a complete listing of programming is available.

[Jacob '06]

[quote KP '06]I just noticed this and haven't seen it posted elsewhere:
http://www.news.cornell.edu/stories/Sept07/SlopeMedia.da.html

Slope Media Group also has signed a deal with Cornell Big Red, the university's intercollegiate athletics department, to give viewers unlimited free access to online broadcasts of varsity sports games, pre-game events and interviews with players and fans.


Sports broadcasts begin with the first football game of the year against Bucknell University, Sept. 15 at 7 p.m., and future highlights include the Cornell vs. Duke basketball game on Jan. 6, 2008, from Durham, N.C.

Live broadcasts run 24 hours a day on Slope TV at http://slopetv.com/ and CUTV Channel 111, and on Slope Radio at http://sloperadio.com/, where more information on SMG and a complete listing of programming is available.

[/quote]

Well it doesn't seem to have a fullscreen option on my macbook in firefox, but the flash video works. I don't think in their current state they are going to meet the bandwidth needs of a hockey game though.

[ebilmes]

Slope Media has been pretty disorganized this year. They've only been recruiting people for announcing/filming/producing sporting events over the last couple weeks, so it seems unlikely that they'd have a strong operation in place for the fall sports.

I'd really like to see Athletics produce their own feed.

[DeltaOne81]

[quote CornellFan]Actually, CSTV does not "control" the camera/audio quality.  When you complain to CSTV, they have a direct line to Ithaca and then upon getting CSTV's call, Cornell addresses the problem (usually some undergrads working the camera/microphones).[/quote]

They did? Coulda fooled the heck outta me. When whole football quarters or lacrosse quarters were missed they told me repeatedly that they had no way to contact the school, and often recommended that I call the school myself! (on a Saturday afternoon/evening? at what number exactly?? I went to far as to try to reach main numbers of WHCU on my own with little luck)

So, you are right-- CSTV does not itself resolve the issues-- but they do relay the problem to Cornell.

Again, they told me multiple times that they had no way to relay it to the school and that it wasn't their problem, but the school's issue.

Between this and your comment about how CSTV issued refunds easily (holy heck, do you know how many people around here fought for refunds and were unable to get them?!?), I have to wonder who at CSTV you were sleeping with

Now the issue is.... what happens with this new service?  How do we contact Cornell if the audio or video fails?

I agree with JTW, this is FUD. It may have been before your time around here, but we've had a small company running it before (i2sports) and they were very responsive to problems and called the cameramen or sports staff directly. Why are you assuming that another smaller outfit can't run it the same way?

I sure hope Cornell takes care of this problem before November's basketball season.

They did... they got rid of CSTV :-P

[billhoward]

CSTV never gave much in the way of customer support, but it was 24/7 non-support.