Hockey webcasts - why is RPI so good?

[billhoward]

Maybe it's because they're an engineering school and have pride in quality of the technology: The RPI webcast from the ECAC first round in Troy was amazingly good, pretty much on par with standard definition TV, plus multiple camera angles. It's a reminder you have to be a serious, diehard Cornell fan to watch our modest webcast efforts. RPI hockey is like TV that's coincidentally broadcast over the Web; Cornell hockey is like a high school science experiment whose entrant gets the smallest ribbon, the one that says "proud participant."

[marty]

Maybe it's because they're an engineering school and have pride in quality of the technology: The RPI webcast from the ECAC first round in Troy was amazingly good, pretty much on par with standard definition TV, plus multiple camera angles. It's a reminder you have to be a serious, diehard Cornell fan to watch our modest webcast efforts. RPI hockey is like TV that's coincidentally broadcast over the Web; Cornell hockey is like a high school science experiment whose entrant gets the smallest ribbon, the one that says "proud participant."

Too bad Harvard doesn't have a student run webcast.  It could be a senior honors project.  I predict an A+ .

[billhoward]

You think a Harvard student webcast would be so good it would merit an A+? Oh, wait, you said it would get an A+.

[ScrewBU]

The answer is surprisingly simple.  They are using all free and open source technologies (their website uses Flowplayer, for example), they have engineering students that have a basic level of competence and common sense that actually care about people watching the game.

Contrast this to RedCrap, who created their own proprietary "platform" (SideArm,) and are completely and utterly incompetent to the point where they blame any shortcomings on their users.  That sad, stuttering, inexcusable slideshow of a broadcast last week was the nadir of what you can expect from these retards.  That they would not only blame it on the people that are paying them money but also make sure to remind them that they are lucky to have anything at all because they are losing money only goes to show you the gall of these money grubbing a-holes.

These morons that are running the show right now are bilking money from people and can't even keep up with other schools free services.  Their entire existence is based on taking our money ahead of time, and doing nothing.  Hold them accountable, threaten a class action, see what happens.  These shysters would skip town and run away with their tiny penises between their legs before we had a chance to get refunds.   Unfortunately they are probably smart enough to be nameless, faceless cowards, so they will just move on to their next scam, but at least it won't be us. Hopefully they will just drop dead.

[upperdeck]

isnt sidearm just using basic flash embedding on the client end?  it all starts with how the feed gets from the school to the provider. are the other schools using sidearm complaining?  I know for example the feed for the SU games is better than the feed for the cornell ones. I think some of that is because SU is using the tv feeds for most games, better cameras better looking result.

[andyw2100]

That they would not only blame it on the people that are paying them money but also make sure to remind them that they are lucky to have anything at all because they are losing money only goes to show you the gall of these money grubbing a-holes.

Hopefully they will just drop dead.

Don't hold back. Tell us how you really feel!

[Jim Hyla]

The answer is surprisingly simple.  They are using all free and open source technologies (their website uses Flowplayer, for example), they have engineering students that have a basic level of competence and common sense that actually care about people watching the game.

Contrast this to RedCrap, who created their own proprietary "platform" (SideArm,) and are completely and utterly incompetent to the point where they blame any shortcomings on their users.  That sad, stuttering, inexcusable slideshow of a broadcast last week was the nadir of what you can expect from these retards.  That they would not only blame it on the people that are paying them money but also make sure to remind them that they are lucky to have anything at all because they are losing money only goes to show you the gall of these money grubbing a-holes.

These morons that are running the show right now are bilking money from people and can't even keep up with other schools free services.  Their entire existence is based on taking our money ahead of time, and doing nothing.  Hold them accountable, threaten a class action, see what happens.  These shysters would skip town and run away with their tiny penises between their legs before we had a chance to get refunds.   Unfortunately they are probably smart enough to be nameless, faceless cowards, so they will just move on to their next scam, but at least it won't be us. Hopefully they will just drop dead.

Well, I guess I know where you stand. On the other hand, I have been able to watch lax, bball, women's hockey, and more (I watched more football, if you can call it that, on internet than in person this year). I'm sure we could get better quality, but you have to also be ready to do everything.

[ScrewBU]

The answer is surprisingly simple.  They are using all free and open source technologies (their website uses Flowplayer, for example), they have engineering students that have a basic level of competence and common sense that actually care about people watching the game.

Contrast this to RedCrap, who created their own proprietary "platform" (SideArm,) and are completely and utterly incompetent to the point where they blame any shortcomings on their users.  That sad, stuttering, inexcusable slideshow of a broadcast last week was the nadir of what you can expect from these retards.  That they would not only blame it on the people that are paying them money but also make sure to remind them that they are lucky to have anything at all because they are losing money only goes to show you the gall of these money grubbing a-holes.

These morons that are running the show right now are bilking money from people and can't even keep up with other schools free services.  Their entire existence is based on taking our money ahead of time, and doing nothing.  Hold them accountable, threaten a class action, see what happens.  These shysters would skip town and run away with their tiny penises between their legs before we had a chance to get refunds.   Unfortunately they are probably smart enough to be nameless, faceless cowards, so they will just move on to their next scam, but at least it won't be us. Hopefully they will just drop dead.

Well, I guess I know where you stand. On the other hand, I have been able to watch lax, bball, women's hockey, and more (I watched more football, if you can call it that, on internet than in person this year). I'm sure we could get better quality, but you have to also be ready to do everything.

Why?  I didn't pay for the all sports package, I paid for the hockey package only.  It's great that they offer multiple sports but my $$$ was for hockey only and I'm not paying for them to subsidize other sports.  I wasn't aware they are a charity.  If they're losing money because of that, they can 1) charge more for each sport so they don't lose money, or 2) go out of business.  Businesses that can't make money should go out of business.

Also, you're sidestepping the issue that even for a single sport, a free (student run) service is offering something with a higher quality than a for profit.  How is it that the quality of a single sport is LESS for a paid services than a FREE service?  Specifically I'm talking about things like the graininess and the oversaturated, whiter than holy f-ing white crapola they show now.  There's just no excuse for those things, even given the multiple sport issue.

They are textbook shysters.  They take your money, they don't deliver what they promised, they blame you when there are problems, and then when you back them into a corner they say they aren't making any money anyway and you're lucky to have them.  Sorry, no refunds.  The only remaining thing for them to do is to disappear when someone sues them.  That's these cowards MO and they should as I made it clear before drop dead (and go home.)

[ScrewBU]

The answer is surprisingly simple.  They are using all free and open source technologies (their website uses Flowplayer, for example), they have engineering students that have a basic level of competence and common sense that actually care about people watching the game.

Contrast this to RedCrap, who created their own proprietary "platform" (SideArm,) and are completely and utterly incompetent to the point where they blame any shortcomings on their users.  That sad, stuttering, inexcusable slideshow of a broadcast last week was the nadir of what you can expect from these retards.  That they would not only blame it on the people that are paying them money but also make sure to remind them that they are lucky to have anything at all because they are losing money only goes to show you the gall of these money grubbing a-holes.

These morons that are running the show right now are bilking money from people and can't even keep up with other schools free services.  Their entire existence is based on taking our money ahead of time, and doing nothing.  Hold them accountable, threaten a class action, see what happens.  These shysters would skip town and run away with their tiny penises between their legs before we had a chance to get refunds.   Unfortunately they are probably smart enough to be nameless, faceless cowards, so they will just move on to their next scam, but at least it won't be us. Hopefully they will just drop dead.

Well, I guess I know where you stand. On the other hand, I have been able to watch lax, bball, women's hockey, and more (I watched more football, if you can call it that, on internet than in person this year). I'm sure we could get better quality, but you have to also be ready to do everything.

Oh, also, as much as I'd like to blame them for the football team, unfortunately I don't think that's a quality issue they can fix.

[billhoward]

Thanks for sharing. Consider this possibility: The commercial webcast is everything you've said, and nobody's gettting rich. The potential is there but not the money in 2010. I bet annual subscribers to Redcast number in the very small thousands out of a quarter million living Cornell alumni. The near term money is to build out a site that doesn't suck, gets carried by a hundred universities, and then gets bought by a commercial broadcast/cable much as CSTV did on the cable side.

[ScrewBU]

Thanks for sharing. Consider this possibility: The commercial webcast is everything you've said, and nobody's gettting rich. The potential is there but not the money in 2010. I bet annual subscribers to Redcast number in the very small thousands out of a quarter million living Cornell alumni. The near term money is to build out a site that doesn't suck, gets carried by a hundred universities, and then gets bought by a commercial broadcast/cable much as CSTV did on the cable side.

I understand and agree about the business side, and I do think that having such a large number of sports available is nice.  Believe me, nothing would make me happier than having the "Big Red Network."

The part I don't agree with is the "building out a site that doesn't suck."  The things that are wrong with their streams---graininess, compression artifacts, washed out colors, audio that's a mile away, aren't things that cost any money at all to get right.  They do a decent job with the hard part, getting the streams up and running (with some notable exceptions) but the really basic stuff, the stuff that RPI's student TV organization can do, they somehow can't?  These are basic things that anyone who's ever tried to stream something runs into, and figures them out.  It's just abject laziness.

Also, another big no-no for a company that's trying to grow themselves out is treating their customers they way they do. For example, last saturday a bunch of people emailed them to tell them the broadcast was stuttering, and everyone got the same "check your computer, it's fine on our end."  I could go on and on but if you use them, you know what I mean.

CSTV is a great example of how to do it right.  They started small, but you could tell they really cared about what they were doing.  I remember the Harvard game from a couple years ago where they did a pre-game, they showed the fish being thrown out onto the ice, Dave Starman was doing commentary and could barely talk because of the atmosphere.  

Anyway, my point is there was genuine interest, and it's no surprise they were bought out.  As noble as the cause, I can't get behind ICS because I don't think their services are up to snuff, and I certainly don't think their business practices should be rewarded.

[upperdeck]

the bigger issue is that Cornell needs to care enough to make sure its done right. the athletic dept as a whole  does things over and over that really make you wonder if anyone up there gets it. it starts with scheduling games to start at the same time, running the golf course into the ground, marketing poorly, a lousy web site and then add to it not caring about making sure a product like this is up to snuff..

[ScrewBU]

the bigger issue is that Cornell needs to care enough to make sure its done right. the athletic dept as a whole  does things over and over that really make you wonder if anyone up there gets it. it starts with scheduling games to start at the same time, running the golf course into the ground, marketing poorly, a lousy web site and then add to it not caring about making sure a product like this is up to snuff..

Abso-freaking-lutely.   One other thing to add to that list is ticket sales.  I've personally been told by the ticket office that there were tickets available for a game but that I couldn't purchase them ahead of time and the only way I could get them was to show up in person on the day of the game.  Not a big deal if you live in Ithaca I guess, but when you're travelling from NYC with a group of 4-5 people, that's not really an option.   Talk about not getting it---these people were NoDak fans that wanted to see Lynah because they had heard so much about it, and I can't help but think it took a little away from the experience that that was what they were told (as was I.)

[klumpmypants]

the bigger issue is that Cornell needs to care enough to make sure its done right. the athletic dept as a whole  does things over and over that really make you wonder if anyone up there gets it. it starts with scheduling games to start at the same time, running the golf course into the ground, marketing poorly, a lousy web site and then add to it not caring about making sure a product like this is up to snuff..

Abso-freaking-lutely.   One other thing to add to that list is ticket sales.  I've personally been told by the ticket office that there were tickets available for a game but that I couldn't purchase them ahead of time and the only way I could get them was to show up in person on the day of the game.  Not a big deal if you live in Ithaca I guess, but when you're travelling from NYC with a group of 4-5 people, that's not really an option.   Talk about not getting it---these people were NoDak fans that wanted to see Lynah because they had heard so much about it, and I can't help but think it took a little away from the experience that that was what they were told (as was I.)

As a member of the media, I agree with all of this.  I cover games in the ECAC for USCHO and after I had the gall to hold up the Cornell press conference after the Yale game because I wanted to speak to two Yale players before they got on the bus after their win, SID Kevin Zeise has denied further credential requests from me.  It's not like I write some blog that only a few people read.  They have decided to shut out coverage from college hockey's undisputed news leader.  It is pathetic.  Cornell is all about themselves.  They capitalize on the popularity of their hockey team by fleecing their fan base because they know they can.  No one is going anywhere else on Friday and Saturday nights.

[armena]

The answer is surprisingly simple. They are using all free and open source technologies (their website uses Flowplayer, for example), they have engineering students that have a basic level of competence and common sense that actually care about people watching the game.

It's true that we at RPI TV use free and open source technologies, but we also create a number of them. Our members have developed technologies such as video scoreboard displays (http://sourceforge.net/projects/hockeyboard/) and multi-camera instant replay systems (http://github.com/asquared/openreplay), and released them as open source software. We really appreciate the positive feedback, and we will continue to do everything possible to provide the best possible broadcasts for you, the viewers.

Andrew Armenia
RPI TV Member
Openreplay Developer