Spark Sport: Rugby World Cup 2019

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Master Geek
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#2322679 22-Sep-2019 14:53

When sparksport is working at full resolution to me it is night and day compared to sky sport the last 20 minutes last night for me looked awesome

psychnurse

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#2322680 22-Sep-2019 14:54

gehenna:

Bobdn:

"But as a sports fan, I know the picture on Spark Sport is not as good as it would be on Sky."

But if the Spark picture was consistently working as it should (and can), it is better quality than Sky's broadcast because it's progressive instead of interlaced. That guy you've quoted is incorrect. Not surprising NZ Herald is publishing inaccuracies though, just to stoke the fires.

And Sky give you warning about rain fade, sun spots, snow on your dish. So you at least have the heads up. The future IMO is streaming it just wasn't Sparks time.

BlakJak

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#2322681 22-Sep-2019 14:54

BarTender: Disappointed that Spark blinked. Yes some people had problems just like some Sky customers get rain fade.
Did customers who streamed via Chromecast with a decent WiFi coverage between all three devices? I didn't see any issues via Twitter when I was searching.
Did Netflix or Google launch day one supporting all devices, no. I think Spark Sports underestimated the complexity of multiple different TVs and their differences plus supporting desktop computers and the weird and wonderful way they can behave.

And why shouldn't they blink? Now is not the time to experiment. Now is the time to ensure their customers get the experience they pay for.. or it'll be a disaster for them.

Credit for going as far as they have, but why overlook a perfectly valid method of media distribution due to a technical challenge they're not sure they've solved yet?

No signature to see here, move along...

kiwifidget

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#2322682 22-Sep-2019 14:54

The trouble is that Spark promised bigger and better, to the point where our expectations were high, and then by under-delivering we have felt majorly let down.

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freitasm

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#2322683 22-Sep-2019 14:59

BlakJak: And why shouldn't they blink? Now is not the time to experiment. Now is the time to ensure their customers get the experience they pay for.. or it'll be a disaster for them. Credit for going as far as they have, but why overlook a perfectly valid method of media distribution due to a technical challenge they're not sure they've solved yet?

"Blinked" here is in the sense that they could have been conservative and sold the service as Chromecast plus DishTV A2 plus smartphones only. Smart TVs are a gamble because the vast majority are underpowered. And some are not even Android TV OS so you can count they won't be as well supported.

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kiwifidget

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#2322684 22-Sep-2019 15:01

Has there been any instructions on how to claim the partial refund?

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dfnt

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#2322686 22-Sep-2019 15:04

Be interesting to hear how ISP's are finding their own networks are coping. I know Spark will be smoke and mirrors but 2degrees are usually transparent about these things @NickMack?

On Spark Fibre I didn't have any slow down for anything outside the RWC which was good to see

NickMack

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#2322689 22-Sep-2019 15:11

dfnt:
Be interesting to hear how ISP's are finding their own networks are coping. I know Spark will be smoke and mirrors but 2degrees are usually transparent about these things @NickMack?

From our side - really good, I have a post mortem meeting tomorrow morning to go through in more detail, however high level reports were excellent - We saw a bunch more load on akamai caches, both fixed and mobile networks performed as we expected and auxiliary services like DNS, radius etc were as planned for/expected. This should be a gimme IMHO - I suspect viewership will grow towards the end of the campaign which is when things will be pushed harder I suspect.

Nick

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01EG

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#2322690 22-Sep-2019 15:13

A bit late but

Vodafone 900/100 plan

LG C8 OLED - especially bought for RWC2019 promised by Spark there is to be a app for it, so kind of waste

SmartVU SU-10 - ethernet connected

Welligton CBD

Open ceremony and 3 previous games were OK

AB vs SA was really terrible

dfnt

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#2322692 22-Sep-2019 15:22

NickMack:
dfnt:

Be interesting to hear how ISP's are finding their own networks are coping. I know Spark will be smoke and mirrors but 2degrees are usually transparent about these things @NickMack?

From our side - really good, I have a post mortem meeting tomorrow morning to go through in more detail, however high level reports were excellent - We saw a bunch more load on akamai caches, both fixed and mobile networks performed as we expected and auxiliary services like DNS, radius etc were as planned for/expected. This should be a gimme IMHO - I suspect viewership will grow towards the end of the campaign which is when things will be pushed harder I suspect.

Nick

Nice, good to hear the infrastructure investment is paying off

Bobdn

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#2322693 22-Sep-2019 15:23

Anyway, as I said I do wonder if Spark should reach out to Sky to help get a solution. Sky is the expert here and Sky's platform has been rock solid. Even though they're competitors, this is the Rugby World Cup we're talking about. It could be a nice moment in NZ's corporate history and make the world "a better place" (with a nod to 1997 Apple and Microsoft)

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Mahon

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#2322697 22-Sep-2019 15:27

NickMack:
dfnt:

Be interesting to hear how ISP's are finding their own networks are coping. I know Spark will be smoke and mirrors but 2degrees are usually transparent about these things @NickMack?

From our side - really good, I have a post mortem meeting tomorrow morning to go through in more detail, however high level reports were excellent - We saw a bunch more load on akamai caches, both fixed and mobile networks performed as we expected and auxiliary services like DNS, radius etc were as planned for/expected. This should be a gimme IMHO - I suspect viewership will grow towards the end of the campaign which is when things will be pushed harder I suspect.

Nick

On 2 Degrees 100/20 fibre and it with much happiness I can report a perfect streaming experience. I can only guess that a lot of it is to do with the investment 2 degrees has recently made.

dfnt

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#2322698 22-Sep-2019 15:28

Bobdn:

Anyway, as I said I do wonder if Spark should reach out to Sky to help get a solution. Sky is the expert here and Sky's platform has been rock solid. Even though they're competitors, this is the Rugby World Cup we're talking about. It could be a nice moment in NZ's corporate history and make the world "a better place" (with a nod to 1997 Apple and Microsoft)

I'm not sure, Sky are experts in providing content via satellite. I'm not really sure they're the best company to help in an internet age, especially when John Fellet was in charge

SS should have looked at a mature streaming platform like Kayo in Australia (even though Kayo is still young) their interface and quality is miles ahead of Spark Sport

BarTender

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#2322699 22-Sep-2019 15:30

freitasm:

BlakJak: And why shouldn't they blink? Now is not the time to experiment. Now is the time to ensure their customers get the experience they pay for.. or it'll be a disaster for them. Credit for going as far as they have, but why overlook a perfectly valid method of media distribution due to a technical challenge they're not sure they've solved yet?

"Blinked" here is in the sense that they could have been conservative and sold the service as Chromecast plus DishTV A2 plus smartphones only. Smart TVs are a gamble because the vast majority are underpowered. And some are not even Android TV OS so you can count they won't be as well supported.

And also told customers with a "Test my connection" feature within the App + Chromecast / DishTV box to make sure the connection is up to it, and not using non ISP DNS servers as that will mean you won't be served from a local Akamai CDN due to how the service works. Checking wireless coverage and speeds etc. Sending the test results back to SparkSport for CSRs to know what is happening on the client side. Prompting the customer each time they start if they haven't bothered to test the connection, or if the IP address changes.

Also the weirdness of supporting desktop machines means that all sorts of idiosyncratic issues arise with streaming HD content especially if it is from a browse with random plugins on a machine running who knows what background applications. Prompting to say have you turned off any cloud backup software so it doesn't go an saturate the upstream that will prevent the TCP stream from functioning properly.

To me it was all about maintaining control and keeping the problem surface as small as possible. So while I have no doubt people would have been rather grumpy about "having to buy a Chromecast when my $3k TV is brand new and runs Netflix just fine bla bla bla" my response would have been "well do you want to watch the sports stream without a problem or not"

gehenna

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#2322702 22-Sep-2019 15:41

NickMack:
From our side - really good, I have a post mortem meeting tomorrow morning to go through in more detail, however high level reports were excellent - We saw a bunch more load on akamai caches, both fixed and mobile networks performed as we expected and auxiliary services like DNS, radius etc were as planned for/expected. This should be a gimme IMHO - I suspect viewership will grow towards the end of the campaign which is when things will be pushed harder I suspect.

Nick

My torrents haven't been impinged by the extra traffic so far, so /thumbsup

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