Spark Sport: Rugby World Cup 2019

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'That VDSL Cat'
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#2322754 22-Sep-2019 17:01

freitasm: I hope people try the streaming service again tonight, instead of going direct to FTA. People worked hard for this to work, so it is worth putting some faith in them.

Very much agree, even if it's just playing in the background (like it is here) still good for a test.

i never actually watched how the traffic on chromecast plays while live, it's actually load balanced over both my connections, randomly hopping between endpoints (pretty much every time i pegged the line causing contention)

Quite impressed with how it seamlessly does that.

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HamishO

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#2322764 22-Sep-2019 17:11

Even when the Spark Sports service is 'working' (like during the earlier 2 games yesterday night) my family and I all think that the quality is notably worse than on Sky (satellite, never used their streaming service). I can see very obvious compression artifacts whenever the camera pans zoomed out, most obvious on the railing at the bottom of the far grandstand. The ball motion also looks pretty bad whenever it gets kicked, which might not be helped by the low frame rate we seem to be getting. The quality is simply not good enough in my opinion (even putting aside the AB game where things were totally screwed).

The quality also gets randomly better and worse as Spark's algorithm moves us between the different streams. Just before I had a play with the unofficial add-on for Kodi that lets you select the 1080p50 stream explicitly, but even then the quality is still sub-par. I am using a Sony Android TV with a ethernet connection to 100/20 Fibre with Spark. But I have also tested on my Windows PC in Chrome, and neither the quality or luck getting onto a higher-res stream is any better there.

We will absolutely be watching tonight's game on Duke, like we did for the 2nd half last night. The picture quality is just so far ahead, even ignoring the risk of it getting really bad like last night. Not to mention you can quickly flick back and forth to other channels during half-time and pre-match.

I'm curious if anyone else feels similarly? I've pretty much only see people complaining about the major problems last night, but assuming that's a fixable problem on Spark's end it seems to me that the low stream quality in general is an even bigger issue. I do not get the impression that Spark is working on an solution for this problem.

gehenna

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#2322765 22-Sep-2019 17:12

sm1ff:
for those people that think spark sports has better picture quality, i disagree with all of you.

You can't disagree with facts.

Oh wait, it's still 2019 isn't it...

freitasm

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#2322769 22-Sep-2019 17:15

Gone live on Spark Sport app now. Italy vs Namibia.

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NickMack

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#2322773 22-Sep-2019 17:18

Jiriteach:

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

Awesome to hear. My 2degrees fibre connection in Wellington performed really well last night. Was rock solid. Issues I experienced in quality were nothing to do with my connection.

Great! I’ll preface by stating these are my comments, not my employers, this is a simplification to provide some background 😊.

I appreciated that some may not care and have the expectation that streaming of the RWC should just work (which it should), but I thought I’d provide some context on some the complexities of streaming an event like this.

Streaming has a few more moving parts than that of the more traditional satellite services we consume today via SkyTV.

The same work goes into recording of content from multiple camera angles, production to munge the content into something useful, then delivery for consumption. Satellite delivery of this content is quick in comparison (lower latency) and direct to a dish/set top box.

For steaming, once production is complete it is delivered to Akamai caches for the redistribution of content. i.e.: Sparksport (or whoever) effectively upload it to a source CDN (cache) and the caching network is supposed to take care of the rest, replicating where appropriate. Most providers have a bunch of these caches in various locations across the country, determined by rules of the CDN provider (like number of subscribers). Some smaller providers leverage the caches of larger providers through their wholesaling agreements as it doesn’t make commercial sense for providers like Akamai to spend the money on tin for smaller providers.

Once it’s on a local cache, Subscribers access content from a BNG (subscriber termination) on the RSPs network. BNG’s have handovers to copper/fibre providers (e.g.: Chorus, Enable, UFF) as well as plumbing into the wider provider network. Providers pay and choose the level of redundancy/resiliency they think is best for them and manage capacity as they see fit. Provider networks then have a bunch of BNGs/network elements that are connected via backhaul capacity (hopefully with good redundancy, resiliency and smart decisions around capacity/QOS etc.) to other network nodes. Then there’s connectivity to the outside world for National & International transit. Choosing the right level of resiliency/redundancy/capacity is an important decision, all providers aren’t the same in terms of quality and ultimately cost.

Fixed (xDSL/Fibre) customers pay for a plan based on usage/cost for a specific speed which is dedicated to them. Fibre is obviously more predictable than copper which has other complexities such as distance from cabinet/exchange (signal loss) and therefore a more variable speed.

This is also a little different on a mobile network side where it’s shared bandwidth. i.e.: The more people connecting to a cell site, the more people you are potentially sharing the capacity/RF with.

Depending on how well you are connected, determines the quality of the encoded content you receive, i.e.: If you’re on a 900/400 plan you should be served up the best quality available vs. a mobile device requesting the same content.

The next consideration is the end router (All aren’t created equal), potentially leveraging ethernet or wifi and the viewing device/app – Set top box (Apple TV, Roku), Smart TV’s, Chromecast etc.

Streaming is the future, although this experience may not be delivering to design/expectation, it can be quick to improve and it will get there. If you had told a kid 20 years ago that videos (VHS) would be delivered over a phoneline and wouldn’t exist, they would have thought you were bonkers.

Nick.

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Hemi88

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#2322774 22-Sep-2019 17:20

I’ve got duke and spark sport running side by side and it looks identical to me a part from the 20 second delay

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#2322775 22-Sep-2019 17:22

@hio77 & @freitasm I agree.. I will be using my appleTV again tonight..

@freitasm can you create a survey page on Geetzone that asks

date
device
ISP
Fibre/VDSL/ADSL
Optional speed if known
Experience, eg fine/odd low quality/mostly low quality/breakup

so we can see if we can see where problems are

Dean

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#2322787 22-Sep-2019 17:37

gehenna:
sm1ff:
for those people that think spark sports has better picture quality, i disagree with all of you.

You can't disagree with facts.

Oh wait, it's still 2019 isn't it...

How'd you reach the conclusion, your opinion, that Spark Sport is better quality than sky Sport 😬

Tracer

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#2322788 22-Sep-2019 17:44

huckster:

Up until the AB game - all fine with me. Chrome on Wifi'd Laptop, HDMI to TV (ISP - Spark, Fibre - Akl).

In the AB game around 10 periods of short buffering (up to 5 seconds) followed by a lower resolution for no more than 2-3 seconds. Rest of it and last 20 minutes or so was perfect.

Never thought of changing to Duke.

That's identical to my experience. 2degrees gigabit fibre, hardwired to AppleTV 4. I am not using 2d DNS which is a black mark against me. I'll probably set up a vlan just for the ATV before the next ABs game.

Hemi88: 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

Yep, quite clearly higher quality, which makes sense given it's higher resolution and progressive scan rather than interlaced.

surfisup1000:

Spark should never have been given the rights.

Strong disagree. Streaming is the way, and Sky was not in a position to deliver. Their streaming history with Sky Go was and is far, far worse than what Spark has delivered so far. This is the first WC I have bothered to watch at home because the package Spark offered (one off $60) is reasonable, whereas 12 month subscription at $80+/mo was definitely not reasonable for previous editions.

hio77

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#2322789 22-Sep-2019 17:45

Crowbar:
gehenna:
sm1ff:

for those people that think spark sports has better picture quality, i disagree with all of you.

You can't disagree with facts.

Oh wait, it's still 2019 isn't it...

How'd you reach the conclusion, your opinion, that Spark Sport is better quality than sky Sport 😬

Personally i see much the same SS is better than sky. slightly. even my family has commented, which tells me it's not just me being picky..

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kharris

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#2322790 22-Sep-2019 17:45

freitasm: I hope people try the streaming service again tonight, instead of going direct to FTA. People worked hard for this to work, so it is worth putting some faith in them.

I agree but I don’t think tonight’s stream will be a good indication. We will have to wait 10 days for the next all blacks match to see that many people watching.

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Damager

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#2322801 22-Sep-2019 18:04

On SS. Namibia v Italy looks fine. No issues whatsoever. Will see how the next 2 games go.

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#2322802 22-Sep-2019 18:04

attewell:

@hio77 & @freitasm I agree.. I will be using my appleTV again tonight..

@freitasm can you create a survey page on Geetzone that asks

date
device
ISP
Fibre/VDSL/ADSL
Optional speed if known
Experience, eg fine/odd low quality/mostly low quality/breakup

so we can see if we can see where problems are

Dean

Wouldn't it also be good to know if cabled or wifi - and if wifi, how GOOD their wifi generally is @ the streaming device?

gehenna

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#2322804 22-Sep-2019 18:07

Crowbar:
gehenna:
sm1ff:
for those people that think spark sports has better picture quality, i disagree with all of you.

You can't disagree with facts.

Oh wait, it's still 2019 isn't it...

How'd you reach the conclusion, your opinion, that Spark Sport is better quality than sky Sport 😬

The resolution is 1080p not 1080i.

Crowbar

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#2322805 22-Sep-2019 18:15

gehenna:
Crowbar:
gehenna:
sm1ff:
for those people that think spark sports has better picture quality, i disagree with all of you.

You can't disagree with facts.

Oh wait, it's still 2019 isn't it...

How'd you reach the conclusion, your opinion, that Spark Sport is better quality than sky Sport 😬

The resolution is 1080p not 1080i.

🙃 There are so many factors.

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