Streaming problems

[SASCHA]

Just curious as to whether anyone had problems with the live streaming this afternoon, because I did.

[Notters]

It was rubbish in the first half, to put it politely. It is a real shame, because a lot of hard work has been done by the club, fans, volunteers and sponsors to get this game played and we were let down by bad coverage. Second half was much better.

Hopefully, this won't become our new normal at the start of next season.

[Beau Nash]

Almost everything about the day was bad:  team selection wrong; performance poor for most of the game; from the many complaints on FB, Twitter and MatchChat the BT streaming didn't work for most.

The coverage on BCIR was excellent from Andrew and Q; it will be interesting to see the "extended highlights" from Dave.

[comrade powell]

I have complained to Sport Radar, asking what was causing the cuts out during the first half. I received a reply suggesting there was something wrong with the device I was using as they had monitored the coverage and detected no problems! I replied by copying him the link to the Supporters Facebook Group.

[A36]

Definitely not device related.  My son and I were watching, on opposite sides of the Atlantic, and yet, each time the stream froze for one of us, it froze for the other at exactly the same time.  This happened several times in each half.  For quite a while in the first half, there was no coverage at all, just a screen showing some text (see below), after which when the stream returned, it had lost its score and time caption for the rest of the game.

[Midsomer-chris]

I was glad to be able to see the match live. I was a good idea, but the service was not good. My screen froze just after Dorking scored their first goal. I waited to see if it would come back. I came out of the website and went back in to see if that made any difference. I lost the action on three separate occasions . . . . which totalled about ten minutes.

I was not happy with the commentary on there so I turned the sound down and listened to the commentary on the Bath City Internet radio. I preferred that although they were ahead of the filmed action . . . . . so when the filming had frozen it had actually ceased to be live !

[LB]

I don't think we should have been surprised that the streaming was poor when the National League were involved in it! Seriously though, how could Sport Radar seriously say it was a device issue - at one point even the commentators made reference to the feed going down. I think I saw on twitter that there was also a problem during the Slough/Dartford coverage.

The commentary certainly made me appreciate BCIR even more!

[comrade powell]

Re coverage of the Slough match, one of their fans posted on the NLS forum...

  Don't know how it was for others but the stream quality was really poor. Certainly not HD most of the time and it cut out on multiple occassions.      

[turnstyle13]

I was impressed that sportsradar had managed to get Dick van Dyke to step into his Mary Poppins character to do the summarisers job in. He seemed to be a little ‘one-eyed’ in favour of Dorking.
And it wasn’t live. From our end of Freeview Rd you could hear cheers and noise from the ground when nothing was happening on the screen. By the time of the pen the time lapse was about 3mins.

[SASCHA]

Well I want my money back, end of

[stillmanjunior]

And so you should - I hope you are refunded.

If a company decides to cover a big game like this you need a bit of notice to work out the logistics. You don't make the decision about a week before and decide to charge people with no idea on whether streaming could even work. You should try and gain access beforehand and do a trial, anything. And if there's a chance it could fail, you have a back-up plan sharpish. We had an incident, at Dorking ironically, where the BCIR laptop wouldn't start. We tried it for about 45 minutes and it became obvious it wouldn't work. Fortunately in such situations we have two back-ups - either use another laptop (mine) with the software or, at last case scenario, use phones. Same if the Internet signal ever goes for us, we'd probably use my phone as a personal hotspot. And that's for a free broadcast. I know we've had times where it has gone down, sometimes we're aware, sometimes not, but when you're providing a service you do everything in your power to make sure that doesn't happen.

You also don't give three days notice that you need commentators for this. They clearly thought "so what if they're rubbish? It'll be a good laugh, only non-league after all." I feared they'd try and turn it into some sort of fanzone commentary and Joe is miles better than that. The audience was going to be largely Bath City and Dorking Wanderers fans so you need a neutral view on both. If one is too partisan it'll become a difficult watch - fine if it's on a red button as some sort of Gogglebox alternative but not as a main commentary. Maybe some people enjoyed it yesterday, Joe said to me he had no problems with the Dorking person, but there has been a lot of criticism.

The National League need to take a good look at themselves over this upcoming break about the way they present themselves but there's absolutely no chance that will happen. We'll start again in September/October with the same hopeless website with inaccuracies, social media with more intent to rile people than encourage debate and them making more demands of volunteers with little appreciation. I expect in the background there are some decent people working there doing good jobs - you wouldn't think of it online.

[pete mac]

Is there an address to complain to re Sportradar?

Just watched Jerry’s interview.

Glad he has focussed on physicality.

Every successful Bath City team had A combative physical core. We get the centre back, battling midfield enforcer and target man to hang the skilful football around we win.

We need to back Jerry again next year. None of us want a 3rd year feeling mugged.

[A36]

Just watched Dave's edited highlights of the game on YouTube. The whole presentation was a different class from the Sport Radar stream, a stream that has still not been fixed, if you try to view the re-live stream from Sport Radar it jumps around and is incomplete. So, excellent work again from Dave, if only we had been allowed that standard of coverage yesterday. The Conference have really let us down with this decision.

[comrade powell]

Is there an address to complain to re Sportradar?

Pete, if you log back into the site and click on your profile you’ll see the Contact option. After my complaint yesterday they got back to me explaining they would consider a refund. I’ll give them until tomorrow before chasing....

[tovid]

This is what they say about themselves

Sportradar

A global leader in delivering sports data and content to media companies, sports federations and the betting industry.

[LB]

I have just filled out the Sport Radar contact form so will wait to see how they respond.

[Luton Roman]

The constant interruptions were unprofessional. I had no problem with the Dorking guy, thought he was respectful and was clearly a passionate fan, er, like all of us. Joe was an excellent commentator, and I think the shape of the game made us all a little bit down and frustrated.

Hope Jerry learns, as Pete has said, that we need strength. Loanees will be young and lightweight albeit technically good. We need the contracted players to be decent athletes, capable of holding their own physically. Look at the teams who get promoted, they aim to have the balance. Other teams will be saying Stop Bath playing and you will Stop Bath winning.

[Derby Roman]

Not posted for years had to re-register. I too was disgusted with the stream. I got the image that A36 got above for long periods along with endless freezing. I gave up at half time. I've sent a complaint via the contact form. Yes it's only £6 but they shouldn't be allowed to get away with it. I've had this reply :

Thank you for contacting us.

We are sorry that you are experiencing difficulties.
Please note that we have forwarded your refund request to the content publisher. As soon as we hear back, we will inform you of the results.

Should you require further assistance, do not hesitate to contact us.

Kind regards,

Martin Miller

[Derby Roman]

Well they've replied. No chance it seems of a refund.

Hello,

Thank you for your patience.

Please accept our sincerest apologies that you weren't able to enjoy the playoff matches in the quality you would've expected. We appreciate on occasions there are technical difficulties, particularly when it comes to Live Sport, and if you experienced any problems related to connection or buffering, we can only apologize. All the games that were live-streamed over the weekend are now available in full, on-demand on the National League Playoff page for your enjoyment.

After having spoken with the Vanarama National League, we are not able to provide a refund to you. Sorry for any inconvenience this may have caused.

Let us know if we can further assist.

Kind regards,


Marshall Niehaus
InPlayer Customer Service

[LB]

Well they've replied. No chance it seems of a refund.

Hello,

Thank you for your patience.

Please accept our sincerest apologies that you weren't able to enjoy the playoff matches in the quality you would've expected. We appreciate on occasions there are technical difficulties, particularly when it comes to Live Sport, and if you experienced any problems related to connection or buffering, we can only apologize. All the games that were live-streamed over the weekend are now available in full, on-demand on the National League Playoff page for your enjoyment.

After having spoken with the Vanarama National League, we are not able to provide a refund to you. Sorry for any inconvenience this may have caused.

Let us know if we can further assist.

Kind regards,


Marshall Niehaus
InPlayer Customer Service

I am still awaiting a reply, but this doesn't surprise me. Another PR success for the National League!

[A36]

Exactly the same response that I have received.  I trust that someone at the club will raise this with the Conference!

Well they've replied. No chance it seems of a refund.

Hello,

Thank you for your patience.

Please accept our sincerest apologies that you weren't able to enjoy the playoff matches in the quality you would've expected. We appreciate on occasions there are technical difficulties, particularly when it comes to Live Sport, and if you experienced any problems related to connection or buffering, we can only apologize. All the games that were live-streamed over the weekend are now available in full, on-demand on the National League Playoff page for your enjoyment.

After having spoken with the Vanarama National League, we are not able to provide a refund to you. Sorry for any inconvenience this may have caused.

Let us know if we can further assist.

Kind regards,


Marshall Niehaus
InPlayer Customer Service

[Manchester Romans]

Marshall Niehaus sounds like a made up name, or maybe a New York department store.

[comrade powell]

Just to inform all who paid for the streaming of Sunday's match that a message of complaint has been sent to the National League today from myself, as Supporter Liaison Officer, and the Supporters Society and Supporters Club.

We have outlined the problems experienced and asked for the following to be explained...

Why the National League refused Bath City’s request to purchase access passes for those who     had supported its crowdfunding.
Why the National League refused BT/Sportradar’s request to refund supporters.
If steps are being taken to ensure that there is no repeat for the remaining playoff fixtures.

If we get any response I'll share it with supporters.

[Steve Whites Missus]

Just to inform all who paid for the streaming of Sunday's match that a message of complaint has been sent to the National League today from myself, as Supporter Liaison Officer, and the Supporters Society and Supporters Club.

We have outlined the problems experienced and asked for the following to be explained...

Why the National League refused Bath City’s request to purchase access passes for those who     had supported its crowdfunding.
Why the National League refused BT/Sportradar’s request to refund supporters.
If steps are being taken to ensure that there is no repeat for the remaining playoff fixtures.

If we get any response I'll share it with supporters.

Many thanks...

[comrade powell]

No reply or acknowledgement received as yet from the NL. And Dartford and Weymouth fans complaining on their forums today about the streaming of their matches.

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