Video feed issues explanation

[rbarthle17]

From a conversation I had today with DJ:

Neulion had an internet outage at their facility in Samford, FL that effectively wiped out every one of the schools on their network. The audio stream was impacted all day and the video stream was hit and miss early, then completely went away in the 3rd quarter. We share your frustration in this matter and are working with them to get some consumer resolution to this matter.

[JCline0429]

From a conversation I had today with DJ:

Neulion had an internet outage at their facility in Samford, FL that effectively wiped out every one of the schools on their network. The audio stream was impacted all day and the video stream was hit and miss early, then completely went away in the 3rd quarter. We share your frustration in this matter and are working with them to get some consumer resolution to this matter.

I truly appreciate David's dilemma and his sincerity, but this isn't the first time Neulion has screwed up.

[ASU@RDU]

Thanks for the email and let me be the first to apologize for the outage.
Neulion had an internet outage at their facility in Samford, FL that effectively
wiped out every one of the schools on their network. The audio stream was
impacted all day and the video stream was hit and miss early, then completely
went away in the 3rd quarter. We share your frustration in this matter and are
working with them to get some consumer resolution to this matter.



I got this email from DJ this AM. I looked at the Neulion website to research them and they have an impressive client list of the NBA, NHL, universities and conferences. I can't figure out how a company with that list gives such poor service. It seems that those that signed off on this program have never had to experience it during the games. How does a internet TV company this big have their servers go down all the time?

I am sure that the Neulion sales people told ASU, we handle the NBA, NHL, The PAC 10 and many SEC teams. I think they should have said thanks, but you just told me I am your smallest customer. Who are you calling back when the servers go down during game? I bet it is close to the list above.

When it worked during the first half it was a great picture. The worst part was the picture looked good and the team look bad. When the team looked good the picture looked bad. Tough day to be a ASU fan.

PS: I saw Bryant in high school when he played QB at Panther Creek in Cary. He was always impressive and lead a young football program to many victories in the TRI-9 conference. His team beat my high school all four years he played. I was glad he signed with ASU. He is a winner on the field and in the classroom according to his high school coach that I know.

[JCline0429]

Thanks for the email and let me be the first to apologize for the outage.
Neulion had an internet outage at their facility in Samford, FL that effectively
wiped out every one of the schools on their network. The audio stream was
impacted all day and the video stream was hit and miss early, then completely
went away in the 3rd quarter. We share your frustration in this matter and are
working with them to get some consumer resolution to this matter.



I got this email from DJ this AM. I looked at the Neulion website to research them and they have an impressive client list of the NBA, NHL, universities and conferences. I can't figure out how a company with that list gives such poor service. It seems that those that signed off on this program have never had to experience it during the games. How does a internet TV company this big have their servers go down all the time?

I am sure that the Neulion sales people told ASU, we handle the NBA, NHL, The PAC 10 and many SEC teams. I think they should have said thanks, but you just told me I am your smallest customer. Who are you calling back when the servers go down during game? I bet it is close to the list above.

When it worked during the first half it was a great picture. The worst part was the picture looked good and the team look bad. When the team looked good the picture looked bad. Tough day to be a ASU fan.

PS: I saw Bryant in high school when he played QB at Panther Creek in Cary. He was always impressive and lead a young football program to many victories in the TRI-9 conference. His team beat my high school all four years he played. I was glad he signed with ASU. He is a winner on the field and in the classroom according to his high school coach that I know.

Was PC a I-A, 2-A, 3A, or 4-A?

[ASU@RDU]

Panther Creek is 4A. After he graduated the program dropped like a rock. 10-2 went to 2-10 in two years. Their coach also left to be Middle Creek to become their AD.

ASU should recruit the RDU area more. There are many very good players in this area. The top players go to SEC/ACC but many could and would go to ASU. The RDU area always send teams to 4A football finals but get beat by Charlotte high schools. Top programs in area are Garner, Middle Creek, Leesville, Wake Forest and Durham Hillside. With RDU area being the largest alumni base now (this is what I have been told from the school) we have many contacts with these schools and kids. Many ASU alumni and former football players coach in this area.

They should also recruit this area for soccer the 4A state championships have all come from Wake County. This is because of CASL and Triangle Football (soccer program) has kids playing at a very advanced level. Top players sign with the top ACC schools (WFU, Duke, UNC, NCSU and UVa.) but many could play at ASU. Coach of the Year for the entire state was ASU Alumni Todd Worley. He is head coach at Sanderson High School. He got his team up to being ranked top 5 in the nation last year for public schools. Lost in last round off playoffs to Green Hope (Cary) that has won last two championships. Their girls team has won last three.

[Kgfish]

From a conversation I had today with DJ:

Neulion had an internet outage at their facility in Samford, FL that effectively wiped out every one of the schools on their network. The audio stream was impacted all day and the video stream was hit and miss early, then completely went away in the 3rd quarter. We share your frustration in this matter and are working with them to get some consumer resolution to this matter.

SECOND VERSE - SAME AS THE FIRST....

[appgrouch]

From a conversation I had today with DJ:

Neulion had an internet outage at their facility in Samford, FL that effectively wiped out every one of the schools on their network. The audio stream was impacted all day and the video stream was hit and miss early, then completely went away in the 3rd quarter. We share your frustration in this matter and are working with them to get some consumer resolution to this matter.

And they only had one facility and one internet connection and they are a streaming provider.

I watch TWiT.tv and they have about 3 different internet providers that they could switch to if the main feed went down and they don't charge for their content.

They should at least be out of 2 facilities with as many partners as they have and a couple if internet options.

[AppinATL]

Funny how all their unexpected outages happen on gamedays. I'm tired of excuses and explanations, I want them to deliver what we are paying for.

[sixtoes9134]

There's always a good explanation.

I've been in technology sales for 23 years and I've seen many a software demo fail on demo day only - so I know the drill, but this is starting to get insane.

[GoApps70]

What is insane is us keeping them all these years with all the "issues" they continuously have.
Always some apology. Always something unusual. When the unusual becomes usual then the idiots still using it are the ones at fault - us.

Even texted the report thing they had put on the board...a five digit number to text "Class" to.
Got a set message that their service was not monitored during gametime production. Gave me a number to call...called it...was the 828 emergency Sheriff's number. They laughed. I didn't.

Must be a heck of a deal David and App State are getting on this monstrosity....
or being wined and dined, while we get to whine.

[ASUMountaineer]

As I've said before, I really want to give AppStateTV a chance, but not until they get this fixed.

[Maddog1956]

What is insane is us keeping them all these years with all the "issues" they continuously have.
Always some apology. Always something unusual. When the unusual becomes usual then the idiots still using it are the ones at fault - us.

Must be a heck of a deal David and App State are getting on this monstrosity....
or being wined and dined, while we get to whine.

It doesn't really matter to me I don't use it and won't until App brings it totally in-house, but here's my take from a technology standpoint.

Just like ISP's they just oversell their resources, on a big day everyone gets squeezed. There isn't a reason to have line problems otherwise, just use a cloud based DNS (i.e. openDNS) and have multiple tier 3 providers.

They wouldn't have to give me an apology but one time the second time I'd use someone else or bring it in-house.

[ASU@RDU]

Email from ASU TV



Dear Subscriber,

We want to take this time to apologize for the issues around the live football stream this past Saturday on App State TV. Our technology provider, NeuLion, experienced technical difficulties at one of their facilities. The problem has been identified and rectified. While we are continually striving to deliver the highest quality product possible, we do realize that the issues this weekend caused frustration to a number of our loyal fans. To thank you for your support and loyalty, we have extended your current subscription by one month free of charge. We appreciate your patience and are excited about the year to come for Mountaineer fans. Please check the live event listing page to see the calendar of upcoming events including HD live football for all 2013 home games!

If you have any questions, please submit a ticket on our Customer Care page. As always, requests for a full or partial refund, depending on your package length, should be directed here.

Thank you,

David Jackson

Appalachian State Athletics



Edward O’Brien

NeuLion, Inc.

[sixtoes9134]

I'll share a story.

13 years ago when streaming was hitting the big-time, I was selling edge network technology similar to what Akamai is today.

I sold our streaming capability to Duke University in their Fuqua School of Business. It was the first time they had ever streamed a live class. The professor was renowned and the stream was to be delivered to remote MBA students all over the world, a capability we professed to be able to deliver.

We tested, we tested and we test. Had a fiber optic point to point stream directly from Duke to our Data Center.

The moment the class started, the stream failed.

Guess who's phone immediately started ringing? MINE. Sales guy over sold us.

Our Chief Marketing officer was a Fuqua Graduate, and he conveniently vanished on me and never helped smooth things over with Duke.

The culprit turned out to be an incompatible piece of software that didn't turn up on test day.

I used to know a lot about these technologies so I can't say where the blame is, but I think based on everything I've read, we (App) had a lot of outdated gear and software, which contributed to past issues. Seemingly Neulion was the issue this last time.

I guess we will see going forward. I will be at the next home game, so I won't be needing the stream until probably the L'il Sammy game.

[McLeansvilleAppFan]

I did not read much in this thread but I think the major complaint is the online streaming part which is NeuLion from what I can tell.



On a side note, over at the Catamount Pride board someone was complaining about how embarrassing it was to have such a sorry streaming effort during the last game. And they use CBS Sports.

I still don't like it when ASUs's streaming does not work, as that is all I care about for streaming sports.