 |
|
| FREE NEWS SERVICES • Newsletters • RSS feeds • Alerts |
CAREERWEB • Register • Post your CV • Find your job |
BRAINSTORM
• Subscribe • Read online |
iWEEK • Subscribe • Read online • Get into iWeek |
IT TRAINING • TrainingWeb ITWEB EVENTS • Events Calendar |
FEEDBACK
• Post your feedback • Send us a news tip |
 |
 |
|
Sponsor's Message
Industry Insight
27 August 2001
M-Web corners Big Brother online video market
BY
GAVIN DUDLEY
[
27 August 2001
] -
The launch of the Big Brother reality TV show has got the South African Internet community in an uproar as some dissatisfied users find they cannot access the promised live video stream of goings-on in the Randburg house.
Many dialup users over the weekend found that, while they could access the Web site dedicated to the show, the streaming video feeds from cameras inside the Big Brother house were not accessible.
“The Big Brother live video and audio streams are open to all Internet users in SA who have subscribed to the Big Brother Community, at no charge,” reads part of a newsletter sent to users today. “However, some Internet service providers (ISPs) in SA may presently not have enabled multicasting and have not offered these streams to their subscribers. If you are unable to view any of the live video and audio streams and are a subscriber with any ISP other thanM-Web , then please enquire directly with your ISP.”
Subscribers to M-Web, the ISP hosting the Big Brother site, are able to take advantage of special video multicasting hubs set up at M-Web access points in urban centres around the country. But other ISPs are apparently unwilling to spend the money needed to give their subscribers access to the same services. Multicasting environments, involving dedicated servers and large amounts of bandwidth, can costs tens of thousands of rands to setup, and have to be constantly monitored by support staff.
First-tier corporate ISP UUNet, which provides M-Web's entire data backbone, says it has entered into multicasting relationships required to efficiently stream the multimedia with only one ISP, SAIX.
The result is that dialup and leased-line subscribers from the likes of Intekom, Xsinet and @tlantic would be able to access the video stream, but subscribers to other major first-tier ISPs such as Internet Solutions and all of Absa's free Internet subscribers, would not.
Stuart Hardy, GM of Internet Solutions (IS), networks, says the video stream has definitely not been disallowed for IS dialup and leased-line subscribers but that the M-Web servers appear to be unable to fulfil the video requests. He says that IS tests show requests for data travelling at normal speeds through the IS and UUNet infrastructure but timing out at the M-Web Big Brother servers.
Hardy says that many corporate IT managers, such as administrators at Dimension Data, have elected to block Big Brother video streams from reaching their local area networks.
He added that IS had raised concerns with M-Web about its ability to deliver streaming video around SA, noting that this might not be viable unless it created a dedicated streaming network for the purpose. He says that in preliminary discussions, IS had offered to service a multicasting video hub for M-Net, but that IS had not been contracted to do so.
Richard Fyffe, GM atOracle Online Sales and responsible for Big Brother Internet revenues, says that more than 20 000 people registered at the Big Brother Web site, and that more than 3 million ad impressions have been served since 6pm yesterday. Fyffe says that, at the peak, 2.8 people were registering at the site every second and that demand for Web pages has been overwhelming with 1 600 concurrent sessions running at the site.
M-Web will release a statement about the matter later today.
Related stories:
Big Brother TV is underdog in domain name fight
Many dialup users over the weekend found that, while they could access the Web site dedicated to the show, the streaming video feeds from cameras inside the Big Brother house were not accessible.
“The Big Brother live video and audio streams are open to all Internet users in SA who have subscribed to the Big Brother Community, at no charge,” reads part of a newsletter sent to users today. “However, some Internet service providers (ISPs) in SA may presently not have enabled multicasting and have not offered these streams to their subscribers. If you are unable to view any of the live video and audio streams and are a subscriber with any ISP other than
Subscribers to M-Web, the ISP hosting the Big Brother site, are able to take advantage of special video multicasting hubs set up at M-Web access points in urban centres around the country. But other ISPs are apparently unwilling to spend the money needed to give their subscribers access to the same services. Multicasting environments, involving dedicated servers and large amounts of bandwidth, can costs tens of thousands of rands to setup, and have to be constantly monitored by support staff.
First-tier corporate ISP UUNet, which provides M-Web's entire data backbone, says it has entered into multicasting relationships required to efficiently stream the multimedia with only one ISP, SAIX.
The result is that dialup and leased-line subscribers from the likes of Intekom, Xsinet and @tlantic would be able to access the video stream, but subscribers to other major first-tier ISPs such as Internet Solutions and all of Absa's free Internet subscribers, would not.
Stuart Hardy, GM of Internet Solutions (IS), networks, says the video stream has definitely not been disallowed for IS dialup and leased-line subscribers but that the M-Web servers appear to be unable to fulfil the video requests. He says that IS tests show requests for data travelling at normal speeds through the IS and UUNet infrastructure but timing out at the M-Web Big Brother servers.
Hardy says that many corporate IT managers, such as administrators at Dimension Data, have elected to block Big Brother video streams from reaching their local area networks.
He added that IS had raised concerns with M-Web about its ability to deliver streaming video around SA, noting that this might not be viable unless it created a dedicated streaming network for the purpose. He says that in preliminary discussions, IS had offered to service a multicasting video hub for M-Net, but that IS had not been contracted to do so.
Richard Fyffe, GM at
M-Web will release a statement about the matter later today.
Related stories:
Big Brother TV is underdog in domain name fight
|
|
|
|
Copyright (c) 1996 - 2012 ITWeb Limited. All rights reserved. Would you like to see your news here? Contact us for more details at itnews@itweb.co.za |
|||||||||||
|
