WCHA TV – Questions, Comments, Complaints, etc.

[tomthumb]

I got the same thing...I love how the school blames AmericaOne and Eversport blames the school.

I have the promise of a refund on the 15th of the month as well from Ivan. He must work with Natasha, 'cuz he sent me the exact same letter... Anyone hear from Boris?

Finally heard back from AmericaOne:

"We apologize for your viewing issues and we are continually working on these problems. In trying to access your account, we find no purchases through America One, which tells us that your purchase was made through the EverSport site, who is in charge of the broadcasts for the WCHA. We do not have a way to prorate season passes so you will need to contact support@invideous.com or billing@eversport.tv for help in this matter. For future emails, these 2 addresses are the ones you should use in regard to your viewing issues."

Interesting how they want to make sure that I contact one of the other two companies in this menage-a-trois to sort out any future "viewing issues" (NOT broadcasting issues). Good to know they are "continually working on these problems..."

I copied the head of UAA Media Relations with my complaint letter to let them know what was going on and suggested that the University pressure the broadcasters, too. It was forwarded to the AD, Asst. AD and others. Heard back from Dallas Baldwin - Assoc Media Relations Director. This was the first she had heard of the problems.

I heard back from the WCHA commish, Bill Robertson, with minutes of sending him a copy of the complaint. Kind of a rah-rah, go-team-go, stick-with-us response, but at least he knows there are problems.

Assuming this week's broadcasts are still garbage, I encourage everyone to keep letting EverSport, America One, Invideous, WCHA commish, your school AD/media relations people, Ivan and Natasha know that the broadcasts still do not measure up to their promises and that you will continue to seek refunds for lousy service. Then again, maybe it will all be fine this week, with HD broadcasts and free beer for all...

[gfmorris]

Re: WCHA TV – Questions, Comments, Complaints, etc.

There may be something to the bandwidth-at-the-venue complaints, because UAH is putting in a dedicated line. But if we do that and there are still problems, well ...

I expect that a big part of the problem is that Eversport isn't using Octoshape, which AmericaONE was using to send HD out. I'll confirm that tonight when I'm watching the Air Force game.

GFM

[manurespreader]

Re: WCHA TV – Questions, Comments, Complaints, etc.

Me being a skeptical sort, I wonder if eversports got this deal because they knew someone who knew someone. They certainly didn't get it because of previous high quality productions.

I would also bet that it's not going to make the league much money this year. My only hope is we are not locked into a long term contract.

[Shirtless Guy]

Re: WCHA TV – Questions, Comments, Complaints, etc.

So this happen on twitter:

Looking for a place to watch #cawlidgehawkey tonight? http://WCHA.tv has four live games tonight!

@WCHA_MHockey will any of them actually be in HD tonight like promised at the beginning of the season?

That exchange got me the following email:
Tim,

Good afternoon, and I hope you are well. I saw your tweet regarding WCHA.tv and HD telecasts. First, thank you for your support of the WCHA. We certainly understand your frustration with the streaming quality to date and are disappointed that you have not had a good experience.

The WCHA, America ONE and EverSport are focused on providing as many broadcasts in HD as possible this season. A few of our venues have experienced limitations, including some unforeseen; as a result, we have been unable to deliver all games in HD.

We are diligently working with our partners and member institutions to explore every possible aspect of the service, from production to streaming avenues, and to rectify whatever issues are continuing to prevent some subscribers from receiving the product our fans desire and deserve.

Please be patient and it is our promise to continue working as hard and quickly as possible to make this better for you and all consumers.

Again, we appreciate you being a fan of the WCHA!

Best,
Matt

Matt Hodson

[aygwm2]

Re: WCHA TV – Questions, Comments, Complaints, etc.

I'm thinking of watching the Ferris @ NMU game tonight. I had the season package with AOne the last two years and had next to no problems. For some reason I decided not to purchase the package this year because of the change of provider. Guess I'm glad I didn't. So, should I give EverSport a try tonight or not? Any suggestions?

[Shirtless Guy]

Re: WCHA TV – Questions, Comments, Complaints, etc.

So this happen on twitter:







That exchange got me the following email:
Tim,

Good afternoon, and I hope you are well. I saw your tweet regarding WCHA.tv and HD telecasts. First, thank you for your support of the WCHA. We certainly understand your frustration with the streaming quality to date and are disappointed that you have not had a good experience.

The WCHA, America ONE and EverSport are focused on providing as many broadcasts in HD as possible this season. A few of our venues have experienced limitations, including some unforeseen; as a result, we have been unable to deliver all games in HD.

We are diligently working with our partners and member institutions to explore every possible aspect of the service, from production to streaming avenues, and to rectify whatever issues are continuing to prevent some subscribers from receiving the product our fans desire and deserve.

Please be patient and it is our promise to continue working as hard and quickly as possible to make this better for you and all consumers.

Again, we appreciate you being a fan of the WCHA!

Best,
Matt

Matt Hodson

I replied with my concerns, a comment on the finger pointing and mentioned the idea of going the way of RPI and got this reply:

Tim,

We truly all want this to work as much as you – and all of our fans – do.

I am sorry to hear that there is a perception of finger-pointing. I can assure you that we are all working together to solve each and every possible issue. We will be running even more tests across every avenue, and potential fixes, this evening.

I also appreciate the information you provided. At this point, it remains our sincere belief that the infrastructure that exists through our partners, which utilize the same platform for streaming services Akamai – that is used by ESPN, CBS Sports, FOX Sports and others – will be able to provide an HD-quality, user-friendly product.

Again, thank you for your patience, which I know is being tried.

Best,
Matt

[gfmorris]

Re: WCHA TV – Questions, Comments, Complaints, etc.

Me being a skeptical sort, I wonder if eversports got this deal because they knew someone who knew someone. They certainly didn't get it because of previous high quality productions.

I would also bet that it's not going to make the league much money this year. My only hope is we are not locked into a long term contract.

As I noted up-thread, AmericaONE and EverSport are partners. I'm guessing that the WCHA wanted to go with "what worked", which makes a lot of sense, but that the change on the provider's end really didn't help things. [/sarcasm]

GFM

[Shirtless Guy]

Re: WCHA TV – Questions, Comments, Complaints, etc.

Well, there is already one improvement for MTU's WCHA.tv broadcast. I can listen already, with pregame starting in about 10 minutes. Last week I couldn't listen to anything until right before puck drop.

[stuckinwi]

Re: WCHA TV – Questions, Comments, Complaints, etc.

Well, there is already one improvement for MTU's WCHA.tv broadcast. I can listen already, with pregame starting in about 10 minutes. Last week I couldn't listen to anything until right before puck drop.

It's looking good on my AppleTV via my iPad tonight.

[aparch]

Re: WCHA TV – Questions, Comments, Complaints, etc.

...At this point, it remains our sincere belief that the infrastructure that exists through our partners, which utilize the same platform for streaming services Akamai – that is used by ESPN, CBS Sports, FOX Sports and others – will be able to provide an HD-quality, user-friendly product...

I'm slightly confused, because I thought Akamai was just additional tubes that the interwebs flowed through. So whatever crap gets fed from America One / Eversport just gets passed through Akamai onto us. My uneducated guess is Geof is onto something by Eversport not using the same codecs to encode the higher quality feeds.

Really disappointing though that after such a great year last year whipping this package together, the WCHA shot themselves in the foot this year. I haven't seen anyone complain about the NCHC.tv package...

It's looking good on my AppleTV via my iPad tonight.

This is good to hear. All the talk of decreased quality and overseas billing made me gunshy on purchasing the package this year. Maybe I'll give a single game a whirl one of these nights.

[AKJD]

Re: WCHA TV – Questions, Comments, Complaints, etc.

At least Alaska finally has their new cameras up, so there's that. However, has anybody noticed the commentary and video being out of sync this year? Right now the audio is about 5 seconds ahead of the video, and last weekend watching the games at Bemidji, there was up to around a 10 second difference. I dunno if it's the service, or me.

[Shirtless Guy]

Re: WCHA TV – Questions, Comments, Complaints, etc.

At least Alaska finally has their new cameras up, so there's that. However, has anybody noticed the commentary and video being out of sync this year? Right now the audio is about 5 seconds ahead of the video, and last weekend watching the games at Bemidji, there was up to around a 10 second difference. I dunno if it's the service, or me.

I haven't noticed that yet this year...

[UAHStatman]

Re: WCHA TV – Questions, Comments, Complaints, etc.

At least Alaska finally has their new cameras up, so there's that. However, has anybody noticed the commentary and video being out of sync this year? Right now the audio is about 5 seconds ahead of the video, and last weekend watching the games at Bemidji, there was up to around a 10 second difference. I dunno if it's the service, or me.

I noticed it, too. It was really bad on the UAH-Air Force game (Atlantic Hockey also uses Eversport) -- anywhere between one and 15 seconds audio ahead of video. It's the first time I had seen this happen.

[stuckinwi]

Re: WCHA TV – Questions, Comments, Complaints, etc.

Nanooks stream looks even better than the Tech one tonight.

[UAHStatman]

Re: WCHA TV – Questions, Comments, Complaints, etc.

I noticed it, too. It was really bad on the UAH-Air Force game (Atlantic Hockey also uses Eversport) -- anywhere between one and 15 seconds audio ahead of video. It's the first time I had seen this happen.

Unlike the UAH-Air Force game, the Alaska game synch issues appeared to be resolved by the second period.