Posted by ORSA Secretary 4th November
In connection with our article about lack of live coverage of 3pm home games, ORSA is trying to address concerns from members in metro and regional areas about the reliability and effectiveness of the Rangers TV service.
Rangers TV offers two services which allow overseas viewers to watch live* games (*where there is an outside broadcast unit available). The first is Rangers TV unlimited which has a monthly or annual subscription. As suggested by the title, it’s all the matches live when available. The other option is Pay Per View. All monies raised through these services go directly to the club. The club have expenses for the cost of the camera work and the internal Rangers TV staff and production crew.
From our ORSA facebook page and from a thread on the largest Rangers fan’s forum on the internet we’ve already got a willing bunch of people to assist us in doing a test on a dummy feed. It is NOT a test of a live feed - it is a pre-recorded video - so does not take into account some of the more difficult aspects of live streaming. However it will give you an indication of what bandwidth your system can cope with, and how much it fluctuates. Also, if you switch to full screen, it will give you an indication of the quality your system can cope with.
Basically, there's a need for people subscribing to Rangers TV to make sure they have a good enough computer AND a good enough connection. Connection issues aren't simply a matter of knowing the nominal speed of what's called the "last mile" ie. the connection to local exchange - how well your Internet Service Provider (ISP) is connected to the rest of the world can make a huge difference.
As noted above, performing a speed test (click here) is just one part of the testing process however a couple of us have already completed this step which literally takes less than a minute (well maybe longer if you’re on dial up..LOL...is anyone still on dial up?). The results are as follows:
Brisbane Metro – ISP Telstra – 2.15mbps
Perth Metro – ISP Optus – 1.27 mbps
Perth Metro – ISP IInet - 2.15mbps
As you can see even in the same city there are differences between ISP’s/speeds.
Generally, to view Rangers TV you’ll need at least 2Mb minimum download speed (it goes up and down), though there are many other factors which can affect performance. The boffins at Rangers TV will then help us analyse where the issues are, and recommend solutions - or investigate routing issues where they find them.
Please use the contact us page to send us your thoughts and issues on the Rangers TV experience in your area and/or if you’re registered on the site leave a comment on this article or on the ORSA facebook page with your speed test results.
