[Erkson]

I would like to know what have been the causes of repeated disconnections during vugraph of German national team qualification. A real pain in the neck

I hope it has been specific to that broadcast and will not affect later ones.

Erkson

[fred]

When anyone is connected to BBO (including the
vugraph operator) there are typically at least 15
computers involved.

If something is not working properly with any of
these computers, the result can be a disconnection.

We only control one of the these computers (our
server) directly and we have done everything we
can to make sure that it does not cause disconnects.
Indirectly we control some of the other computers
because it is up to us to decide which company we
buy our Internet access from. Turns out the company
we are using is almost always excellent in this area.

When someone has frequent disconnect problems,
it is almost always because one of these factors:

1) His Internet Service Provider (ISP) is awful

2) The phone lines where he is connecting from
are old and/or of low quality

3) Some random computer somewhere on the Internet
is having a bad day

When tournament organizers express interest in
producing vugraph broadcasts we make it clear to
them that it is critical for them to make sure they
have a reliable connection to the Internet. That
involves making sure 1) above is not the case.
Sometimes 2) above is hard to get around (as it
is a function of the physical location of the tournament).
If 3) above happens it is just unlucky.

Good news is that Uday and I are trying to figure out
a way to keep the vugraph theatre open when the
operator loses his connection. If we can do this then,
when an operator has a bad connection, it will pretty
much cease to be an problem for the audience.

Fred Gitelman
Bridge Base Inc.
www.bridgebase.com

[JRG]

Quote

[...snip...]
Good news is that Uday and I are trying to figure out
a way to keep the vugraph theatre open when the
operator loses his connection. If we can do this then,
when an operator has a bad connection, it will pretty
much cease to be an problem for the audience.

Fred Gitelman
Bridge Base Inc.
www.bridgebase.com

If you can manage that, it will be great. I'm sure it will also reduce the load on the server as hundreds (or a thousand or more!) members go to reestablish their connection to the vugraph session.

The nice thing as well, is that the commentators fill the gap while the hand is being bid and played -- and between hands (and if you can do this, while waiting for the vugraph operator to reconnect).

[Erkson]

EBL Champions Cup broadcast has been very interesting for me and I enjoyed it greatly, but I had problems.

1. I forgot to save Norway-Israel match, and got it overwritten by Poland-Italy.

2. We had an electricity fault in the roman club where take place the matches. One more. I wasn't used to that. For me those electricity faults belonged to Past. Are we going backwards ?

3. I could not be watching the matches permanently, but it seems that we lost connection with Italy many many times. Not as much as during German Team Qualification, but too much for me, and that's new too.

I hope, but not believe it, that broadcasting will be good today.

Erkson

[doodlin]

How about an update for 2015. Random and sometimes frequent disconnects are still a problem here in Connecticut (Cox hi-speed cable).