Response to Complaint from SideArm Streaming Video "Support"

SCarolinaCy

Well-Known Member
Jun 20, 2011
3,149
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Greenville, SC
I certainly have no specific knowledge on the subject but from the comments it seems pretty clear what happened. The app and software work fine, with a few glitches here and there. However, they CLEARLY underestimated the peak demand for a LIVE game and didn't have the server capacity.

Pollard clearly had a bad night. The one football game is probably the biggest single event / Revenue for the whole year for Cyclones.TV. To have to refund a bunch of the money is a disaster. Hopefully the contract states that Sidearm has to eat most of the loss .


On September 3, 2016, at 9:46 PM, SIDEARM Streaming Support <[email protected]> wrote:



Kathleen S.

Streaming Support
SIDEARM Sports
335 Hinds Hall | Syracuse NY 13244
Hi Gary,

I'm sorry that you had a bad experience with our service. I canceled your subscription, and issued you a full refund of $79.95. Please allow 3-5 business days for processing.

Best,

David
 

ArgentCy

Well-Known Member
Jan 13, 2010
20,405
11,148
113
Going to subject myself to the replay on Cyclones.TV since you just don't see the same things in person. It was one of those spots where you didn't know whether to laugh or cry we were so bad....
 

cc1091

Well-Known Member
Oct 10, 2007
1,146
305
83
Minneapolis
I streamed the game from an 'alternate source' and only had problems in the final five minutes of the game where it seems that even the 'alternate sources' were having difficulty maintaining a stream. Otherwise though, it seemed like the best stream that those 'alternate sources' have ever hosted.

My advice to Iowa State; give up on all of the rebroadcast rights going to Mediacom's Cyclones.TV channel and allow a more standard carrier to host their television feed so that those of us who wish to watch the game and don't have Mediacom as a provider, aren't forced to stream it from Cyclones.TV or the usual free 'alternate source'.

'alternate source' = stream hosted by a free foreign browser based sports streaming service which may or may not have good video, and which usually has a browser based chat (which may or may not introduce hackers), which when used with Internet Explorer seems to open a ton of alternate windows and may automatically download a 'helper' app that harms your system (aka. USE FIREFOX and set it up to not automatically DL crap).
 

SNEDDS3

Well-Known Member
Apr 1, 2010
4,199
697
113
Boone, IA
I got this from [email protected]:

Thanks for writing in. Unfortunately, our streaming provider (Sidearm Sports) had a critical loss in their data center that affected all their partner sites (800-plus NCAA websites and over 30 power five football schools) right about when our broadcast was to start.


The timing was really unfortunate for us and our broadcast Saturday night. We put a lot of hard work over the summer to change our platform over to Sidearm and we're really excited to showcase that to our fans. We're just as disappointed in what happened as you are.


Sidearm is investing significantly more resources into their data center so that this doesn't happen again this year to us or to their other clients.


Our sincere apologies for what happened and we've passed your note onto Sidearm, who will be proactively taking care of refunds in the coming days.


Thanks for your support of Iowa State Athletics and Cyclones.tv.
 

ArgentCy

Well-Known Member
Jan 13, 2010
20,405
11,148
113
Oh I'm sure it's way worse for the athletic department and the people specifically working for Cyclones.TV. They had nothing to do with it and yet it hurts them more than anyone.

Perhaps they should've bought some space in the FB or Google server farms near Des Moines.
 
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KnappShack

Well-Known Member
May 26, 2008
23,884
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Parts Unknown
I streamed the game from an 'alternate source' and only had problems in the final five minutes of the game where it seems that even the 'alternate sources' were having difficulty maintaining a stream. Otherwise though, it seemed like the best stream that those 'alternate sources' have ever hosted.

My advice to Iowa State; give up on all of the rebroadcast rights going to Mediacom's Cyclones.TV channel and allow a more standard carrier to host their television feed so that those of us who wish to watch the game and don't have Mediacom as a provider, aren't forced to stream it from Cyclones.TV or the usual free 'alternate source'.

'alternate source' = stream hosted by a free foreign browser based sports streaming service which may or may not have good video, and which usually has a browser based chat (which may or may not introduce hackers), which when used with Internet Explorer seems to open a ton of alternate windows and may automatically download a 'helper' app that harms your system (aka. USE FIREFOX and set it up to not automatically DL crap).

Alternate source = theft
 

ArgentCy

Well-Known Member
Jan 13, 2010
20,405
11,148
113
Big whoop, especially if the source you paid for can't provide the service.

I do wonder if they actually had "an event". Were there any other teams or streams at the same time that were affected like ISU?
 

sheepplucker

Well-Known Member
Sep 22, 2013
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The whole second half of the game was freezing so bad I quit watching. The refund is good enough the loss on top of them ruining the first game of the season Sucks even more though