With a free 7-day voucher sitting around, I decided to redeem it given I had a bit more free time on my hands over Easter. Now I don't have the fastest internet connection on the planet, but it does run at a solid 25 Mbps all the time. I can stream Netflix with absolute perfection. I could easily get a 100 Mbps connection if I really wanted to and was prepared to pay for it, but without a 4K TV, there is simply no point whatsoever in having anything faster than what I have now - and even that is more than fast enough to stream two Netflix HD programs at once flawlessly and with plenty of remaining bandwidth to spare...
So last night I tried to watch a live Berlin Philharmonic concert via the Digital Concert Hall and it was just a complete joke. With my internet connection sitting around twiddling it's thumbs waiting for the Australian server (and then I guess the one in Berlin) to actually send me something, I just gave up. I had to stream the thing at such an appallingly low quality, people's faces looked like melted, glistening bubblegum (well, I've never seen melted glistening bubblegum, but I reckon if I did, that is what it would look like).
Yet these concerts are not nearly as demanding as a Netflix movie, even if they do take care to preserve an acceptable level of audio quality (and they do, I will grant them that).
But I find this ridiculous statement in their FAQ:
https://help.berliner-philharmonike...t-play-well-but-concerts-from-the-archive-do-
Seriously? Do they think their patrons are complete technical neophytes? To my way of thinking, the above is just another way of saying "our servers are inadequate and therefore can only cope with the relatively random traffic generated by archive viewing. But with a live concert, because there are many more clients connected, our infrastructure cannot cope, even if those of our clients can".
Honestly, what a joke. This wouldn't have been an excuse 5 years ago, let alone in 2017. Here in Australia, we are the butt of jokes because of our low-tech NBN. But so long as our Retail Service Providers purchase adequate CVC (as at least mine has), even the lowliest fibre-to-the-node connection here in Australian can stream Netflix HD flawlessly 24 x 7 and still leave more than enough bandwidth for regular net surfing on top of that. Sure during peak periods many people's connections slow down considerably, but so long as you are a customer of a decent ISP like I am, you will always have more than enough bandwidth for anything that any streaming company can throw at you.
In other words, if I can get flawless 4K Netflix should I choose to (and I could if I wanted it), then no-one has any excuse - Netflix prove it can be done.
The only two reasons I can personally come up with as to why a live concert can't stream versus an archived one are (a) their servers simply cannot cope with the client traffic and / or (b) they can't adequately encode MP4 at the quality they want on the fly. Neither are even remotely acceptable excuses and I really have to wonder how on earth they think this standard of service is OK.
All I can say is that I am sure glad I did not have to buy a monthly ticket as I would have asked them for a refund.
I have no idea of what sort of streaming quality other countries receive as it relates to the Digital Concert Hall, but so far as Australia is concerned, I honestly have no idea why anyone would be prepared to pay for it. But you have to provide an acceptable product before people will pay. You can't sell a poor quality product and hope that your customers will pick up the tab so you can eventually provide a half decent one! But since I cannot find mass complaints regarding the Digital Concert Hall, I can only assume hardly anyone uses it or this is just an Australian thing.
So last night I tried to watch a live Berlin Philharmonic concert via the Digital Concert Hall and it was just a complete joke. With my internet connection sitting around twiddling it's thumbs waiting for the Australian server (and then I guess the one in Berlin) to actually send me something, I just gave up. I had to stream the thing at such an appallingly low quality, people's faces looked like melted, glistening bubblegum (well, I've never seen melted glistening bubblegum, but I reckon if I did, that is what it would look like).
Yet these concerts are not nearly as demanding as a Netflix movie, even if they do take care to preserve an acceptable level of audio quality (and they do, I will grant them that).
But I find this ridiculous statement in their FAQ:
https://help.berliner-philharmonike...t-play-well-but-concerts-from-the-archive-do-
Seriously? Do they think their patrons are complete technical neophytes? To my way of thinking, the above is just another way of saying "our servers are inadequate and therefore can only cope with the relatively random traffic generated by archive viewing. But with a live concert, because there are many more clients connected, our infrastructure cannot cope, even if those of our clients can".
Honestly, what a joke. This wouldn't have been an excuse 5 years ago, let alone in 2017. Here in Australia, we are the butt of jokes because of our low-tech NBN. But so long as our Retail Service Providers purchase adequate CVC (as at least mine has), even the lowliest fibre-to-the-node connection here in Australian can stream Netflix HD flawlessly 24 x 7 and still leave more than enough bandwidth for regular net surfing on top of that. Sure during peak periods many people's connections slow down considerably, but so long as you are a customer of a decent ISP like I am, you will always have more than enough bandwidth for anything that any streaming company can throw at you.
In other words, if I can get flawless 4K Netflix should I choose to (and I could if I wanted it), then no-one has any excuse - Netflix prove it can be done.
The only two reasons I can personally come up with as to why a live concert can't stream versus an archived one are (a) their servers simply cannot cope with the client traffic and / or (b) they can't adequately encode MP4 at the quality they want on the fly. Neither are even remotely acceptable excuses and I really have to wonder how on earth they think this standard of service is OK.
All I can say is that I am sure glad I did not have to buy a monthly ticket as I would have asked them for a refund.
I have no idea of what sort of streaming quality other countries receive as it relates to the Digital Concert Hall, but so far as Australia is concerned, I honestly have no idea why anyone would be prepared to pay for it. But you have to provide an acceptable product before people will pay. You can't sell a poor quality product and hope that your customers will pick up the tab so you can eventually provide a half decent one! But since I cannot find mass complaints regarding the Digital Concert Hall, I can only assume hardly anyone uses it or this is just an Australian thing.
