Well, Amanda and I just did something we'd never done before: we watched a sporting event live over the Internet. Alabama just barely held on to beat Marquette, and we got to watch it via CBS's internet feed. It's actually kind of cool - you watch a couple of commercials each commercial break, a couple before you get started watching it, and then when they don't have enough commercials they just stick you on a backup feed of the game. So during one timeout, we got to watch Chuck Davis stare blankly at the floor for 2 minutes. We also got to hear the entirety of Rammer Jammer, which was particularly enjoyable as we tried to figure out what Marquette's mascot is. I knew once, but I don't any more.
One thing that was slightly annoying but also pretty smart was the way that CBS limits the number of people getting the live feed. When you first log in, they have a "waiting area" which is basically a lame graphic showing you how many people are in front of you, when they're next "admitting" people (at 1 minute 30 second intervals), and encouraging you to register earlier by talking about the benefits of being a "VIP" member. That was slightly annoying, but the fact that they're forward thinking enough to make sure that some people get a decent connection, rather than just having it a free for all and having their servers fail, shows that at least somebody there has a brain.
No comments:
Post a Comment