sky sports red button - Page 58

whoareyou · 01-05-2011, 23:19

Quote:

Originally Posted by Media Boy

Football will NOT be on the Sky Sports Red Button until next season.

Another half arsed virgin release.

Lew · 01-05-2011, 23:38

I'm pretty sure you'll probably find that it's Sky who are coding the red button software. It's a "soft launch". In other words, they'll try out the software on the live system a bit at a time to see what works and what doesn't and then refine the software for the next event they test it on. Liberate is a completely different system to OpenTV (or whatever Sky are using these days) so everything has to be written from scratch to work within the capabilities of VM's system. From a software development and testing point of view they're doing things correctly; you develop and test the software in small, easily manageable stages rather than trying to do everything at once.

It was a similar situation back in the NTL/Telewest days with the BBC red button when they had to try to recreate similar functionality to the red button app on Sky on 3 different cable systems (Telewest, original NTL, ex-C&W). Those of us in the original NTL areas had to wait absolutely ages for various upgrades to hardware at NTL's end and software on the old Pace boxes before we got the same functionality as the Telewest and ex-C&W customers got.

I'm sure Sky will have received feedback from VM about how well the first trial worked both at VM's end and on the various STBs so that they can refine and optimise it for the next event, where the process will repeat until it's at a satisfactory level to be used full-time. Then they'll start working on getting it up and running on the TiVo boxes, although I'd hope that it'll be easier for them to code for Flash.

denphone · 02-05-2011, 05:41

l have to agree with you on this one.

DaMac · 02-05-2011, 09:33

Why they couldn't have provided psuedo red button in the mean time is beyond me. i.e. football is on, press red button - overlay appears with basic list of what streams sky are broadcasting... fan zone... player cam.. etc, choose player cam, box retunes to a channel up the epg to show player cam, then returns back to sky sports + overlay on next press of red button. How hard would it have been to implement that system while they recoded it properley???

Digital Fanatic · 02-05-2011, 09:43

Quote:

Originally Posted by DaMac

Why they couldn't have provided psuedo red button in the mean time is beyond me. i.e. football is on, press red button - overlay appears with basic list of what streams sky are broadcasting... fan zone... player cam.. etc, choose player cam, box retunes to a channel up the epg to show player cam, then returns back to sky sports + overlay on next press of red button. How hard would it have been to implement that system while they recoded it properley???

That wouldn't have been allowed by Sky, sorry. It is a phased rollout and that can't be changed.

denphone · 02-05-2011, 10:11

We just got to wait for the full rollout its as simple as that.

spiderplant · 02-05-2011, 10:33

Quote:

Originally Posted by DaMac

Why they couldn't have provided psuedo red button in the mean time is beyond me. i.e. football is on, press red button - overlay appears with basic list of what streams sky are broadcasting... fan zone... player cam.. etc, choose player cam, box retunes to a channel up the epg to show player cam, then returns back to sky sports + overlay on next press of red button. How hard would it have been to implement that system while they recoded it properley???

It would be almost as hard as doing it properly. The STB doesn't know that "the football is on" or what streams are available at any particular time - someone needs to tell it. Also bear in mind VM has around 20 different STB models that need testing. That's a lot of testing on something you're going to throw away.

Doing what you suggest would be a major diversion from doing the job properly. Besides, it's nearly all done now anyway.

mersey70 · 02-05-2011, 11:50

Quote:

Originally Posted by DaMac

Why they couldn't have provided psuedo red button in the mean time is beyond me. i.e. football is on, press red button - overlay appears with basic list of what streams sky are broadcasting... fan zone... player cam.. etc, choose player cam, box retunes to a channel up the epg to show player cam, then returns back to sky sports + overlay on next press of red button. How hard would it have been to implement that system while they recoded it properley???

I think some of you might be expecting a bit too much from the service, things like player cam and camera angles are not provided anymore (or I should say I haven't seen such features in the near 2 months I have had Sky).

Basically during a live EPL match you get highlights (pretty poor PQ), stats and a choice of audio (i.e. no commentary).

Fanzone isn't available on all EPL games either, Scottish Football and Football League coverage has no red button at all (unless they throw extra games on behind the red button at the end of the season, there appear to be no 'interactive' features as such).

Overall it's very good and a great addition to VM but it's best feature is match choice and the UCL multiscreen, I think this is the main selling point for football fans as they provide actual content. A lot of the other features are OK but nothing more.

In my opinion.

amarkr · 02-05-2011, 12:14

http://www.sky.com/shop/sports/home/...y-virginmedia/

'Sky Sports with Virgin'....
'Some interactive sky sports coverage from 2011'

The table on the linked page suggests Virgin might not be getting all the red button services anyway, (although leaves out specifically mentioning SSN isnt available in HD)

Any staff members wish to comment?

Lew · 02-05-2011, 12:32

Or it could just be referring to the staged rollout in a way that makes their own service look better. It's a page to try to get you to go with them instead of Virgin, remember.

gers · 02-05-2011, 12:32

Quote:

Originally Posted by amarkr

http://www.sky.com/shop/sports/home/...y-virginmedia/

'Sky Sports with Virgin'....
'Some interactive sky sports coverage from 2011'

The table on the linked page suggests Virgin might not be getting all the red button services anyway, (although leaves out specifically mentioning SSN isnt available in HD)

Any staff members wish to comment?

The link doesnt work

Lew · 02-05-2011, 12:40

Works just fine here.

wwe · 02-05-2011, 12:41

works fine for me

thanks

HDFootyMan · 02-05-2011, 12:50

Quote:

Originally Posted by amarkr

http://www.sky.com/shop/sports/home/...y-virginmedia/

'Sky Sports with Virgin'....
'Some interactive sky sports coverage from 2011'

The table on the linked page suggests Virgin might not be getting all the red button services anyway, (although leaves out specifically mentioning SSN isnt available in HD)

Any staff members wish to comment?

I wouldn't rely on Sky's web site for info about what's coming soon to VM.

That page says there's 26 HD channels on VM and more 'may' launch soon. There's no 'may' about it, they have launched, I believe its actually 31 HD channels on Cable now.

mersey70 · 02-05-2011, 12:58

Quote:

Originally Posted by HDFootyMan

I wouldn't rely on Sky's web site for info about what's coming soon to VM.

That page says there's 26 HD channels on VM and more 'may' launch soon. There's no 'may' about it, they have launched, I believe its actually 31 HD channels on Cable now.

That webpage is many months old and has never been updated.

It has well done the rounds on here and DS.