It’s always a good sign when the silence is few and far between during the 5 hour drive home after a convention, and this year’s NAB show in Las Vegas provided plenty of conversation material. Admittedly some of the conversation revolved around our dalliances at the card table and golf course, but we also excitedly hashed out some of the ideas that were rattling around in our head following the show. Ryan, J.D. and myself got to spend two days cruising the convention floor seeking out new and innovate technologies, and we also found time to catch up with some of our streaming partners. The show was a huge success, and stay tuned to this blog as well as our Facebook and Twitter accounts for some of the exciting stuff that will be coming in the future.
In the meantime, here are some of the highlights from our trip:
Here is a picture taken from the escalator heading down to one of the convention halls (there were 3 halls in total, each with multiple wings/levels). It is tough to capture the scope and madness of this convention with a picture, but this gives you a little taste. Behind the CES show, NAB is the second largest convention of the year in Las Vegas.
With an MSRP right around $1,000, the RemoteMix 3.5 offers Bluetooth connectivity with a lower price tag than the 4.
This guy was there.
We had a great chat with our friends at Telestream (the makers of Wirecast), and while we can’t say too much yet, we are pretty excited about the direction Wirecast is heading.
We have recommended these before, but the recorders from Tascam are top notch. They also have a new iM2 device that turns any iPhone or iPad into a stereo recorder. Great for on the go interviews.
We stopped by the Newtek booth to poke around a bit, and check out their new line of TriCaster devices. The 855 and 455 models seem to be as good as advertised, and if clients are looking for an upgrade (and can afford the price tag) you can’t go wrong with these products.
Even Evander Holyfield made an appearance… and before you ask, the answer is no, I did not get a good look at his ear. Sidebar – that was unofficially the 10,345,312,303rd time that ‘Holyfield’ and ‘ear’ have appeared in the same sentence online… since 2011… on a blog… that focuses on technology… written by a streaming company. I’m exaggerating slightly but I’ll let you decide at what point.
The Comrex Access unit, truly the Cadillac of the Comrex line, allows remote broadcasts via POTS, DSL, 3g/4g, wireless internet… pretty much any way you can think of to connect, the Access is compatible. This is another one that will set you back in the wallet, but delivers unparalleled performance.
After a long day at the convention, we managed to squeeze in a round of golf at Paiute Golf Resort and it was positively breath-taking. A beautiful course set against the foothills, and the weather could not have been more cooperative. It was the perfect way to recharge before day two.
Well there you have it, Stretch Internet’s foray into the unique world that is the NAB show. We enjoyed our trip, Ryan introduced us to some new (read=old) music on his iPhone during the drive, and overall we were very satisfied with what we found. To reiterate, there are some new things that will come out of our time spent here and we will keep you posted on all that moving forward. Make sure you ‘like’ us on Facebook and follow us on Twitter for all the latest info (links in header).
Feel free to leave a comment if you’ve been to the NAB in the past, what your experience was or even if you plan on attending in the future. As always, thanks for reading!
The smell of fresh-cut grass, hot dogs on the grill, the warmth of the sun as it’s just beginning to cut through the chilly air… it can mean only one thing… Spring is just around the corner and with it comes a timeless seasonal tradition – baseball and softball double headers! We have received a fair number of e-mails lately regarding the semantics of broadcasting double-headers, so we figured a blog on the topic would be pretty useful. That’s the beauty of getting feedback from our wonderful clients… if we see a common thread we know there’s an opportunity for a FAQ. Here are answers to the most commonly asked questions:
Should I schedule the games on the same dial-in code or audio profile?
We do encourage this, and the main reason is that it will allow your fans to hear what’s going on if they click the ‘Listen’ link on game two, but game one is still going on. Let’s use this fairly common real world example:
Game one is scheduled to start at 1:00 and game two at 3:30. Game one goes into the 13th inning and the clock reads 3:45, so naturally the start of game two will be a bit delayed. Meanwhile, Joe Someguy’s grandmother in Cedar Falls, IA wants to hear sonny boy hit home-runs all day, but she knows he is only playing in game two. Round about 3:30 she logs into her AOL account (where she is warmly informed that she has mail), enjoys the first bite of her mashed potatoes and steamed veggie dinner, and inadvertently starts her web cam before cruising over to the portal and clicking the ‘Listen’ link for game two. If you are using the same dial-in code/audio profile, grandma will start to hear the exciting play-by-play audio from the end of game one, and can rest easy knowing that she is not missing any of Josey-posey’s game. If you are using a different dial-in code for each game, she will only see a loading symbol which in the best case will only prompt confusion, and worst case will send Grandma looking for the VCR remote. For all of our sakes, let’s do what’s best for Grandma Somegal.
Do I need to schedule double headers as two separate events?
Yes please! The primary reason for this is we want to separate the events in the portal for fans who are listening on-demand. When we archive the events, we will separate the audio and archive them accordingly so the end user won’t have to sift through the audio from game one to find the start of game two.
Should I hang up my call/stop the audio broadcast between games
Again with the yes. We encourage you to hang up your call (if using dial-in) or end your broadcast (if you’re using Flash Media Live Encoder or Wirecast) between each game. This helps for a couple of reasons – it gives us a pretty clear indication that the first game is over and it helps create separation when we go back to archive your games. Generally a 5-15 minute break is good, but it’s up to you broadcasters whether you want to re-connect the broadcast and just pot your mics down (an important step with grandmothers tuning in worldwide), or wait until you’re ready to start your pre-game show and re-connect then.
How should I schedule the games when the start times may change?
Our suggestion is to schedule your events with approximate start times for game 2… a good rule of thumb is two hours between softball games and two and a half between baseball (seven inning games, three hours for nine inning games). This will change from school to school obviously, and you are going to have the best feel for how long games generally take – so when you initially input game two just use your best estimate for a start time. While you can log in and change the start time if you see that there is going to be a major change (massive weather delay for instance), you can also simply post a portal message for game two that says something to this effect:
“This is game two of a doubleheader, the start time is approximate. It will start 20-30 minutes after game one.”
This will let Grandma know right away not to panic if the game hasn’t started and it’s five minutes past the scheduled start. But remember, as referenced above, if you are using the same dial-in code/audio profile for both games, the fans will start hearing audio from game one which should also tip them off that game two won’t be starting on time.
We hope this helps clear up a few questions, but leave us a comment if you have any others that weren’t covered.
With the Christmas spirit in mind, the Stretch team has assembled a quick wish list of some items that might be useful, depending on your broadcast setup. This list is admittedly rangy (we’re talking Tulowitzki-esque range… shameless I know, but I have to dish out my Colorado love where I can) in terms of budget hit and practicality, but we hope you find an item or two on here that piques your interest.
Fear not those of you who might be averse to pepper spray in the face, you won’t have to run out to Wal-Mart and fight the holiday madness… e-Santa can bring you most of these items from the comfort of your sofa.
This is a nifty little tool that actually docks your iPad and turns it into a professional mixer. Surely in the creative and tinkering hands of our clients there are some brilliant applications for this device, but right off-hand we could envision this little gem as a useful way to record and store interviews/voiceovers etc… In conjunction with the Skype app, it might even be possible to dial in to our system and use this as an entirely self-contained broadcast setup (we haven’t tested this fully, but plan to do so in the near future).
This is a great item that we often suggest to clients looking for an affordable, easy way to broadcast audio using their computer and Flash Media Live Encoder (or in some cases Wirecast). For about $80.00 you can get this 4-channel mixer that interfaces with the USB port of your computer. There are two XLR inputs with individual gain controls, four 1/4″ outputs, and main/headphone outputs with individual level controls. This is a great, inexpensive way to get a broadcast up and running. All you need is this mixer (other models available with more channels), a laptop running FMLE, a headset or two and you are ready to go!
While many of our schools already use a TriCaster, most of the older models don’t support HD streaming. As we venture into the world of HD, the TriCaster 300 (NewTek’s most affordable model with HD for $10 K) sets the stage for schools who want to stream their broadcasts in stunning 720p.
The thing we love most about the RemoteMix 4 is the bluetooth compatibility. If you do a fair number of cell phone broadcasts, this mixer is for you – no more need to run a cable between the cell phone and the mixer! So, yeah, you can broadcast from your pocket. Pretty cool.
Perhaps you’re not on local radio, but would love to be able to have your fans listen to your call while they’re AT the game. Even though we offer mobile streaming, there can be up to a 30-second delay, which isn’t real practical for fans at the venue. But with a low-wattage transmitter and antenna, you can broadcast over a radio frequency in real-time for up a 3,000-foot radius (that’s more than half a mile!). Radio Systems is currently offering their transmitter and power supply for just $99.95 (http://sales.talkinghouse.com/shop/item.aspx?itemid=71) and their outdoor antenna package for $295.
This is an extremely versatile recorder unit that can deliver top-quality sound bites for whatever your needs. Coaches shows, interviews, press conferences etc… Great value for the price tag!
We hope everyone has a safe and happy holiday season! Enjoy some down-time, crank the new Bieber Christmas album, grab a glass of egg-nog (or three) and if you’re an NBA fan like me, enjoy the magic of Lebron James, Dirk Nowitzki, Blake Griffin and Pau Gasol’s beard.
With the busy season in full swing, I wanted to give a quick update on some of the latest happenings around the Stretch offices. Hopefully everyone has a great Thanksgiving holiday and gets a brief reprieve from the madness. If you’re reading this after Thursday, grab yourself a turkey sandwich (second only to watching football all day in sweatpants as the best thing about Thanksgiving) and we’ll catch you up on the latest from Stretch HQ.
Mobile live stats and live blog features up and running:
In case you weren’t aware, both of these features are now fully functional. Here are a couple shots of each in action:
Cardinal Stritch Live Blog
Football mobile stats
Volleyball Mobile Stats
Cumberlands Live Blog
So far the feedback has been good – please keep your suggestions and comments coming.
Pilot HD Streaming:
We’ve begun piloting HD streaming with a handful of clients, as we anticipate moving to more widely available HD platform in the future (stay tuned for future posts on our full-scale transition). We’ve worked with some clients that have HD video sources and plenty of bandwidth, and the results so far have been fantastic. If you haven’t seen it yet, take a look at some Northeastern hockey in HD
There are a handful of other clients who have done some higher bit rate streaming (900-1000 Kbps) successfully, including Yale, Furman and Washington University-St. Louis. If you get a chance, be sure to check out their video as well.
If you’re interested in testing and exploring either HD streaming – or just increasing your bit rate – let us know and we’ll be glad to talk over the options with you.
Stretch had a great time in Chicago at the Symposium for Higher Education
Ryan and I made the trek to Chicago in early November for the AMA event and had a great time speaking with folks (some current clients, some prospective clients) about the benefits of our CampusCentral platform. Prior to the event we had a chance to walk down to Wrigley Field and see some great stuff in a historic and storied city. We even stumbled upon Stretch Bar and Grill and naturally, we decided we had to have lunch there. We put up a few pictures from our trip over on our Facebook page.
We have seen a huge increase in the variety of ways clients are utilizing our streaming platform, and we are excited to see where else the imagination can take things. For those who might be “just” athletics clients and aren’t aware, our CampusCentral platform allows clients to stream a wide variety of events from commencement ceremonies to recitals to presidential addresses. Here’s a glance at a few of our clients who utilize the CampusCentral option:
Ryan has also authored an article on streaming music performances, which will be published next month in the Journal of Performing Arts Leadership in Higher Education. The article is titled, “Streaming Musical Performances at Institutions of Higher Education: A Practical Look at the Benefits, Requirements and Implementation.” We’ll be sure to tweet a link when it’s available on-line – it’s sure to be a great primer for schools looking to break into this area.
Well that’s a quick rundown on some of the things going on around here. We are in full-on-busy-season-mode around here. That’s why this week brings a much welcomed chance to catch our breath and reflect on the things that we are thankful for. I hope everyone has a great Thanksgiving break and eats way too much. If you have to be in a fancy setting (read=no sweat pants)… well, a) I feel sorry for you and, b) make sure to loosen that belt a notch. As someone, somewhere once said eat, drink and be merry!
What makes for a successful web broadcast? While not exactly a straightforward question with a straightforward answer, there are a lot of things that factor in, most of which involve the actual on-air product (I touched on some of them in an earlier blog entry). For the purposes of today’s entry however, I want to focus on some of the habits exhibited by our clients with an extremely low instance of “trouble” broadcasts. As the origination source for roughly 700-1000 broadcasts each week, we have seen our fair share of events here at Stretch – from lectures on the removal of femoral arterial lines to field hockey in Wellesley, Massachusetts all the way to tractor pulling in Chapel Hill, Tennessee. The main goal of our staff is to ensure that every broadcast gets off and running – and if there are problems, you can bet we’re picking up the phone and trying to reach someone who can remedy the issue (as many of our clients can attest to). Think of us as the Mighty Ducks in D2 and trouble broadcasts are team Iceland. We’ve spent many-a-lunch-break perfecting the knuckle puck and yelling “It’s knuckle puck time!”
That may be an exaggeration… we say “it’s knuckle puck time” in a very reasonable, indoor-appropriate voice.
Given that we work with as many broadcasts as we do, we’ve noticed consistent practices that generally increase the odds of a successful broadcast. Many things can cause a broadcast to go south, e.g. a finicky phone line, a power outlet not supplying power, a computer that’s acting like an adolescent (actual technical term), or a broadcaster that chased a Snickers bar with three Red Bulls 20 minutes prior to air-time (still working on a fix for this one). The key to avoiding these issues is to identify them as early as possible and that’s where my ’3 habits of a highly successful broadcaster’ come in to play.
1. Testing… testing… 1, 2, 3
Testing is always a good thing. Test early, test often. We are always here to take your calls and test your audio and/or video stream. From there we can adjust volume, troubleshoot any issues and make sure that your broadcast goes smoothly. We have a handful of clients that, generally speaking, never have problems with their events. Yet they still call us, without fail, 30-60 minutes prior to every broadcast. They call to make sure we’re getting their feed and that everything is a go. This is what we want. We run around the office giving high fives every time we have a successful A/V check. A great sports journalist once said that athletes had a tendency to get luckier the harder they worked (might have made up the great sports journalist part). It seems to work the same with broadcasts – the more time you put into it, the less likely that your broadcast goes haywire.
2. Know your ABC’s
Meaning have a plan A, plan B and plan C… and ideally plan D, E and F. The bottom line is things will go wrong at some point. Call it Murphy’s law, call it A/V boogie monsters, call it network issues but call it something and be prepared for it. Have as many backup options as you can. Bring an extra phone line, an extra ethernet cable, an extra headset, an extra XLR cable – just have as many contingency plans in place as you possibly can. Many of the most popular mixers can be run on batteries for remote broadcasts – so why not keep some batteries on hand in case the power goes out? Have a cell phone that you can use to call the game in the event that your phone line is acting up. We try to create redundancy with our own network and systems, and we try to encourage our clients to do the same.
3. 3, 2, 1 contact
Even if you take care of steps 1 and 2, there is still an inherent risk that something could go wrong during the course of a broadcast. We’ve seen people trip over power cords, power go out in arenas and video cameras go into demo mode. For these and many other reasons, we are always actively monitoring events. If we see something go wrong, we pick up the phone and start calling the names on your contact list. If we can’t get a hold of the first we just keep moving down the list until we reach someone to inform them of the issue. In a perfect world, clients would have a contact available to answer their phones during events (and I wouldn’t have to write really small to fit 3 numbers on my golf scorecard). But we all know that most SIDs wear about 15 different hats, and a phone call in the middle of an event is not always ideal. This is why we ask our clients to provide contact information (in the contact info section of admin) for anyone that might be able to provide assistance during an event. This helps us in our effort to troubleshoot issues quickly and efficiently. Another great tool that helps in this pursuit is a handy little program called Teamviewer. We just started employing this screen-sharing program a few months ago, and already it has been a lifesaver. If you haven’t downloaded this program on your machine yet, shoot us an e-mail for the download link.
We appreciate you glancing over these tips, and we hope that they can help you save a broadcast in the future. Thanks everyone, as always feel free to chime in with comments!
As the calendar nears mid-August, that means one thing for the vast majority of our clients: madness. Students are beginning to arrive, fall is in the air and the 2011-12 sports schedule is about to get underway. I thought this might be a good time to post a few thoughts on broadcasting, specifically sports play-by-play.
First, let me preface – I am not the world’s foremost source of play-by-play knowledge, nor do I claim to be. However, we at Stretch Internet have multiple staff members who come from a broadcasting background, so we draw on what we know. Personally, I come from a background in professional hockey broadcasting – I spent five years calling games for a minor-pro league with stops in Amarillo, TX and Prescott Valley, AZ along the way. I always found that, in broadcasting, (and in any industry for that matter) no matter how good you are, there is always room for improvement. The people who reach the coveted positions are the ones who never stop wanting to get better.
That said, these tips may not be for everyone. I’m sure some of you have been in the business for 30 years and are long past play-by-play 101. But I also know there are a lot of younger college-aged broadcasters calling games to work on their craft, improve their technique and ultimately find a play-by-play job upon graduation. Or, perhaps you’re an SID who wears 22 different hats – eg. media relations, advertising, sales, grounds crew, statistician, athletic trainer, water boy (or girl), head coach, assistant coach, janitor AAANNDD play-by-play broadcaster… you get the point. So, hopefully, a handful of you will find these tips useful, and if you are a seasoned veteran, perhaps you have some other pointers to drop in the comments as well!
Who doesn’t like lists? Let’s simplify this and go with 5 good play-by-play tips:
1. Time and score:
It’s the most basic of broadcasting tips, the most critical piece of information any broadcaster can give, and when you really break it down, it’s the quintessential function of the play-by-play broadcaster. You are in place to relay information about an event to an audience that cannot otherwise get the information. Now, as technology permits in 2011 there are a handful of ways people can get updated scores and information, but you have to assume your listener is driving in a car and will be turning the dial within the first five minutes. You don’t want to go more than 3-4 minutes without resetting the current situation: time remaining, score, situation, down and distance… anything the listener needs to know. There are a variety of ways to remind yourself of this (some suggest using an egg timer to go off every 3 minutes) but try to train yourself to the point where it becomes automatic.
2. Variety is the spice of life, and broadcasting:
There are so many ways to tell a story, and in broadcasting it can be easy to get stuck in certain phrases. With any sport you are going to have repetition – certain things will happen over and over and there’s no real way to get around that. That doesn’t mean you have to describe it the same way every time. Mix up your vocabulary, whip out a thesaurus and try to come up with a new way to say ‘drives down the lane’ or ‘puts a shot on net’ or ‘run up the middle.’ You may not even recognize that some of your phrases are repeated over and over, but take some time to listen to your recordings and identify phrases that you may be using too often. One of the best examples of a broadcaster who can turn a phrase in a variety of ways is Mike ‘Doc’ Emrick, voice of the New Jersey Devils and national hockey broadcaster for the Versus (soon to be NBC Sports) network. Pay attention to the last two minutes of the following clip (where vocabulary is discussed):
Also try to get creative in identifying teams. Instead of using team names, use jersey colors every now and then… ‘White has the puck with three attackers, pushing through center ice with a full head of steam.’
3. Let the game tell the story:
Doc eluded to this in the clip above, but you never want to force something into the call if it doesn’t fit. You may have unearthed a great nugget of information about someone, but you don’t want to use it unless the game gives you an opportunity. Have the information on hand and use it when appropriate.
4. It’s about the game:
This tip probably falls more into the category of personal preference, as there are always going to be certain aspects of broadcasting that spark debate. I have always felt that a good broadcaster allows the game – and not the broadcaster – to be the focus. The fans are tuning in because they like a particular team, rarely because they want to hear you. The goal is always to provide an entertaining, informative and enjoyable broadcast, without confusing yourself as the focus of the broadcast. That’s what makes Vin Scully (legendary Dodgers broadcaster) so unbelievably good at what he does. You can tune in to the game and he seamlessly relays the action to the fan in a way that almost makes you forget he’s there. He becomes a direct connection between fan and event. Don’t get me wrong – there is a time and a place for certain antics, but rarely do you hear broadcasters in the big leagues who have a schtick.
Though I do still chuckle at things like this:
And of course you can’t have the schtick conversation without referencing the infamous Florida Panthers play-by-play broadcaster Randy Moller. For those who aren’t familiar with him, he has carved out a name for himself by tacking on random pop-culture references to the end of every goal call. He even takes e-mails from fans with suggestions for catch phrases. Pretty unique, and I find myself cracking up at a lot of his calls so it’s hard to argue with his method. A few samplings below:
5. Be a boy scout:
Simply put, always be prepared. Do your homework, put in your time and be prepared for the apocalypse (in sports broadcasting this means a blow-out or extended delay). It is a common refrain from the best broadcasters in the business that they often use 10% or less of their prepared material in a given broadcast. This is a good thing, you always want to be over-prepared.
The best example I can give from personal experience is a hockey game I was broadcasting a few years ago in Amarillo, TX. During the intermission, the Zamboni malfunctioned while cleaning the ice and died about fifty feel from the tunnel. A second Zamboni came onto the ice to tow the broken machine (which effectively cleared the ice surface), but unfortunately the second machine’s blade created a giant pothole in the face-off circle. The ice crew tried desperately to repair the ice but temperatures and science were rebutting their efforts. All total, there was a three hour delay before the game resumed and I started handing out radio interviews like chocolate to children. I talked to fans, the trainer, the bus driver… I was on the verge of creating personalities and interviewing myself. The moral of the story is there are certain things you never see coming so always be prepared to improvise, and come with a lot of material.
Well there you have it, thanks for reading and hopefully you find something applicable to your situation. Again, feel free to add comments with other tips you might have or any feedback on this list.
Here at Stretch Internet we take a few things seriously: our streaming, our customers and of course, our office championship sports. As of right now, there are two main Stretch office competitions – office mini-golf and ‘Horse’ played on our Nerf hoop. We subscribe to the work hard, play hard mantra and sometimes the best way to relieve a little stress is by engaging in some friendly competition (mostly friendly anyways). First, the tools -
Our ‘Horse’ rules are pretty standard but there has been some high-level creativity put into the shot selection process. MJ’s famous dunk from the free throw line has been re-created, though we use the term ‘re-created’ loosely. Picture the following dunk minus the athleticism, flare, height, speed, agility and overall awesomeness:
Other favorite shots include the Larry Bird no angle shot, the Salukis-hook shot (bounce the ball off the SIU banner followed by a hook shot), the eyes-closed free throw (another homage to MJ), and a throwback shot that involves maintaining your dribble across the entire office (no easy task with a Nerf ball on carpet) and finishing it off with a 15 foot jump shot. Let’s just say nobody in this office will be confused with Steve Nash anytime soon.
On the golf front, we have carved out a scenic little 3-hole course with breathtaking views and a truly challenging experience for beginners and novices… OK in reality it’s just a door frame, a rack unit and a desk leg that we’ve made into a 3-hole course around the office. While certain rules add some flavor to the games, like extra points for a hole-in-one, skunking the opponent or hitting two holes in one shot, the general rules hold true to the game’s roots.
We maintain a running score of all our games on a giant dry-erase board to keep track of overall standings. Developing the scoring system took some time (probably past the threshold of ‘at what point does this become embarrassing to admit’) but we now have a complicated system of algorithms and long division that would make the BCS look remedial.
We are getting close to crowning the 2010-11 Stretch Internet office-golf champion, and with some new staffers joining us the 2011-12 season is sure to bring some stiff competition.
We do try to mix in some fun with our work here at Stretch, as we’re sure a lot of you do too. Any stories of workplace competitions or a favorite game that you and your coworkers enjoy? Leave a comment!
If you were the literal type, you could interpret the picture above to mean the customer comes last… of course that is the opposite of the truth here at Stretch where the customer always comes first! Here is where we insert an emoticon to represent clean-cut, smiling, sparkly- tooth teen from the 60′s. How about:
=)*
Not bad right? Asterisks DO have a purpose besides reminding us of the steroids era.
Anyways, I would like to take a blog-post worth of your time to talk about one of the driving forces behind the Stretch Internet brand – customer service. Please be forewarned there may be some horn tooting going on in this post, but we do want to express the importance we place on service, as well as hear from those of you who are clients and get your thoughts. It has always been our goal to provide customer service that dazzles, or that knocks the proverbial sock off. Having recently returned from the 2011 CoSIDA convention in Marco Island, FL, Ryan was pleased to hear the overwhelmingly positive response to our service. Quite honestly, while not downplaying the genuine sense of pride we get from hearing this feedback, this is what we expect to hear – anything less would mean we simply aren’t doing our job properly. That said, we were happy to see that our efforts are helping to make your streaming experience as painless as possible.
The backbone of Stretch has always been, and always will be our customer service. It is something that we take a great deal of pride in, and something that we truly feel sets us apart from the field. We have staff in place that is ready to assist you from start to finish with your broadcasting needs. Another bonus of our platform is that we do just one thing – streaming – and we do it very well. So anytime you call in to reach us you can rest assured that you will reach a tech who can help you resolve your issue. You won’t get anything like this:
Recently a client e-mailed us that there was some discussion about our product in a recent SID chat hosted by Union College SID Jay Stancil. These are unsolicited client comments that we were not aware of until after the fact. We were pleased to read people’s responses, and felt like they provided an unfiltered, honest review of our service. Here are a few samples of what people had to say, you can find the full chat transcript here.
UWPlatt_SID: Does anyone have any recommendations for webstreaming providers? 2:12
Ryan (Coe): Stretch Internet 2:13
Jay (UC_SID): We use Stretch and love it 2:13
Eric Scott (ericscott21): As a viewer, Stretch has been the best…just never worked with it. 2:13
Aaron (PanthersSID): Ryan and his staff at Stretch are second to none in customer service…anytime there is a problem…they are all over it…easy to work with! 2:14
Jay (UC_SID): Stretch is great to work with. Highly recommend them 2:14
Comment From DrGeoff (Indy) Stretch is great 2:16
Matt (Milligan): We don’t use Stretch, but I love when we play at a school with Stretch. I really like the interface they have. 2:16
UWPlatt_SID: I think Stretch seems to be the consensus. 2:14
First of all, a big thanks to those of you who are spreading the good word about our service. We are grateful for the kind words and we find a lot of schools seek us out because of all you good people, so thanks again!
All that being said, we are still constantly seeking out new ideas and ways to improve our customer service. Here are a few things that we are implementing this year to help continue improving our customer relations:
1. First, we will be adding to the staff here at Stretch by hiring 1-2 Operations & Customer Care Specialists. More clients lead to more streams lead to more customer support needs, therefore we are expanding the Stretch family. Again, any time you call us with a question or anytime we call you, the tech on the phone will be more than capable of getting your stream up and running.
2. For new clients, and existing clients who may be expanding their service, we will be setting you up with your own ‘Project Manager’. One of our capable support techs will work with you one-on-one from the very beginning to help you clear up any questions and make sure that you’re ready to go when your first event rolls around. We can walk you through any equipment needs, run a test feed from the broadcast location and help gauge your network connection to ensure that your stream will hold steady. It is important to note here that once the initial setup is complete, you aren’t restricted to your project manager in terms of support needs. In other words we will have one person who helps you through the initial phase, and from there any one of our techs can address future problems (which, if all goes well, will be few and far between).
3. We are in the process of implementing a new system that will allow us to screen-share with our clients when they are on site for a broadcast. If you have ever used Go to my PC or some similar software that should give you a rough idea of what we are talking about. If you are having problems on site that we cannot address over the phone, our techs will actually be able to remotely access your machine, allowing us to get a better look at what might be causing the problem. And lest any big brother-esque fears arise, the program will have to be activated on both ends to allow us access to your machine, so fear not. Once activated, we can take a closer look at any software or system settings that might be causing an issue. Our hope is that this will prevent most technical issues as we will be able to check and adjust the client’s local settings.
That gives you some insight into our philosophy on customer care. What are your thoughts? What are some things that you look for to indicate good vs. bad customer service? Examples?
One interesting sidebar is the use of social media in customer service. There are many companies that have branched into social media, particularly twitter, as an outlet for customer service. In fact a big reason we are expanding our social media presence is in an effort to further connect with our customers. While we have debated using twitter for customer service, we haven’t come up with a useful/efficient method on incorporating this into the fold for the direct purpose of customer care. Any thoughts on this? Let us know and thanks for reading – until next time!
Stretch Internet is proud to unveil ‘Taffy’ – our official company blog where we hope to keep you current on all the latest streaming news – stretch-related and otherwise – to inform you, interact with you and maybe even entertain you once in awhile. It’s an unofficially official re-introduction to our blog and we are hopeful that you will like what you find. With our family of clients ever-growing we aim to provide a platform where we can interact directly with you the broadcaster, you the SID, you the administrator – or in some cases, you all of the above. Planned topics to range anywhere from discussions on new technologies unveiled by us, to reviews of new hardware or software that may benefit the client. You might stop by to find a post on answers to frequently asked questions or we may treat you to a Q&A with one of our school’s broadcasters or sports information directors. The options are truly open-ended and the bottom line is that we want to provide something valuable, engaging and create an atmosphere where we can help you, you can help us and you can even help one another. It’s really a win-win-win (those are a thing now, we just created a Wikipedia page).
Why Taffy? Great question, glad you asked. First and foremost, who doesn’t like Taffy?
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In all seriousness, the thought process behind the name Taffy was we wanted a name that was a little off the beaten path that would stick in your memory (no pun intended). Also, Taffy is a stretchy material (pun intended) and we hope that this site will provide material that will stick with the reader (we’re done, promise). And so… Taffy was born.
Since 2003, when Stretch Internet was founded, the primary goal has been to provide unmatched customer service. Our feeling is that this blog, as well as some of our other recent social media initiatives, is just an organic extension of that mission (click the header to find us on Facebook and Twitter). We hope that we can use all of these tools to further connect with our customers. As for Taffy, we plan to go wherever it may go, with your help, reaction and feedback along the way. Mainly, we hope that you find something worthwhile, that you throw our blog feed into your RSS reader and stop by throughout the course of your week to see what’s going on here at Taffy.
On that note, please feel free to leave us a comment to let us know what you think – what are some blog topics that you would find interesting and/or useful?
