The Internet still has miles to go before it can rival conventional TV. Even
fast modems and ISDN access can鈥檛 help if the main delivery system is
overloaded. This message came across loud and clear from the fuzzy, disjointed
video images that arrived from Web coverage of the NetAid gigs held in London,
Geneva and New York on 9 October. The UN-backed website (www.netaid.org) used
1500 servers at 90 locations round the world. Cisco Systems (www.cisco.com) and
the NetAid organisers designed the system to handle 125 000 simultaneous hits,
and up to 1 million in any one minute鈥攖en times the peak Internet coverage
of the last Olympics. NetAid鈥檚 target was to break the billion-hit barrier by
the end of the event.
Internet news reports after the event鈥攕earch for 鈥淣etAid鈥� at
http://dailynews.yahoo.com鈥攑ut the total number of people who tried to
access the webcast at 2.4 million. Those who did log on had to download the
latest version of the RealPlayer G2 decoding software (from www.realaudio.com)
before they could receive live video and sound.
Even Netropolitan鈥檚 snazzy 64 kilobits per second ISDN access
鈥攆eeding a 500-megahertz Windows 98 PC鈥攄idn鈥檛 help. It delivered
live pictures that frequently collapsed into a mishmash of frozen and blurred
images. Software metering showed that material coded at 34 K was often delivered
at an average of 4 K鈥攁nd sometimes dropped out completely. Frustrated users
were advised to access a menu of backstage interviews instead of the live stage
show.
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Watching NetAid on TV got you a much better experience, and TV stations in
60 countries were relaying the events live. So, until ultrafast, 鈥渁lways-on鈥�
telecoms systems like ADSL emerge鈥攇iving you up to 10 megabits per second
access鈥擭etropolitan鈥檚 advice to those planning such events is this: stick
to the appropriate technology. The Net is good, but it ain鈥檛 that good . . . yet.
