EDINBURGH LIVE STREAMING DIARY
Mike Stanger's Edinburgh Live-streaming International Diary
(Figures after each date show the accumulated viewer-minutes on the cricketscotlandtvlive channel since December 2010)
Sunday 10 July - 670,000 (of which 620,000 was achieved from the I-Cup final in Dubai)
Arrive at Portgower Place at 10.00 in order to film and interview a pre-recorded package with the Irish captain and coach for the opening half-hour the following day. Both Phil Simmons and William Porterfield were their usual affable selves, after their fielding work-out on a damp outfield. The heavy overnight rain had also seeped onto both pitches prepared by groundsman Lee Spendlove, whose 'staff' laboured to search for and patch holes in the surrounding sheets pierced by unthinking players' studded boots.
At roughly the same time, Jack McGill and Jamie Hare have arrived in Ayr to do another package with Calum MacLeod, which featured the former Warwickshire player taliing about his two years of purdah as various people strained to help him correct his 'illegal' bowling action (I will post this video onto the YouTube channel soon, as it deserves a wide audience)...
The Sri Lankans arrived for a look at the Grange ground, then decided they had no need of any practice in the rain, so left again.
The rest of the afternoon was devoted to setting the cables to rehearse the live streaming technology, and testing the internet access for the following day... the former was fine, the latter was - not unusually - a bit dodgy, so I set a second cable to attach ourselves a different router, and to have a choice - probably a wise move, in retrospect!
Left Portgower Place at around 19.00.
Monday 11 July - Accumulated viewer-minutes: 820,000
Arrived in Stockbridge at the ludicrously early hour of 06.00 - my wristwatch had broken down, and with my bleary early-morning eyes, I had misread my mobile phone clock as '06.02', when it was actually '05.02'!
The early start enabled me to set up the five cameras and connect the whole technology together well in advance of our opening efforts. As ever, the 'bells and whistles' were what took the time, while the basic configuration of three cameras was always solid and reliable. Those adjectives also apply to Geoff Webster and Keith Graham, our two key commentators, who spent a most frustrating day watching nothing very much!
It was very cloudy all morning, and the rain dribbled on and off until the early afternoon. The 13.00 pitch inspection postponed the final decision until 14.30, by which time the sun had come out and the temperature had climbed 10 degrees! Naturally, the umpires abandoned the game. The sun lasted well into the evening.
We put the latest information on the endless 'ticker' that our Livestream platform enables, and did a 40-minute live webcast immediately after the umpires' decision, to explain what was happening. So it was an early finish for us at 17.00. Amazingly, the viewer stats showed that 157,000 viewer-minutes had been recorded... presumably people tuned to Livestream in case play started!
Tuesday 12 July - Accumulated viewer-minutes 1,300,000
Arrived at the Citylets Grange ground in bright sunlight, and set up the streaming equipment again as the ground staff worked away with the roller and outfield cutters, and removed all flat sheeting - but the mobile covers stayed close - just in case!
Producer Paul Bradley and the BBC Radio Scotland crew turned up in force - we were being allowed to relay their commentary output to the global audience of our live streaming webcast, so we could concentrate on the pictures. Their team included Barry Chambers, the knowledgeable Cricket Ireland media manager, and former Scotland captain Ryan Watson, both of whom revealed themselves as brilliant and naturally analytical broadcasters.
Everything was set, and what was to turn out a classic and memorable game of cricket started - and finished - on time and in hot sunshine. Apart from some sound glitches during the first ten minutes (our fault entirely), the cricketscotlandtvlive webcast seemed to go well, uninterrupted throughout the day, with lots of complimentary comments from viewers in Ireland and elsewhere.
And we were fortunate to have been rewarded with such a brilliantly competitive display of exciting and awesome cricket. Paul Stirling's innings lit up the first innings from the beginning. Scotland's change bowlers brought us back into the game, illuminated by that stunning Majid catch. And what might have been an Irish total of 360+ was 'restrained' to just 320 - as predicted by Ryan Watson an hour earlier - which was still an Irish record against Scotland (previously their 284 in Kenya in 2007).
The second half showed what Scotland's batters can do when they pull together. An opening partnership of 129 by Fraser Watts and Kyle Coetzer lifted the hearts of the 800-strong crowd. And Livestream's real-time viewer counter climbed to 2,300 individual computers (previous highest in Dubai was 550).
Whatever the result, however, this match was already a classic encounter clearly heading for a close finish. Richie Berrington joined Josh Davey in the middle to prepare for an astonishing finale that had the onlookers ecstatic. Barry Chambers had already labelled this bunch of Scottish cricketers as the best had seen for several years. Ryan Watson predicted the power play would be taken from the 42nd over, but hid whatever doubts he might have had about the possibility of scoring at 10 an over for those five overs. Berrington then opened his shoulders. Six times the ball disappeared out of sight. A couple of fours and a few quick singles, and he had reached his 50 in 20 balls... putting him into the all-time top ten fastest half-centuries in ODI cricket. Scotland had nine balls to spare when they crossed the finishing line.
We had been treated to a magnificent game, and we had been able to beam it live to anyone anywhere in the world who was interested. Our viewer stats showed that another 480,000 viewer-minutes had been harvested, with a peak of 1,300 simultaneous viewers. The comments on Facebook and Twitter were full of praise for the efforts both on and off the field. We enjoyed the post-match wind-down - and the Scotland coaching team of Pete Steindl and Tony Judd basked in the applause by 'taking the sun' on the Grange terracing.
Wednesday 13 July - Accumulated viewer-minutes: 2,057,000
Another, rare, day of sun from early morning to late evening. The Grange ground capacity had been limited to just 1,500 by the absence of spectator stands. The gates were closed 'early doors', as the cliche would most appropriately indicate, and scores of would-be paying admissions were denied access, unless they watch over the wall. The Sri Lankan support was perhaps 200-strong, vocal and enjoying themselves. This was to be the first official ICC ODI between the two countries in Scotland, and only the second home match of any kind between Scotland and the Sri Lankans (the first was a three-day rain-affected game in 1979, when Scotland's first innings at Poloc totalled 120, while the visitors were 114 all out in their first outing).
Our Sportstream team interviewed captain Gordon Drummond and coach Pete Steindl on their reflections of the previous day's outstanding victory, and managed a chat to Tillkeranthe Dilshan, too to start our third consecutive day's webcast.
But the internet did not rise to the occasion. Not sure why. Our set-up was exactly the same. But even the media's specially-provided wi-fi service was showing the strain. Most probably, the Livestream servers in California were 'overwhelmed' by the demand from viewers in Sri Lanka - our counter peaked at 3,200 simultaneous viewers, and never dropped below 1,500.
Unfortunately, such was the demand for internet access around the ground - one Sri Lankan fan was even watching our coverage on his iPhone, even though the live action was taking place just yards in front of him - that our streamed output kept dropping off as Jack McGill and I struggled to control the uncontrollable. I have yet to review the recorded material to try to understand what actually was happening.
Nevertheless, from the Twitter generation, we got some useful technical advice (we reduced the data quality of our output to try to relieve the 'symptoms') and plenty of grateful comments from Sri Lanka... thanks to everyone who got in touch. The match itself yielded a good effort by Scotland in the field, an astonishing display of unorthodox yorker bowling by Malinga the slinger, and - thanks to Majid - avoidance of a record low score against a Test-playing country. Compared to the previous day, however, it was chalk and cheese.
Thursday 14 July - Accumulated viewer-minutes 2,179,000
Woke to find that more than 100,000 viewer-minutes had been added to our tally overnight - more than 1,500 viewer-hours. This can only be accounted for by people who had 'discovered' cricketscotlandtvlive and were sampling the wide-ranging stock of videos-on-demand. The internet, so infuriating at times, is proving to be a wonderful addition to the profile of Scottish cricket.
