dubbledee
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 Original Post 2012-Jan-15, 08:14 PM
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Not surprisingly, today's racecourses are awash with technology.
Most of us carry a mobile; many of us carry a smart phone; some have tablets or netbooks, etc. I started going to the races when transistor radios were banned, and when the nearest phone was in a red booth a mile down the road. Now I feel let down when I can't log in to a TAB site. 
Things seem to work fine on "normal" days, but from my experience, the services go into meltdown on the big days. I know that it can be impossible to make a mobile call from EF on Melbourne Cup day.
Yesterday at GC, with a crowd of around 17,000 packed in like veritable sardines, I found that the mobile phone network was a log jam. We were also unable to connect to the net. The wasn't a problem for me, but I'm sure it was for others. Hopefully, it saved some from having a losing bet. The tote was also "down" for part of the day. Presumably the problems are inter-related.
What happened at Flemington over the Carnival days? Were phone and net services locked up??
Will be appreciated if forumites with experience/knowledge in modern communications throw in their thoughts on these matters.
What can a race club do to alleviate any or some of the frustrations? Is it feasible to have an on-course network to serve up to 10,000 Tweeters? Or can there be a "booster" transmitter for the major networks.
As ya see, I don't know a lot about this stuff.
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manikato1
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2012-Jan-15, 08:28 PM
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DD,
Not quite sure if this is relevant, but was at the Melbourne Victory Adelaide game at AAMI Park on Friday night. One of the guys I was with was mentioning that when they play games at Docklands he has far more trouble with his devices than at AAMI. His conclusion was that the stadium may have been designed with this in mind, whereas Docklands was built in the late 90's and this sort of infrastructure was probably not even thought of. Will be interesting to see the deal with the new stand at Randwick.
I know that during the carnival TVN made a big deal about the telstra 3G network having more bandwidth (is that the right term?) being available, whether it made a difference of not I don't know.
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Steve M
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2012-Jan-15, 08:29 PM
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It was an issue in Victoria during spring - particularly Caulfield - Moonee Valley had some issues - think Flemington was ok - though no good for me on Stakes Day.
Raceclubs got in touch with providers for major days to beef up services after initial issues.
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dubbledee
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2012-Jan-15, 08:32 PM
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Thanks, guys.
There's nothing clever in me saying "it's a problem that's not gonna go away".
Hope some others can relate their experiences.
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Peter Mair
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2012-Jan-15, 09:33 PM
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The 'awash' does not extend to basics like sectionals in real time, among other things -- like using CCTV footage to identify and investigate insiders milking the TAB's little punters.
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MagiC~*
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2012-Jan-15, 09:44 PM
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Comes down to over subscription to the network, and not having enough bandwidth for the increased mobile devices trying to connect to the towers that are around.
The solution is to bring in mobile mobile phone towers to cope with the extra demand
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mugpunter
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2012-Jan-16, 05:43 AM
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In terms of the Goldie TAB meltdown last Saturday, today's paper says.................."there appears to be no mechanical or equipment failure on the part of the Turf Club. It looks like a communication error and we are looking at diagnostic reports with Telstra to determine the cause."
Even though only certain sections of the Turf Club were affected whilst other areas were not, this is a huge financial betting loss to the club on their busiest day of the year with near record attendances. :
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« Last Edit: 2012-Jan-16, 06:10 AM by mugpunter »
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dubbledee
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2012-Jan-16, 08:47 AM
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mug, certainly a concern for the Club that the tote went "down". Ya wanna keep the troops happy.
As for the huge financial betting loss to the Club, given my understanding of the level of "commission" paid to the Club it might not have been all that great.
(The loss to the industry, via ProductCo, is another tina turner.)
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triple7
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2012-Jan-16, 09:23 AM
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Comes down to over subscription to the network, and not having enough bandwidth for the increased mobile devices trying to connect to the towers that are around.
The solution is to bring in mobile mobile phone towers to cope with the extra demand
This is the issue. First day of the Caulfield carnival last spring was another meltdown, additional towers and or bandwidth was put in place for day 2 and things were far smoother. Suncorp Stadium is the same, when ever there is a big event / crowd the network is completely jammed. It is a matter of sporting and racing clubs, the grounds and or courses and the Telcos starting to work out how much bandwidth that will be required. They seem to continually under estimate it at present. |
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seal
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2012-Jan-16, 09:47 AM
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always been a problem at randwick on the bigger days Not "fixing it" , means I end up betting on course - prob a good thing for the clubs  |
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mugpunter
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2012-Jan-16, 09:58 AM
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mug, certainly a concern for the Club that the tote went "down". Ya wanna keep the troops happy.
As for the huge financial betting loss to the Club, given my understanding of the level of "commission" paid to the Club it might not have been all that great.
(The loss to the industry, via ProductCo, is another tina turner.)
Ya half right DD!  A dollar to be made for the GCTC is a dollar to be made - and we lost heaps - and not for something stoopid we did! Doesn't sit well with us!  Not to mention the poor patrons! More  |
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calgary
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2012-Jan-16, 12:16 PM
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I am with 3 and was pretty much cooked after Race 2 on each of the carnival days at Flemington.
Mate had a iPad hooked up to Telstra which worked ok but was still far slower than it would be in the outside world.
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dubbledee
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2012-Jan-16, 12:17 PM
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mug, understand there's a loss for the Club when punters can't bet on course. I reckon though, most Qld clubs would be getting just a few cents in the dollar from on course TAB bets. Was just querying the "huge loss". (I fully understand that a dollar lost is a dollar lost.)
When I couldn't bet, I just drank and ate a bit more. 
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mugpunter
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2012-Jan-16, 12:23 PM
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dubbledee
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2012-Jan-16, 12:28 PM
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If the solution was (reasonbly? relatively?) simple, ya'd think the reps of the main providers would be knocking on doors of the major sporting shows? 
I expect the providers also lose out when their customers can't connect.
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