Streamcheck Live Event Report

Live Event Report: U2 Webcast (Oct 10th, 2001)

Stream URLs

"Camera 1" rtsp://go.rbn.com/u2/u2_cams/band1/live/cam1.rm
"Camera 2" rtsp://go.rbn.com/u2/u2_cams/band2/live/cam2.rm
"Camera 3" rtsp://go.rbn.com/u2/u2_cams/band2/live/cam3.rm
"Camera 4" rtsp://go.rbn.com/u2/u2_cams/band2/live/cam4.rm
"Concert" rtsp://go.rbn.com/u2/u2_stage/live/concert.rm

Live Event Duration

From [ 10-Oct-01 21:00:00 PM ] To [ 10-Oct-01 22:30:00 PM ] ( Duration: 1:30:0 )

Report Date

13-Oct-01 1:42:06 PM

Time Zone

GMT-05:00

#3061-25

Introduction

On October 10th, Streamcheck monitored the live U2 concert webcast from Notre Dame, Indiana. The two hour event was hosted by Tiscali in Europe and RBN in the United States. 5 different streams were available to users who went to the concert website: 4 camera angles and a mixed feed.

Streamcheck used measurement computers (scanners) in 12 cities throughout the US, Canada and Europe. Each scanner is equipped with software that mimics the behavior of a regular streaming user. In this case, the streams were presented only in RealPlayer format but Streamcheck can also measure Windows Media streams.

The webcast was monitored from 9:00pm to 11:30pm EDT. Each stream was checked approximately 125 times during that period (i.e. a checking frequency of 50 checks per hour). Each check lasts 60 seconds during which the scanner attempts to connect to the streaming server and render the content.

This report, and all of its corresponding data, is copyrighted material belonging to Streamcheck. No reproduction or transmission is allowed without express written consent from Streamcheck. For more information, contact Streamcheck. "Streamcheck" and "StreamQ" are registered trademarks of Streamcheck.

Summary Graphs

Legend

Below is shown the locations of the scanners involved. More detail on the locations can be found in the "Location List" table in the "Summary Data" section. Also shown is a color scale calibrated to the quality range experienced during the event. (For this event, no StreamQ™ lower than B- was measured.) StreamQ™ is Streamcheck's proprietary metric that evaluates the end-user experience. It is based on start-up time and the number of interruptions in the first minute.

Quality Snapshots

Four time snapshots, separated by 30 minute intervals, are shown below. The StreamQ™ in each location is shown with a colored circle corresponding to the legend above. The quality was at its lowest during the 10:00pm snapshot.

Summary Data

Ability To Connect

Overall

LA- 1

Dal-1

Alex- 1

Hobo-1

Balt- 1

Kans-1

Atla- 2

Tor-4

Chic- 1

Bost-1

Lon- 1

Ger-1

Checks Performed

776

Percentage of Overall Total Checks

100.0%

12.4%

11.1%

8.8%

8.2%

8.0%

7.5%

5.7%

7.7%

7.2%

9.3%

8.5%

5.7%

Successful Connections

754

Percentage of Total Checks

97.2%

97.9%

100.0%

96.9%

93.5%

96.6%

90.9%

93.3%

96.4%

100.0%

95.5%

Failed Connections

Percentage of Total Checks

2.8%

2.1%

0.0%

3.1%

6.5%

3.4%

9.1%

6.7%

3.6%

0.0%

4.5%

Frustration Time & StreamQ™ (Successful Checks Only)

(Avg Per Check)

Overall

LA-1

Dal-1

Alex-1

Hobo-1

Balt-1

Kans-1

Atla-2

Tor-4

Chic-1

Bost-1

Lon-1

Ger- 1

Frustration Time (sec)

7.7

100

6.7

100

7.3

100

7.5

100

7.7

100

8.7

100

7.8

100

7.9

100

7.3

100

7.6

100

7.7

100

8.4

100

9.6

100

Connection Time (sec)

1.4

18.2

1.1

16.1

1.3

17.9

1.2

15.7

1.3

16.4

2.1

24.6

1.2

15.6

1.2

15.1

1.2

16.1

1.1

15.0

1.4

18.7

1.9

23.1

2.2

22.8

Buffer Time (sec)

6.3

80.8

5.7

83.9

6.0

82.1

6.3

84.3

6.4

83.6

6.6

75.4

6.4

81.7

6.8

84.9

6.1

83.9

6.5

85.0

6.3

81.3

6.2

74.4

6.7

69.3

Rebuffer Time (sec)

0.1

1.0

0.0

0.2

2.8

0.0

0.2

2.5

0.8

7.9

Bit Rate Achieved (Successful Checks Only)

Overall

LA-1

Dal-1

Alex-1

Hobo-1

Balt-1

Kans-1

Atla-2

Tor-4

Chic-1

Bost-1

Lon-1

Ger-1

Average Bit Rate (kbps)

78.7

70.6

75.1

78.3

82.2

84.6

83.4

85.7

80.7

83.2

74.0

77.8

79.3

Lowest Bit Rate (kbps)

26.0

33.0

64.0

40.0

81.0

33.0

29.0

26.0

27.0

35.0

Highest Bit Rate (kbps)

100.0

92.0

94.0

90.0

93.0

96.0

93.0

94.0

88.0

91.0

100.0

Location List

Location Name

Description

Location Name

Description

LA- 1

Los Angeles CA (UUNet Sprint ...)

Dal-1

Dallas TX (Genuity Qwest ...)

Alex-1

Alexandria VA (Verio)

Hobo-1

Hoboken NJ (Qwest)

Balt-1

Baltimore MD (Level3 UUNet ...)

Kans-1

Kansas City MO (UUnet GlobalCrossing ...)

Atla-2

Atlanta GA (UUNet Sprint ...)

Tor-4

Toronto ON (UUNet)

Chic-1

Chicago IL (UUNet GlobalCrossing ...)

Bost-1

Boston MA (Genuity UUNet ...)

Lon-1

London UK (Level 3)

Ger-1

Dusseldorf Germany (UUNet)

Detail Graphs

Connection Success Rate by Location

Below is shown the total success rate from each location, for all five streams monitored. Alexandria and Dallas had perfect connectivity which is typical, given that those two cities are major internet hubs for North America. Atlanta, Toronto and Baltimore had the worst connectivity.

Frustration Time by Location

Here you can see how the user experience varied across different locations. The stacked bar graph shows connection time (red), buffer time (green) and rebuffer time (cyan). The connect time from the Germany scanner to the servers was double the average time, possibly indicating DNS issues. Germany also had the most rebuffering (interruptions) which are very detrimental to user experience. Note that although the London scanner had 100% availability, it had longer-than-average connect times and some rebuffering.

Bitrate by Location

This graph shows the average bit rate experienced from each scanner across all five streams.

Bitrate Over Time

This graph shows how bitrate varied across time from all scanners and for all streams. The blue squares represent individual checks. The steep drop in bitrate at 10:45 reflects the end of the concert and the switch to a looping "Thanks for watching" message, encoded at 30k. That data isn't reflected in any of the numbers or graphs above because checks after 10:30pm were trimmed away.