This Doesn't Bode Well: FCC Can't Figure Out Online Streaming For Its Own Meetings

from the and-they-want-to-regulate-stuff? dept

Fri, Aug 28th 2009 1:09pm — Mike Masnick

If there were any gov't body that you would hope would have a handle on basic things like online streaming of video and audio, it would be the FCC, which is supposed to be regulating communications, right? But... that's not how the government works. During yesterday's meeting, in which it announced plans to investigate the wireless industry, apparently the online stream required the use of RealPlayer (welcome to 1999) and only allowed 200 simultaneous connections. Perhaps instead of investigating the wireless carriers, the FCC should investigate its own broadband connections and streaming setup.

Thank you for reading this Techdirt post. With so many things competing for everyone’s attention these days, we really appreciate you giving us your time. We work hard every day to put quality content out there for our community.

Techdirt is one of the few remaining truly independent media outlets. We do not have a giant corporation behind us, and we rely heavily on our community to support us, in an age when advertisers are increasingly uninterested in sponsoring small, independent sites — especially a site like ours that is unwilling to pull punches in its reporting and analysis.

While other websites have resorted to paywalls, registration requirements, and increasingly annoying/intrusive advertising, we have always kept Techdirt open and available to anyone. But in order to continue doing so, we need your support. We offer a variety of ways for our readers to support us, from direct donations to special subscriptions and cool merchandise — and every little bit helps. Thank you.

–The Techdirt Team

Filed Under: broadband, fcc, streaming

22 Comments

If you liked this post, you may also be interested in...

Reader Comments

Subscribe: RSS

View by: Time | Thread

TriZz (profile), 28 Aug 2009 @ 12:59pm

It's hard to trust the FCC...
...to make these decisions when they choose RealPlayer for online streaming.
[ link to this | view in thread ]
Chronno S. Trigger (profile), 28 Aug 2009 @ 1:11pm

Re: It's hard to trust the FCC...
I can't believe that over 200 people agreed to watch the FCC after they saw they needed real player.
[ link to this | view in thread ]
ChurchHatesTucker (profile), 28 Aug 2009 @ 1:19pm

Re: Re: It's hard to trust the FCC...
Real Player is still around? I had no idea.

Where do these people come from?
[ link to this | view in thread ]
Matt (profile), 28 Aug 2009 @ 1:34pm

_THIS_ is why you suspect the FCC may not be competent?
[ link to this | view in thread ]
Mike Masnick (profile), 28 Aug 2009 @ 2:01pm

Re:
Just one of many reasons...
[ link to this | view in thread ]
Ryan, 28 Aug 2009 @ 2:03pm

I'm glad we have these people around to tell us what to do. Obviously there's just no way innovation would ever occur without bureaucrats lagging ten years behind around to guide our hands and tell everyone what to do...
[ link to this | view in thread ]
Doug B (profile), 28 Aug 2009 @ 2:10pm

But...
Realplayer is "the best, audio, video, flash and media player"

I mean it's "The standard for audio and video streaming online."

http://www.google.com/search?q=realplayer

;-)
[ link to this | view in thread ]
Anonymous Coward, 28 Aug 2009 @ 2:11pm

President Obama's folks has been successful at streaming meetings.

That damned technically inclined President Obama and his IT-loving, broadband embracing, blog watching team... The FCC could learn a lot from that President everyone thinks is from Kenya.

I actually think he's an alien the planet Ork and arrived in a large egg-shaped space ship, has a friend named Mindy McConnell, but who really knows.
[ link to this | view in thread ]
Dark Helmet (profile), 28 Aug 2009 @ 2:16pm

Re:
Dude...Mindy was hot.
[ link to this | view in thread ]
Bob, 28 Aug 2009 @ 2:26pm

Re:
There's probably some truth to that, and Barney Frank knows the truth--

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nYlZiWK2Iy8
[ link to this | view in thread ]
Free Wii Points, 28 Aug 2009 @ 2:40pm

Yeah someone should investigate the FCC.
[ link to this | view in thread ]
Anonymous Coward, 28 Aug 2009 @ 3:10pm

Really thing like the FCC hearings are better carried on cable and sat, rather than trying to push it over the internet. It is the sort of thing you want to tivo and then fast foward through to get to the good parts, because most of it is useless.
[ link to this | view in thread ]
Anonymous Coward, 28 Aug 2009 @ 3:50pm

Re:
Where would society be without lawyers, lobbyists, and politicians?
[ link to this | view in thread ]
Anonymous Coward, 28 Aug 2009 @ 3:52pm

Re:
Actually, he was born on krypton.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vws9fTtQgz4
[ link to this | view in thread ]
Bryan, 28 Aug 2009 @ 4:52pm

200 Connections
Perhaps they limited it to only 200 connections because their server is in the well-connected US with its amazing broadband availability?
[ link to this | view in thread ]
Captain Obvious, 28 Aug 2009 @ 5:10pm

Re: Re:
A lot better off. ^_^
[ link to this | view in thread ]
Brett Glass, 28 Aug 2009 @ 7:59pm

The RealPlayer limit was most likely imposed by RealNetworks.
They license their server software with a certain maximum number of streams.

However, what this article fails to mention (and what makes it very wrong!) is that the meeting was also streamed using Cisco WebEx Webinar software, which as far as I can tell had no maximum number of users.
[ link to this | view in thread ]
Michael Kohne, 28 Aug 2009 @ 8:00pm

Last job...
My last job was with a subsidiary of a company whose tagline is 'Assured Communications'. Starting soon after I arrived, we had quarterly meetings with home office. They tried 2 or 3 times and were NEVER able to get a webcast to work (this was from one location to perhaps two dozen conference rooms around the country). Eventually they gave up and distributed the powerpoint ahead of time and each conference room dialed in and put the thing on speaker. Someone locally then kept the powerpoints in sync with what the boss had to say.

It worked very well, but I'm just saying that if people in the buisness couldn't do it, then you shouldn't expect anyone else to do it right.
[ link to this | view in thread ]
Anonymous Coward, 29 Aug 2009 @ 6:57am

Re: Last job...
Of course, the company with the tagline "Assured Communications" is one of the top 50 government contractors.... so maybe that's the problem.
[ link to this | view in thread ]
NO-Multicast-Tunnels-then, 29 Aug 2009 @ 8:27am

thats what you get
thats what you get when you cant even regulate that your and the worlds ISP's DO NOT filter off the Multicast point to multipoint data streams...

NO [b]web side Multicast[/b], No Fun, and lots of wasted bandwidth for a simple single unicast video stream to many unicast viewers.

hell theres Not even any generic free services that bother to provide tunneled Multicast options to the users,even on most free ipV6 tunnels around the world today and thats a shame.

the Multicast protocol has beed aroudn for a Very Long time and yet the worlds ISPs nearly always filter it off their networks to and from you wanting to simply VLC Multicast stream your content.

They should be forced to turn this IP Multicast protocol back on as its provided as standard on ALL ISP grade rounter and related cable kit sat on your desk.
[ link to this | view in thread ]
Khalid J Hosein (profile), 29 Aug 2009 @ 5:55pm

Hey, you know IT can suck everywhere you go, although in this case, I think Brett is probably right on (comment #17: http://techdirt.com/article.php?sid=20090828/0055076030#c241)

Just my $0.02!

_Khalid
[ link to this | view in thread ]
william, 30 Aug 2009 @ 12:52pm

Some people will elieve everything they are told, thats why we need the FCC !
Goes to show some people believe everything they read on the internet with no regard to the facts.

I agree with post #17 and can confirm his facts:

The meeting was broadcasted on other sources, NOT JUST realplayer. The 200 connection limit is a realnetworks limitation.

I think it was a waste of their time to try and use the realplayer in the first place, but this article is completely misleading.

We see a bunch of folks ragging on the FCC when in fact they are the fool's running thier yaps without all the facts.
[ link to this | view in thread ]