Flo Marching - To Cancel or not to cancel after one month

[Fred Windish]

The Flo product was not acceptable last night. Some of the flaws I experienced were the same flaws experienced in early season broadcasts. I used Roku. Those using Roku reported fewer problems here.  My poor reception came during the second half of the event. I used Multi-Cam. The switch from high cam shots to mid/lower shots was always blurred for a brief period. 

Won't take the time to research it but, perhaps, Flo was sending out 1-2 other live event broadcasts at the same time as our Indy event.   Whatever the cause of this degradation, we've had similar reports (in varying degree) all season. One would think the BIGGEST drum corps broadcast of all would have been considered highest priority. Previous issues identified and fixed beforehand. Using whatever resources necessary!

This Flo performance will, and should cost Flo current and future subscribers. Such as it was, it remains better than no broadcast available at all. But, last night was beyond embarrassing on many levels.

 

[NakedEye]

I canceled, as was my intention anyway, as I don't plan to watch BOA or WGI.

That said, my feed was "pixely" for most of the night. Very noticeable when switching between cameras. Not due to my connection, which never buffered or dropped.

Is it better than not being able to see the show at all? Absolutely. Is it a good-quality product? No. Not ready for prime time and needs work. Raising the price right before the season was especially bad from. You could possibly get away with learning curve bugs at a lower cost, but when you jack it up right before people will sign up, it says you will be offering the best. They didn't. 

[mcjordansc]

Canceled today. Saw a few shows including finals. Hard to schedule the time to watch a full show, particularly a regional. It was much better in previous years when you could join late and watch from the beginning. Not being able to watch individual shows on demand sucks. Hope it is better next year. 

[MikeRapp]

I canceled after retreat last night. I think they do a better job, overall, than they get credit for, but at no point did it seem they cared one way or another what our experience was. Therefore, I don't care to pay them for a level of service they seem disinterested in offering.

After the disaster of Broken Arrow, their website was filled with angry customers wanting an explanation. Not a single post got a response from anyone at Flo. That to me is inexcusable and speaks either to their focus as a company or their manpower to serve dci.

If a streaming service requires dedicated fiber to get reasonable quality, then you aren't going to please many people right now. They seem fine with that.

I wouldn't mind watching some winter guard and boa stuff, but not with the absurdly frustrating and unpredictable quality of their bandwidth.

[Old Corps Guy]

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[Kamarag]

Keep it and watch DCA Championships in a couple of weeks. 

[HbRJgdZHsbc]

If you cancel, watch your bank account.  I got charged after canceling.  They refunded eventually, but still ... sketchy.

[DeanInChicago]

It was very tiring this season reading through many show threads only to see complaints about Flo instead of actual commentary on the corps.

[Natasha]

I concur with many of the issues, thus far, in this thread.

I would add that the coverage when using the multi-camera view "drew a large vacuum".  Countless times the camera was on events not essential to the larger movement elsewhere or on the larger Corps maneuver.  I kept thinking that the multi-camera production would improve over time and feedback, but even the Finals suffered from poor direction of the multiple cameras.

I tried to watch the multi-camera view at each event but ended up going to the high camera view in frustration.

The 720p broadcast format also came to my HD TV in a blurred, less than optimal presentation.  Not a good value for the money spent.

Can this be fixed or are we on to another "StreamCaster" ?