Cfu

[jman2004]

Re: Cfu

We saw the end of the game online and CFU is our provider.

And yes I called out Clenz cause he is an idiot.

CFU is your internet provider or cable? I have CFU and got neither.

[strike00]

Re: Cfu

I have dish network and the HD channel cut out but standard was fine. A bad time for CFU to lose CBS.

[Panthers to the Bone]

Re: Cfu

I have CFU and my 2.1 channel went out when Scheyer went to shoot FT's in the 2nd half. I turned it to Channel 2 (analog) and got the frozen image of him). I ended up listening to the game on 1650AM until I realized I could get the game on MMOD. I turned it on and only got audio. Then, I clicked the "Watch in HD" button at the bottom left side of the 'tv screen'. That gave me the audio and video. I figured that since the game wasn't coming in on 2.1 that it wasn't a CFU only problem, since that was my OTA channel. This may just be a regurgitated summary of what others did, but this was my experience.

[jman2004]

Re: Cfu

I should've tried the "Watch in HD" feature . . . because I was stuck with only audio as well.

The bigger question, what will CFU do about this now (reimbursement possibly?) and what will they do to protect it from happening in the future? Someone asked earlier but it's really not a stupid hypothetical to toss out there . . . Can you imagine what would've happened if UNI would've made the National Championship game and this happened? We were in the Sweet 16 and proved we could play and win against the best of the best. It shouldn't be too far fetched of a thought.

What is different about the way Mediacom receives their feed from CBS or KGAN? Why did they not lose their signal? Can CFU correct this so they can get a stronger signal and not be left subject to this?

I realize that this may not be entirely CFU's fault, but in a way it is. Because the service they were providing their customers failed, badly, and at a very inopportune time. There may have been other factors at play but it doesn't change the fact that the service they were providing wasn't provided. Can anything be done about it and does anything need to be done about it?

[Newsbreaker]

Re: Cfu

Here's what you need to know:

Cable and satellite providers receive signals from stations in one of three ways. For anything other than "local" channels, they receive them by satellite.

Local channels are provided in one of two ways. Either a fiber link is created between the broadcast facility and the cable head-end, or the cable company establishes an antenna farm which pulls the signals in over-the-air. As a very small cable company, it isn't surprising that they (and the local TV stations) haven't invested in a fiber link, and antennas work perfectly well.

Satellite companies work in a similar fashion. They establish a small antenna farm which then uplinks the channels to the correct satellite, which then sends them to your dish. If the station's OTA signal goes out, as happened last night, there is nothing to provide.

Mediacom almost certainly has a fiber link to all the local stations. They work on a different size than CFU, so they can establish a fiber link to their CR head-end and then send that signal to Cedar Falls using their existing infrastructure.

Long story short: This isn't CFU's fault.

[PantherChic]

Re: Cfu

It's Mother Nature's fault - just really bad timing.

[havok58]

Re: Cfu

Here's a response from the CFU website:

Last night's storms caused KGAN's broadcast tower to be hit by lightning, knocking the station off the air around 10 p.m. last night. Unfortunately, this was during the exciting second half of the NCAA Championship basketball game between Duke and Butler. CFU receives Channel 2's signal over the air so we had no way to broadcast the channel until KGAN got their signal back up at 11:30 p.m. We are very sorry for any disappointment this may have caused.

It would be nice to see CFU upgrade their broadcasting capabilities to match Mediacom. Until that happens they will be susceptible to outages in the future while Mediacom customers can enjoy the show.

[jman2004]

Re: Cfu

Here's what you need to know:

Cable and satellite providers receive signals from stations in one of three ways. For anything other than "local" channels, they receive them by satellite.

Local channels are provided in one of two ways. Either a fiber link is created between the broadcast facility and the cable head-end, or the cable company establishes an antenna farm which pulls the signals in over-the-air. As a very small cable company, it isn't surprising that they (and the local TV stations) haven't invested in a fiber link, and antennas work perfectly well.

Satellite companies work in a similar fashion. They establish a small antenna farm which then uplinks the channels to the correct satellite, which then sends them to your dish. If the station's OTA signal goes out, as happened last night, there is nothing to provide.

Mediacom almost certainly has a fiber link to all the local stations. They work on a different size than CFU, so they can establish a fiber link to their CR head-end and then send that signal to Cedar Falls using their existing infrastructure.

Long story short: This isn't CFU's fault.

Thanks for the info. So are you saying that it wouldn't make sense for a company the size of CFU to upgrade and match Mediacom's capabilities, to ensure that something like this doesn't happen again?

[Newsbreaker]

Re: Cfu

Without knowing the costs involved, it is impossible to say. I would guess that the cost to run that much fiber that distance (or rent it on an existing line) would be somewhat expensive. When you consider that the current system goes out about once every...well...I can't ever remember it happening before...it's hard to justify the cost when there is no improvement in quality.

[UNI Prof]

Re: Cfu

Without knowing the costs involved, it is impossible to say. I would guess that the cost to run that much fiber that distance (or rent it on an existing line) would be somewhat expensive. When you consider that the current system goes out about once every...well...I can't ever remember it happening before...it's hard to justify the cost when there is no improvement in quality.

As a CFU customer, I would vote no. The system works perfectly well >99% of the time.

[Panther1979]

Re: Cfu

I have been losing service from CFU for the last several weeks but this is the first time it was just one channel.

[TravelingPanther]

Re: Cfu

Yeah, I think this is on KGAN.

Can't be on KGAN if Mediacom had the feed.

[TravelingPanther]

Re: Cfu

On the other hand, One Shining Moment was excellent and the win over KU was given a prominent place in the series of late shots. The UNI clip was right before the Final 4 highlights. Sorry about CFU. Does anyone know if CBS has OSM for people to see? If so, it's worth a look.

One shining moment highlights were good, but in general sucked. I don't need to see highlights of Jennifer Hudson singing.

[CF84]

Re: Cfu

Can't be on KGAN if Mediacom had the feed.

Agreed. Mediacom in this case had the more reliable signal delivery. CFU chose the over the air delivery instead of hard wired. It bit them in the behind in this case.

I wonder how many other channels they have setup this way? I would imagine a cost saving decision - until they start losing customers because of outages. Now maybe customers are willing to pay x amount in increased fees for something more reliable?

[TravelingPanther]

Re: Cfu

Agreed. Mediacom in this case had the more reliable signal delivery. CFU chose the over the air delivery instead of hard wired. It bit them in the behind in this case.

I wonder how many other channels they have setup this way? I would imagine a cost saving decision - until they start losing customers because of outages. Now maybe customers are willing to pay x amount in increased fees for something more reliable?

After reading the thread, there's not much you can do about this situation. Like Newsy said, the cost of changing their setup would not be beneficial. Just bad timing.