Launch of TV on ResNet trial
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ResNet has started trials of a new TV service, Freewire TV. This provides 15 digital TV channels to watch on your computer. It includes all the BBC digital services and other popular channels such as E4.
The initial trial is only available to ResNet subscribers in some residences. See TV on ResNet to try it out.
We've been working to get this ready for some time now and are very pleased to start the trials. We hope it will be popular - in the ResNet survey 2006 75% of students said they would watch TV on their computer if we offered it.
We may be able to extend the trial to other residences later in the term. If the trial is successful we plan to launch a full service ready for autumn 2007.
We'd love to find out what people think about this and how well it works for them. If you are taking part in the trial and would like to give us any feedback, please comment on the blog below or email the ResNet help desk. Please read the FAQ first though, as that answers most of the questions people have.
Update 2007-06-19: Comments are now closed as there have been no genuine comments submitted recently, only spam. If you want to comment on this article, please contact the ResNet Helpdesk.
22 Responses to “Launch of TV on ResNet trial”
Paul (ResNet Staff) wrote:
April 30th, 2007 at 4:44 pm
Hi Matthew, as mentioned in the FAQ you need a TV licence to watch the IPTV service.
Alan wrote:
May 1st, 2007 at 12:55 pm
Will the trial reach the rest of us at stoke bishop anytime soon?
Nick (ResNet manager) wrote:
May 1st, 2007 at 3:01 pm
Alan: we’re working on it at the moment. All other halls at Stoke Bishop should be the next area to get the trial. We’ll email ResNet subscribers in each residence when it is there.
Nick (ResNet manager) wrote:
May 2nd, 2007 at 2:58 pm
The trial is now available in all the Stoke Bishop halls.
Laura wrote:
May 2nd, 2007 at 3:52 pm
Pity the software isn’t available for Mac yet…
cara mclaughlin wrote:
May 2nd, 2007 at 4:31 pm
i have downloaded freewire and have set up an account. but when i log in it says each channel is ‘off air’. nothing is working.
Matt wrote:
May 2nd, 2007 at 4:37 pm
1. Does this service consume our bandwidth? For instance, during peak times, will we use up our 2.5GB?
2. Why aren’t all the freeview channels available? For instance, there is no ITV channels.
Paul (ResNet Staff) wrote:
May 2nd, 2007 at 5:00 pm
Laura: We agree! As soon as the software is available for the Mac though, we will announce it. At the moment, the only way to watch the service on a Mac is by using parallels or boot camp
Cara: We’ll do some investigation!
Matt: As stated in the FAQ – watching the ResNet IPTV trial doesn’t count towards your 2.5Gb a day bandwidth allowance.
Unfortunately the company providing the service doesn’t have the legal agreements in place to carry the ITV channels at the moment – they’re working on it!
Paul wrote:
May 2nd, 2007 at 5:07 pm
So for those of us who would be quite happy to watch just none-BBC options, will there be an option to have only commercial channels without the need for a TV licence?
Paul (ResNet staff) wrote:
May 2nd, 2007 at 5:33 pm
Paul: Unfortunately because of the way the TV licencing legislation works in the UK, even if you only receive non BBC channels, you still need a TV licence.
This may seem unfair, but it’s the way that TV licencing works. For more information, see: TV licenses for students.
Nick (ResNet manager) wrote:
May 2nd, 2007 at 5:44 pm
As for ITV – you can already get some ITV programs (such as live football) via ITV.com Unfortunately though that is streamed rather than multicasted, so in peak times you can only watch a few hours of it within your usage allowance.
As Paul says, the company providing the Freewire service are working on ITV – but we’ll have to see. The prospects for getting ITV1 are better than for ITV2/3/4.
The ITV.com website is due to be relaunched within weeks with extensive live and on-demand programming – but again this will count as part of your usage allowance.
Adam wrote:
May 2nd, 2007 at 6:27 pm
This service is pretty great, but will other freeview channels (like abc1, e4+1 etc) ever be available?
Nick (ResNet manager) wrote:
May 3rd, 2007 at 11:12 am
Will we get other channels?
Freewire have offered us the following channels which we aren’t taking at the moment, to reduce the network capacity required:
* The Hits
* TMF
* Zone Reality
* and TV5 (French) / Al Jazeera (Arabic), DW-TV (German) & ERT (Greek) as a timeshare
If people are particular keen to get any of those channels please let us know, and we may be able to add them in future.
There are some channels available on Freeview but which Freewire haven’t been able to negotiated the rights to carry.
These include:
* E4+1
* Sky Three
* Sky News
* Sky Sports News
* ABC1
* FTN
* UKTV History
* UKTV Bright Ideas
Freewire also intend to launch a premium channel package with additional channels. This could look something like the Virgin Media ‘Size L’ package (though the exact lineup would be different). These channels would be available on either as pay per view or for a monthly subscription.
Sam Collins wrote:
May 3rd, 2007 at 7:27 pm
cara mclaughlin you have to turn on the service in the same place you check your network usage. i had the same problem.
Lara wrote:
May 9th, 2007 at 12:16 am
i am in a stoke bishop hall and freewire for me also just says ‘off air’…why?
Lara wrote:
May 9th, 2007 at 12:18 am
sam what do you mean turn on the service in the same place you check your network usage?
Paul (ResNet staff) wrote:
May 9th, 2007 at 8:22 am
Lara:
Just installing the software isn’t enough, you need to activate the service in your room.
To do this, go to http://manage.resnet.bris.ac.uk and sign in using your UoB username and password. Then follow the link to “Register to use the ResNet IPTV trial” Once you’ve done that, your IPTV service should start working.
Jason wrote:
May 10th, 2007 at 12:37 pm
Quality is very good over all 15 channles and almost consistently perfecly smooth – with only very occassional breaks in transmission (so far). Picture quality is almost as good as with my Avertv DVB receiver. Would be interesting to see how well the ITV channels are if freewire include those in the future, as I have found these are generally less well received channels in areas of Bristol (over DVB w/t portable aerial)
Good work Resnet.
tracy wrote:
May 10th, 2007 at 6:38 pm
it is not working on my computer……
Nick (ResNet manager) wrote:
May 11th, 2007 at 6:18 pm
Tracy, please get in touch with the ResNet help desk and we’ll help you out.
Hung wrote:
May 12th, 2007 at 4:26 pm
Great work! The quality of the pictures is perfect. Would be nice to have more channels but this is still much better than the TV in my room anyway.
Matthew wrote:
April 30th, 2007 at 4:08 pm
Is this legal to use without a TV license??