VTSAT

I'm posting here in hopes of getting some input from somone who knows the drill. We (Vermont Electronics) are proposing a rather large and very expensive home electronics package for a British customer who recently purchased a part-time home here in Vermont. He is a RABID RAVING rugby fan, and regularly has Sky Sports on 10-12 hours a day in his home in the UK. Does anyone know if there is a way to procure this programming in the USA. Cost is basically not an object, just getting it done. Big dishes and odd hardware are not out of the question.

Ideas and suggestions appreciated.

Vermont Electronics

Manc

Us lepers have to make do with the Fox Soccer Channel (formerly Fox sports World)
I guess there maybe a way of getting Sky sports here. but the footprint of the Astra satellite doesn't come anywhere near Vermont.

Bob

Cost not an option though...just send up another saterlite to bounce the sky saterlite signal to your saterlite and back to earth, cost...fair few million...

best way though, if has a mate or somin' would be to have them do a video capture of the feed in the UK and web stream it out over here, need a couple fast connections either end, but if you had T1 connections and a dedicated IP/server line for it, could get full screen almost live feed for not much money...

fatbrit

and if he were a philanthropic sorta chappie, he could give us all access, too.

Bob

yup

VideoLan (VLC) is a pretty good free opensource media player, and it does web streaming, and works really well apparantly.

Thydney

I'll bring the mushy peas for the pies

ScousePete

I see money no object here as well

scrubbedexpat099

A CO outlet would seem to have a following

FSC only serves the antipodean rugby scene. Well apart for a few news clips.

Unfortunately there seems no market for re-broadcasting any UK channels, one of the disadvantages of a similar language I guess.

Thydney

You seen the price at the Brit shops?

dbj1000

I remembered seeing something about systems specifically set up to do this, and had a little search on Google (you can pay me later, Vermont Electronics):

Basically there are three systems on the market which claim to do exactly what you want via the internet. From the reviews, it's possible that the Sony system doesn't work, but that's something that I'm sure your client, with unlimited money, is prepared to pay for if only to test it. All three systems require a cable TV box to be set up in the UK, with a subscription to whichever sports channels are required. The cable box is then connected to a broadband internet connection via one of these specialised streaming boxes. Since you client is setting up a part-time home in Vermont, he can probably stage the Sky box and streaming box in his UK home.

Here are the reviews on Engadget.com:


SlingBox Personal Broadcaster

Sony LoacationFree TV

ME2TV

...the latter, ME2TV is currently working for the inventor to stream TV from his apartment in Moscow to his apartment in New York. The "catch" according to Engadget is its $5k cost, but that's not your clients concern.

The Sony system appears not to work very well, according to reviews.

The SlingBox is too new to have any real customer feedback.

I've used the Kurobox (on which the ME2TV is based) as a NAS (Network Attached Storage device) and it's wonderful, so there's a good chance that in this particular case you get what you pay for!