Based on the feedback from users on reddit as well as my own experience, the Super Bowl test seems to have passed with flying colors. Everyone seems to have had a perfect video stream. The new antenna has had perfect signal. Additionally, the switch from RCN to Boston Broadband as our ISP is clearly visible in the response time graph below. Given this is a real time system, latency is important and the faster responses have helped.
We hit some of our highest concurrent numbers. Of the 400 or so testers that were using the app at the time, 65 were watching the Super Bowl. We were able to service everyone. For the Super Bowl we pumped out 360GB of data from our CDN. Based on how the CDN performed, while these are tiny numbers I am more confident the current stack should scale up to much more. The generally flat green line while the blue spikes indicates the CDN is doing a much better job of absorbing almost the entire load. We have increased the test flight limit to allow more users to use it. Thank you everyone who watched with the app. Please keep using it as the data we get from these tests allows us to keep improving our software.
The purpose of this long test phase is to keep making adjustments so we have a service that can reasonably handle the volume to traffic we expect while still keeping operating costs low.
Looking at the Super Bowl you can clearly see when the game started, ended, where and when the game got more interesting.
Finally, some house keeping. If you are new to this blog, this is primarily an engineering blog for the free LocalTV+ service run by Mass Local TV, a non profit based in Boston. This is a temporary website. Some quick answers to common questions:
- The app is only for iOS an tvOS for now. There are other versions in development. You can get the test app on TestFlight.
- The service only works 100 miles around Boston.
- We are a non profit and donations are tax deductible. You do not need to donate to use the service. It does, however, help keep the lights on
- This service was made by three people who are all volunteers.
- Join us on reddit, which doubles as a support forum.
- If you have GitHub you can submit bugs and feature requests.