There were mixed results for live streaming apps at sporting events in this radioinfo test conducted by Steve Ahern.

As Travis Head was hitting Potts and Carse all around the Sydney Cricket Ground on Day 3 of the Ashes Test, I asked some people sitting along the row near me to test the various live feeds of Ashes radio commentary. They used a range of wired and wireless headphones in various brands of phone.

The SEN and LiSTNR live streams top scored, with less than one second’s delay between the time the ball was hit on the field IRL and when the sound of the ball was heard in the commentary.

The calls were about as close to real time as a digitally processed stream delivered via mobile phone towers could get.

To achieve almost real time there will always be compromises. The commentary was a little bit thin sounding and when cell capacity was stretched, the feed buffered and looped, sometimes repeating the same ball twice before the real time feed returned. During testing by various people on multiple devices across about half an hour, buffering happened at least 4 times on the SEN and LiSTNR feeds.

My test panel consumed 4 feeds, ABC, BBC, SEN and Triple M, on the LiSTNR and ABC LISTEN apps, as well as through the Cricket Australia app.

The BBC feed, available in the Cricket Australia app, was slower than SEN and LiSTNR, with a one or two second delay.

In the tradition of cricket sledging, one of the test group couldn’t help but sledge the style of the BBC commentary. “It’s perfect for the British overnight time zone, those dull commentators would put everyone to sleep,” said one of the listening cohort.

At the bottom of the order was the ABC Listen app. The normal ABC SPORT feed on the ABC App prioritised quality and robustness over timeliness. There was no buffering and the audio quality was good, but the ABC SPORT feed was up to 30 seconds behind the play.

This year the ABC Listen app has also introduced a quicker, lesser quality feed called SPORT RAPID, to try and catch up with the commercial competitors for real time streaming audio. But it is still the tail ender of the streams, with the delay being between 2 to 10 seconds behind play. “Unlistenable,” was how one tester described it, as he heard the previous ball called when the English spinner was bowling the next ball after a short run up.

Thirty dollar FM low powered radio open-ear headsets were selling well as an alternative to app streams.

DAB+ Radio has improved its latency in recent years, but was still slightly behind the analog FM and AM signals.

One older fellow in his 50 year member seat with a battery powered transistor radio told me he “had no trouble at all” with his AM 702 reception.

The totally unscientific randomly selected listener panel also gave their views on the commentators. In addition, I asked them to tell me whether they remembered any advertisers mentioned on the commercial feeds.

The verdicts:

SEN

• Commentary: “Anchor Gerard Whately, very good, Stuart Broad, former English cricket legend, is excellent.”
• Advertisers: Rheem Hot Water, with the sponsor getting the company’s slogan incorporated into the commentary: “He played that shot steady hot and strong.”

TRIPLE M

• Commentary: “Dan Ginsberg – anchor excellent as always… Merve Hughes, former Australian cricketer, knows the game, smart and funny… David “Bumble” Lloyd, former English cricketer is a commentator legend, the second best after Kerry “Skull” O’Keefe.”
• Commentary: “Mark Howard excellent anchor… Brad Haddin, much improved over the last few years with his wide experience in TV, radio and podcasts…  Graham Swann, former England cricketer is self deprecating and very warm with his Australian test memories.”
• Advertisers: Discovery Caravan Parks live mention or prerecorded ad ending most overs and Harvey Norman scoreboard mentioned every time there was a score update.

Watching the change of over timer on the Scoreboard was interesting, the bowlers usually began just before 60 seconds ticked over, giving commercial commentators enough time to put in one prerecorded ad and do at least one live sponsor mention.

ABC

• Commentary: “Female caller Alison Mitchell is always excellent… Darren Lehmann, former Australian cricketer and coach, good insights… Jim Maxwell, still a legend despite being a little slower and a bit more unfiltered than usual (after his stroke).”

Manwhile, in other radio cricket news, ABC Radio was banned from conducting a player interview with anyone from the Australian team at the end of Day 3 because of perceived negative personal comments by Stuart Clark, a member of the ABC Cricket commentary team.

Clark criticised national selector George Bailey and Cricket Australia’s chief of cricket, James Allsopp while on air in his commentary for ABC Sport on day two of the SCG Test, questioning whether the pair had the authority to direct Australian captains Pat Cummins and Steve Smith, as well as coach Andrew McDonald, on tough decisions. Cricket Australia Chief Todd Greenberg followed up with a ban on the regular close of play interview with an Australian player.

Clark denied there was a confrontation with Greenberg at the SCG on day three of the fifth Test, telling ABC News he “sought Todd out… We spoke about it cordially, and we obviously don’t agree, but that’s cool,” he said.

A report in The Australian says the matter has now been settled after a phone call between ABC Managing Director Hugh Marks and Todd Greenberg.

_{Steve Ahern is the publisher of this trade journal… and loves his cricket!}

_{Photos: S Ahern}