As many know, I live in the country, 300Km approx south of Perth in Western Australia. in a small town called Bridgetown. ‘Net communications are quite good, radio is limited to commercial country stations out of Bunbury and ABC Regional (which I find awful – I listen to ABC Perth 720 through the ‘net) and television is ABC digital, SBS digital – if the weather is good –GWN ( Channel 7) and WIN (hybrid Channels 9/10).

This weekend, was arguably a major one in the realms of sport; France v Wales in the Rugby World Cup, Australia v New Zealand in the same, the Australian Moto GP and so on. However, it was made very difficult to watch here on WIN, which had the lion’s share, as the transmission was flaky to say the least. For 36 hours, it would be on for 4 minutes, then nothing but snow and static for 2. Repeat. And repeat. And repeat ad infinitum.

I rang the local office in Bunbury with no answer to their phones. Next was Perth state head office, where a recorded voice informed me to ‘Press 7 for transmission errors’, to which there was also no answer, just an answering machine where I left a detailed report. No other phone numbers could be found, via the ‘net anyway. All the ‘Contact Us’ points were web forms; hardly suitable for what I would have thought was in TV terms, an emergency.

How many pissed off punters were there out there, not to mention advertisers wanting to see their, admittedly horribly produced, badly voiced over in a ‘farmer’s accent’ (whatever that is) and usually screaming guitars or hillbilly music in the background advertisements. Well the two or so that do anyway …

Eventually on late Sunday afternoon, I called a mate who is a stringer (freelance electronic news gatherer) with WIN in the East and asked if he knew a number I could call. He soon texted me the number of the Wollongong head office of WIN’s 24 hour help desk. When I rang, I was given the answer – by a real human no less – that they were aware of the problem and had “passed it to the technician(s)”.

Miraculously, within 20 minutes, fault fixed.

Coincidence? A major fault for 36 hours (obviously something tripping out and back in again) but then after I call it is suddenly fixed? I do wonder if what I got was a stock answer, and then the cavalry was called …. I’ll probably never know, but it would be interesting to get a comment from WIN.

If nothing else, it is very shoddy treatment of their viewing customers as well as their advertisers. And considering what they pay for their international rights for these events, a very expensive fault indeed.

Oh and by the way, the signal is analogue. Digital stops for some reason, 40Km up the road.

By David Hague

David is the owner and publisher of AusCam Online. He has a background in media dating back to 1979 when he first got involved with photojournalism in motorsport, and went from there into technology via a 5 year stint with Tandy Computers. Following that, he ran a software distribution company on the Gold Coast and was one of the first to recognise the potential of Microsoft Windows.

Moving back to WA, David wrote scripts for Computer Television for video training for the just released Windows and Office 95 among others, and was then lured to Sydney to create web sites for the newly commercial Internet in 1995, building hundreds of sites under contract to OzEmail including Coates Hire, Hertz Queensland, John Williamson, the NSW Board of Studies and many, many more.

He went back into full time journalism as the Managing Editor for Channel 7's 'Gadget Guy', Peter Blasina's publications VideoCamera and Pixelmag, before starting Australasian Camcorder magazine when these publications were shelved. He lives at Sydney's Avalon Beaches nearly on the ocean front with dog Budweiser and in his spare time is a nut for motor sport, road safety, fishing, science fiction - especially Dr Who - and technology.

David can be contacted via david@auscamonline.com