Chief Stipe

Do you think this Government has got it right by saying "Children don't transmit Covid-19 to Adults"? So we can send kids from poor families back to school to be baby sat?

Maybe MPI should stick to slaughtering dairy cows and trying to eradicate Mycoplasma bovis which I might add is a waste of money and taking a long long time. Instead of telling us how to ride horses!

No disrespect to the what you are posting guys but can we veer back to the subject.

There is only one part of that frame of equipment that needs to be permanent. Here are some pictures: This is what they call an FTTH - Fibre To The Home which is a little bit of a misnomer as it is essentially a Fibre Termination Unit and comes in variety of flavours depending on the installation (FTTX). They are the cheapest part of a fibre network. They ALL do essentially the same thing terminating the yellow cable (the fibre) into a connector that a splitter device can connect into. Which in the home is a mini router which enables a connection to Wi-Fi or ethernet cable. For a business it would be a router that can vary in size from 8 ports to as many as 58 ports. A 58 port router is about the size of a pizza box. The FTTH is not much bigger than the size of my hand. The FTTH costs $3. The second picture is of a more sophisticated FTTX. It splits the incoming fibre into multiple fibre connections which enables direct fibre connectivity to multiple devices. Costs about $90. Not really necessary for our racetrack installations. This unit is about the size of your average hard copy novel. Now the rest of the equipment is moveable. So all the lights you see flashing 24/7 at Te Rapa can be installed in a moveable unit as at the end of the day all the pieces of equipment aggregate to one or maybe two pieces of fibre. Why have they chosen to make it permanent at Te Rapa? Well it is in the vendors interests for a start. It earns them more money. For every location that they install this they sell you more and more kit (equipment). They charge you maintenance fees, they hook in a high level Service Level Agreement (SLA), they charge you for each MAC's (Moves, Adds, Changes) and on and on and on. Oh and don't forget they charge you 24/7 for the top of the line network connection whether you use it or not. I hope Te Rapa are using that connection for their normal business and paying for it. The in house IT team love it because they can be lazy - if something goes wrong they can ring up the vendor and log a fault. "Yes boss we are onto it - we have logged a Priority One fault with Spark." The only piece of equipment that needs to stay there is the FTTH(x). The rest of the kit could be put in a Suzuki Swift and all you would need is a couple of cables from the FTTH and a couple more to the broadcast van and a power lead. Done and dusted! How do I know this? Because I've done it. Setting up a pop-up store - plug and sell. In actual fact the technology is here now to not even need the permanent fibre connection. How do you think they stream live high definition video from the America's Cup boats to your TV screen? The cameras are not connected to satellites I assure you. Or the high definition drone vision? Sorry but only the military can afford satellite connected drones. With the pop-up store configuration we did that 3 years ago. Even then there was technology to enable the use of 4G wireless connectivity. As for Waikato Stadium or Eden Park - well their business model can probably justify a dedicated circuit. Eden Park for example has 41 full time employees and they have other on site activities during the year that would justify the cost. I appreciate what your cousin has told you. As most BOAYer's would confirm I don't normally talk about what I've done in life as I'm quite private about that. In that respect it has been posted on other forums that I've never been very involved in racing. I haven't bothered to defend that. But with this issue that we are debating now...well it has touched a sore point, scratched a festering scab. I've worked in IT for 33 years. At one stage I worked for Telecom (Spark) and had a $90m dollar budget. I was responsible for ensuring capacity and implementation of innovation in New Zealand's data network at a time when 90% of NZ's data traversed the Telecom network. I'm maybe viewed as too old in the industry now but in terms of innovation and using new technology I'd back myself to go head to head with any young buck. Not only that I've walked the walk. For me technology has been a passion and an innate skill that I discovered by chance. My career started out in Horticultural Science. Another passion in life has been horse racing - it started with harness and latterly thoroughbreds. When I see the BS that is being spouted to justify what I see as a hidden agenda I really get wound up. So excuse me Bill. PS: RITA give me a call. Happy to consult and sort your IT out.

I didn't say it was exactly the same. What is the same is it is all data that traverses the same network. There isn't "special" fibre that goes from Riccarton to the Parnell. It is the same. What is different are the devices attached at either end. Now those devices at the track end are transported from track to track. Normally! If RITA is installing permanent network equipment at tracks other than just a NTU and maybe a cabinet then no wonder we are going broke.

Oh and BTW 98% of our schools have fibre optic cable connections and they don't operate 24/7!

"Could be transferred"? Why if the "three-day NZ Cup Meeting" is retained? Time to show you have some balls CJC!

What sort of connection do they have now? Why suddenly the difference? UFB has been installed everywhere particularly the main trunks. It is the final bit from our front gates to our homes that haven't been done. Be it your home or business connection they all traverse the same main trunk lines as it were. A large organisation such RITA will be on different Telco rates to the rest of us and quite different to small and medium sized businesses. Their main services are on 24/7 as they have moved their broadcasting options to digital as well as the terminal setups and online apps. They pay for a significant pipe to connect to the main fibre trunk 24/7 as well as backup. So adding 53 tracks to that cost would be minimal in the overall scheme of things. Using Waverley as your example the connection wouldn't have to be on 24/7 only for the days that they race or trial. To that end all that is required is a relocatable network terminating unit that connects to the same logical circuit. Then all that is required is some configuration done maybe 24 hours out from the meeting centrally from a computer to reconfigure that logical network. Easy peasy. I know it is because I've seen it done. The biggest constraint would be convincing the dinosaurs at Spark and your own IT department that it is simple. Theoretically fibre connects straight from the track to the studio but all the traffic still traverses a common network infrastructure. One single piece of fibred doesn't go from the track straight to HQ. Plus it isn't necessarily Spark/Koridia's infrastructure. The core backbone of the network is owned and installed by Chorus. Been like that for years. There are other main trunk fibre providers e.g. Transpower but they all at some stage have to traverse a common network. Perhaps there is less delay on fibre than satellite but it was fine for Waverly BEFORE Covid-19. What's changed? BTW what is the backup for the fibre for the racetracks that have it? Not been unknown for someone to put a digger through the fibre! Also local diversity is minimal if you are thinking about a backup fibre circuit. Again I know this because I implemented a new corporate WAN two years ago migrating from copper based technologies to fibre. It isn't more complex actually. You may have a different NTU (network terminating unit) at your location suited to faster bandwidth but they essentially are exactly the same in functional. The fibre connector is the same standard piece of kit. What also may be different to home is that at home we connect to a small router that is WiFi and ethernet connection capable. In a business we connect to a larger router that can connect more devices and handles faster bandwidth. You could use the same business kit at home - indeed I have to prove a point. Again Bill what would be the backup on site for a fibre network? I bet you that it is normally a Satellite. YEAH NA - at the end of the day the need for a fibre connection is red herring. I know exactly what is needed and what is happening. To tell you the truth when I read this sort of stuff I get really pissed off. The key in doing these things is having someone on the customer team that is passionate about the business, thinks outside the square, gets things done and is not blindsided by technical BS. Oh and doesn't mind upsetting some vendor staff. When we rolled out the UFB based corporate network there were two vendors involved - the telco and the data centre vendor (different comany's). In RITA's case unless they have outsourced entirely their IT which judging by their salary bill they haven't then they are only dealing with one vendor. I was told by the Telco that to shift all the circuits from old tech to new UFB would take 3 months or more. I found out the only real constraint was the physical connection i.e. the fibre from the road to my branch network cabinet. Once that was all sorted I asked to do the branch switch overs in one week - not 3 months. All hell broke out - escalations galore. But I stuck to my guns and made sure I talked to the people who really understood and who had the clout. You see once the physical connection is in place it is only the logical network connections that need to programmed and connected. With today's technology that takes 10 mins to do. We broke a Telco record and cut over 12 branches in one day. To transmit live video in 4k High Definition format you could get by with 100mb/s. (PS: For those of you considering buying an 8K Definition TV - the next generation - if you are over 50 you are wasting your time as your eyes probably couldn't discern the difference between 4k and 8k. Unless you wanted more than 100 inches of screen).

In any case what's wrong with how they used to do it?

Nor does it make sense to me. Bloody long cable needed to connect to a satellite! Would be a bastard for aviation as well. I'm assuming he means a way to connect to the fibre network. Just an access point. Wi-Fi or copper to that would provide more than enough bandwidth. Or even a fibre cable from the front gate hung on power poles or across the ground.

Theoretically yes. You'd have to pull some strings with Chorus, Downer or whoever the sub contractor is in your region to jump to the front of the queue. Then Spark as RITA's IT vendor would have to display some agility and innovation. But more than feasible.

Bit early Curious. Mild Autumn so far. The Flu has a distinct seasonal pattern related to temperature and humidity. Unlike the odd statement from the MOH that kids with Covid-19 don't infect adults the flu does.

Less. If the main fibre running past the gate was installed as per standard then their will already be a pre-installed connection point. Then you run a short fibre cable to a secure location and attach an access point device. A couple of years ago I designed a mobile LAN in a box that would enable the setting up of pop-up offices where ever there was a fibre access point.

I understand that BOAY has been mentioned on a Harness Owners Facebook page. Apparently you faithful BOAY posters are a pack of whingers hiding behind non de plumes. As for me I'm full of my own self-importance hence calling myself Chief Stipe. I'd just like to say that my avatar and name is a bit of light hearted humour. As you all know I wouldn't make it as a Chief Stipe as I overlook nearly all indiscretions by posters. Keep at it guys!

I don't know. However from a cost perspective if RITA worked with their vendor (Spark) it would cost stuff all to install an access point on a racecourse if like Foxton fibre goes past the front gate. If the gate and/or the access point are some distance from the broadcast unit then there are lots of options to connect e.g. using Wi-Fi.

I don't know as I'm assuming that satellite is still part of their model. I suspect that they are taking the opportunity to go down the path they want to go down regardless of impact. This has been my greatest fear about the Covid response that it will be used to their own advantage. A greater fear is that Govenrment will do the same.

My guesses are: They won't be sending the broadcast feed to the network via Satellite but via fibre. I don't know much about their broadcasting model but I assume in some locations they use Satellite as opposed to fibre; More studio type work will be done remotely instead of in a broadcast van hence fibre gives them a better more diverse network connection; Part of the "master plan" and yet another spurious reason to close provincial tracks; Cheaper?

Excellent. I was starting to get a bit worried Curious that imprisionment was getting to you or you were substituting too much of that tobacco for something greener.

I guess so. Unfortunately NOT Foxton!

Where was that advisement published Pitty? That means there will be a limited trackside broadcast crew. I'm sure we could get a fibre connection into Hokitika pronto - not what you know.....

Aren't Wanganui and Manawatu in the CD? If so that is 6 days, 8 days, 6 days apart.

LOL do you mind answering ALL the questions I get? ?

I guess that is why we have never had responsiveness to changes to our meetings in "normal" times. Another level of management in the mix further divorced from those that provide the product.

It's happening - the Mesara Report by stealth.... This travel restriction is a nonsense. The government have given the go ahead for the Warriors and their crew to go to Australia. There are now tests that show Covid-19 infection within 10 minutes - they are talking about using it for the NRL. If we have a subset of the population which is very small that we can isolate and frequently test surely we can allow travel?