TV Hockey World Cup 3G Slingbox Internet Relegation Friends Family Great Moments

One Picture, Many Words

I have one picture and it applies to many words. As the title lays them out: TV, Hockey, World Cup, 3G, Slingbox, Internet, Relegation, Friends, Family and Great Moments.

The blog post is dedicated to my brother without whom this post would not have been possible.

TV

The background of the picture is my tv showing a paused picture from the high definition broadcast of last night's semi-final Canada vs Russia World Cup Junior Hockey game.

Hockey

The game was awesome, one of the best I have seen. Brother sent me an email a few days ago and said he had ticket's for last nights' game. Want two he asked, sure I replied. Went into overtime. Canada was behind until 5 seconds left in the last period.

World Cup

Sometimes home is a great place to be. This year's Junior Hockey World Cup was hosted in Ottawa. http://www.hockeycanada.ca/index.php/ci_id/23176/la_id/1.htm gets you to a summary of over a weeks worth of games. Games were played at the Scotiabank Place where the NHL Senators play and the Ottawa Civic Center where the Ottawa 67's play.

3G

The foreground of the picture in this post shows my Palm Windows Mobile smartphone which is playing the Canada Russia game in full motion video with sound and the ability to pause/replay the video feed. This is shown as it was used last night. Why would I need to do that ? Were we that far up in the stands that a 2 inch square screen was better than the actual ice surface in front of us ? And how was the phone able to pull in the video feed ?

Slingbox

At home, I have one of my two Bell Expressvu satellite receivers connected to a device called a Slingbox. It takes the video and audio signals from the satellite and sends them out over my ethernet network at home. SlingMedia provides a Windows, a Windows Mobile and a few other platforms with software that allow them to connect to the Slingbox and watch what is coming into the Slingbox.

There is also the ability to simulate the satellite remote control from the remote device. On my PC or smartphone, I can watch TV, change channels, use the PVR function to record, pause and playback just as if I was in-front of my tv at home.

Internet

With a bit of router black magic, I set my Internet router to map the Slingbox port to the router port and allow connections to my Slingbox not just from my local network but from anywhere in the world. An Internet connection is also a 3G network connection so my Smartphone can also connect to my Slingbox from anywhere it has connectivity.

Last night I had a strong signal in the Civic Center, on the 417 highway both in Ottawa and driving by the ScotiaBank Place. Did I mention that the BIG GAME was at the ScotiaBank Place ? The semi-final one where Canada played Russia. Played for the right to play in the final. Played for hopefully gold but assuredly for silver.

Relegation

Brother picked us up at home at 5:15pm to take us to the game he so generously was providing us with tickets for. Kids were safe at home with the big sister ready to watch the BIG GAME on tv. Brother oh so sheepishly asked, "Did you realize that we were going to the relegation game" ?
A relegation game is one where the non-finalists play. So we went to and watched Finland play against Kazahkstan in the Civic Center.

Friends

Brother brought friend. I brought wife. Brother and I are still friends even after the unintentional switcheroo of games. All in all it turned out to be an awesome night of hockey. We were five rows up from the ice. We watched a one sided but fast paced game. We had our entire row to ourselves. No line-ups at the concession stands either.

We used my smartphone to check in on the BIG GAME. Game was going back and forth. A close match at the half way point. Our game started earlier than the BIG GAME, so we were on the highway heading home, listening to the game on the car radio and watching it on my 2 inch screen when the second intermission ended.

Family

Idea. I called home and had the family left at home pause the game on the PVR. They waited for us to drive by the ScotiaBank Place where the BIG GAME was underway and return home. Friend and family watched the game, slightly time delayed but in real time as far as it mattered to us.

Great Moments

Canada played a close overtime period and won the game in a shoot-out. And that is the end of the story of how we enjoyed a great moment in hockey and technology.