Madonna in my front room

Watching at home: Madonna on the Net

By Craig MacKenzie of CNN.com Europe

Have to admit, I'm not a massive Madonna fan. I logged on to her "live" Webcast more out of interest in the technology.

And in the worldwide race to see the London gig, Madonna's first to be broadcast on the Internet, I had a headstart.

I use a high-speed broadband cable modem to access the Net which gives me download speeds of 512kbps.

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Having avoided the initial rush to log on, I was still surprised that I managed to connect to the Webcast server within a few minutes.

Once I had established a connection, Madonna's voice blasted out of the stereo and attracted the attention of my wife who for once became very interested in the PC.

Madonna was live on our screen and we felt we were involved in something rather special and unique.

The sound had a few annoying clicks and the video was rather pixilated but it was certainly watchable.

Occasionally the video feed froze and when it restarted, Madonna would go into fast-forward mode for a few seconds while the buffering caught up.

We heard Madonna's banter with the audience and saw her perform her great dance routines.

QUOTE "We felt we were involved in something rather special and unique"

After the initial excitement of seeing her live in our lounge had passed, we let the Webcast play while we got on with other activities around the house.

We listened rather than watched as squinting at the tiny video screen became too taxing on the eyes.

So thank you Madonna, from me and my wife. We enjoyed our time with you.

Will this replace more traditional forms of broadcasting? No not yet.

Peering at the small screen made me wish I was there to jump up and down, sing, shout and spill beer. I could have done this in the lounge, but my wife wouldn't have been impressed.

But this technology is new and at the speed of development this industry is experiencing, it won't belong before this will be the preferred means of broadcasting live events to millions of fans.

Entertainment
Millions watch Madonna online
November 29, 2000

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