Astronomer Shevill Mathers frustrated by slow NBN internet speeds
His images and data are renowned worldwide, but a Tasmanian astronomer’s efforts to bring the sought-after information to a global audience have hit a snag. SEE WHY >>
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A RENOWNED Tasmanian astronomer’s images and real-time data are sought-after worldwide, but he says his efforts continue to be hampered by the speed of his internet connection.
Shevill Mathers eagerly captured the rare astronomical event of a total lunar eclipse on Wednesday night from the observatory at his Cambridge property.
Mr Mathers said with similar events, he had previously partnered with NASA and other international scientific institutions about live streaming.
But this was not possible because his property is on an NBN fibre to the node connection rather than fibre to the premises.
Mr Mathers’ facility is the most southern optical observatory in Australia and is highly valued among stargazers.
But he said live streaming was just about impossible given his NBN connection.
“NASA have me as a contact, and if they are interested in something, they like me to record it and if possible broadcast it back to them live, which is in their daytime,” Mr Mathers said.
“To be able to stream live video for three hours needs a pretty good bandwidth ... of course people lose interest if you can’t guarantee a continuous stream.
“It makes life hard when I want to do it.”
Mr Mathers said he understood the node that connected to his home was 2km away, sometimes resulting in sluggish speeds and hampering his quest to provide video and data for a global audience.
“At the quality you need, it doesn’t work,” he said.
“These are astronomical cameras that churn out gigabytes of information.
“Last night every shot I took was 45 megabytes — you multiply that by 60 and that’s how many you’ve got in a second. That’s a lot of data.
“I’ve often got to record something and then cut it up into chunks and later on send it as separate files. It defeats the objectives of the exercise.”
Mr Mathers said previous global hook-ups were done with his old ADSL connection, which he says was better than what he has now on the NBN.
He said he had previously been given options to upgrade but said he was told it would come at a significant cost to him.
An NBN Co spokewoman said now the initial build of the network had been completed, investment in the NBN would continue.
“With millions of people working and studying from home and thinking more about the download and upload speeds they need, demand for higher speed broadband services is growing,” she said.
“We are investing now and starting work immediately to meet this demand.”
The spokeswoman said that in September, a range of initiatives were announced to benefit homes and small businesses, including using existing fibre infrastructure to extend fibre “deeper into communities”.
She said NBN Co also announced the introduction of 240 dedicated business fibre zones in Australia, which would allow businesses to access the same premium-grade services and the same wholesale prices as those in capital city centres.
Cambridge is included as part of the Hobart zone.
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