MatchDayLive is a new and exciting interactive product designed to bring the Match Day experience to fans around the world. MatchDayLive brings you the ability to listen (or watch) live sport, chat with other fans and receive live news for all the games being played. As the season progresses we will be adding additional features to improve your enjoyment.

Although we hope that your MatchDayLive experience will be a trouble free one, below is a description of each of the parts of MatchDayLive and some help in solving some problems you might encounter.

If after reading this you are still experiencing problems please either e-mail info@sotic.co.uk and we will try and assist you or visit the help channel on the chat part of MatchDaylive. Please note we are not able to answer e-mails during live broadcasts

Live Video and Audio

The biggest problem people have is accessing the live Video or Audio. This requires you to have downloaded and installed a software package called RealPlayer from RealAudio. MatchDayLive requires you to have version 7 or greater (we recommend version 8). RealAudio produce two versions of RealPlayer the free RealPlayer Basic and the upgrade RealPlayer Plus. RealPlayer Basic is more than sufficient for tuning into MatchDayLive and can be found clicking on the following link.

To download either version of RealPlayer 8 please click here

The link to download free RealPlayer 8 Basic is near the bottom of the page on the left hand side. To save time however RealPlayer Basic can also be found on some of the free CDs distributed on the front cover of many PC related magazines, installing direct from a CD will save you the long download time (approximately 30 mins) from the Internet.

To test you have Real Player installed please Click Here and you should see highlights of a Football game.

Once you have RealPlayer installed you should see on the left hand side the Real Player window.  This consists of a television style box, with a control panel beneath, allowing you to stop or resume the feed or adjust the volume.If you see nothing here you will need to install Real Player using the link above.

If you have done all the above and you receive a message that you cannot connect to the feed, please right click on the real logo and select preferences.  In the Connection window check that your normal bandwidth is the speed of your connection (normally 56K), in the transport window click on auto-configure.  This will test your Internet connection and re configure RealPlayer.  Once auto-configure has finished you will need to press OK then shut down and restart the MatchDayLive page for the changes to take place.  You cannot just press Play on the RealPlayer.

If the broadcast has started and you are still hearing a pre-recorded message then you will need to refresh the console. To do this point the mouse to the black space at the bottom of the console, right click and from the options click on refresh alternatively simply close down the MatchDayLive page and re-click on the link from your clubs page.

If during the broadcast you get net congestion or the sound stops you do not need to reopen the MatchDayLive, just press stop button on the RealAudio player and then press the Play button.

Live News Feed

At the top of the MatchDayLive player you should see live rugby news and results updates. If you wish to read more on any item simply roll your pointer over the story and further details will pop up to read the full story click the news item.

If you do not see anything then either your browser does not support Java (an Internet programming language) or you have your security settings set to very high. versions 4 and above of both Netscape Navigator and Microsoft Internet Explorer support the Java used in MatchDayLive, if you have version 3 or below please click on the relevant link below to download the latest Internet Explorer or Netscape Navigator. This download may take some time to complete and as with RealPlayer we would recommend installing from a free CD distributed on the front cover of many PC related magazine.

Live Multiroom Chat

The live chat facility allows you to talk to other rugby fans from around the world in real time.  You are free to choose the chat room, however we endeavour to monitor the chat and abusive language, racism etc will not be tolerated. If you break these rules you will disconnected from the chat rooms.   The chat application is a Java program and you will be asked to accept the certificate to this before it runs.  The Java program has been virus checked and is certificated by Thawte.

To enter the chat, simply enter a nickname for yourself (the name others will know you as), please be aware this has to be unique and popular ones may be taken, then press the connect now button.  In most cases you should be connected within 30 seconds of pressing connect, however if you are behind a firewall you may find the chat facility will not be available. Once connected pick a chat room from the drop down box above the main chat window and join in by entering your comments in the white box and pressing return.

If you wish to change your nick name in the chat enter the following command in the box where you type comments  

/nick   followed by a new nick name.

Further Help

If after reading this you are still experiencing problems, we suggest visiting the RealAudio support pages alternatively please e-mail info@sotic.co.uk and we will try and assist you or visit the help channel on the chat part of MatchDaylive. Please note we are not able to answer e-mails during live broadcasts.