A combination of lack of capacity and the Internet connection between the cellular network operators and the SMS protocol was the reason for the unusual declaring of two winners in season five of the popular Idols competition.
This is according to Nick Orton, CEO of Grapevine Interactive, the wireless application provider that provided the service for the show's host M-Net.
He says the link, with a capacity of 192Kbps, proved to be far too small to handle the huge number of SMSes sent. Orton adds there is no way of knowing when those messages were actually sent.
Idols South Africa, the popular talent contest, was thrown into disarray four days after its 3 May finale, when it was discovered that runner-up Jason Hartman had received 200 000 more votes than Sasha Lee Davids, who garnered 2.3 million votes. The competition organisers then declared they were joint winners, with identical prizes.
Orton says the protocol issue relates to the fact that the only time stamps were placed on the SMSes was when they were received on the servers.
“There was no way we could tell how many SMSes were still waiting further up the pipe.”
Orton says the latency issue also surprised his company. “The network operators send us a batch of SMSes, then we send them a message back saying we have received them, and then they send another batch. All of this contributed to the delay in receiving the 245 000 SMSes that arrived after the 6.05pm deadline.”
He also points out that while his company and the organisers had planned for an increase in the number of SMSes, and had doubled the capacity of the pipe, they did not expect the number on the day.
“Up until the finale, we were coping well and according to plan. The response on the last day was overwhelming,” Orton says.
Grapevine Interactive is due to deliver its report on what happened to M-Net today.
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