Worlds longest TV program?

bjornkn · 16 Jun 2011, 08:24

Today starts the TV program where you follow Hurtigruten/Norwegian Coastal Express, "The worlds most beautiful sea voyage" from Bergen to Kirkenes. That is 134 hours of continuous broadcasting, and not a single commercial.
http://www.nrk.no/hurtigruten/ CET 19:45 (GMT 17:45)
It's fantastic voyage in real life anyway

Dave R · 16 Jun 2011, 10:42

Cool! I wish I could watch it.

You're right. It is a fantastic voyage. We did it the other way around starting in Kirkenes.

bjornkn · 16 Jun 2011, 11:13

@dave r said:

Cool! I wish I could watch it.
I believe you can If you have time that is... The link is to a web-TV broadcast, and afaik it should be possible to view all over the world. English/Norwegian text.
The channel, NRK, did an experiment last year when they broadcast a 7-hour long train journey from Oslo to Bergen (Bergensbanen), and they were very surprised by all the good feedback. Lots of people actually saw the entire trip!
This time that will be a bit difficult, with 134 hours of continuous TV-watching

@unknownuser said:

You're right. It is a fantastic voyage. We did it the other way around starting in Kirkenes.
Probably less crowded in that direction? I went south -> north in -79, but not all the way to Kirkenes.

bjornkn · 16 Jun 2011, 11:28

Just a test to see if it can be embedded with iframe here:
<iframe width="640" height="380" src="http://nrk.no/hurtigruten/embed_en.html " frameborder="0" allowfullscreen></iframe>

edit: DIdn't work
Is there a way to embed html code in messages here?

Dave R · 16 Jun 2011, 11:34

I'm not sure how to embed the video here. Maybe someone else will be along.

We did the trip from Bergen to Oslo, too. We made a side trip down to Flåm which was good, too.

Alan Fraser · 16 Jun 2011, 12:28

The actual URL of that video (Norwegian version) is http://klipp.nrk.no/ad/video/Nyheter/2011-06-09/Hurtigruten_NorskID360_MXF_Innboks_800.mp4 But that's just the trailer. I doubt they'll be using mp4 for the actual streaming broadcast.

bjornkn · 16 Jun 2011, 13:10

OK. The promo/trailer will be replaced with a live stream at 19:45 CET, and departure is at 20:00.
Most likely there will be no direct URL to a video?
There's a live streaming test site online currently at http://nrkbeta.no/2011/06/15/da-er-vi-i-gang-hurtigruten-minutt-for-minutt/ where the video stream is shown as a Flash object/embed.

There's a map showing the current positions of the ships.
http://hurtigruten.no/Norge/skipene-na/
and a sailing plan at http://hurtigruten.no/Norge/praktisk/Rutetider/Sommer-154---149/
"Our" ship is MS Nordnorge, currently located in Bergen, departure in 5 hours
There are 9 live cameras aboard.

This may sound a bit boring, but it was surprisingly captivating when they sent that 7 hour train trip. I spent several hours watching, and even downloaded the full 7h 1080p file afterwards by bitTorrent

Dave R · 16 Jun 2011, 13:22

Bjørn,

Do you have any way to find out roughly when the ship should enter the Trollfjord? i think that would be a fun thing to watch. In the past I've seen a timetable indicating about when the ship should be in each port. Do you have the link to that?

bjornkn · 16 Jun 2011, 13:38

I posted a link to a timetable/sailing plan in the previous post:
http://hurtigruten.no/Norge/praktisk/Rutetider/Sommer-154---149/
Only Norwegian, but there isn't much text anyway - mostly numbers and names.
AFAIK Trollfjorden should be somewhere between Svolvær and Stokmarknes?
There are several trollfjords here
Maybe late Sunday night (day 4), around 23:00 CET? Depending on the weather
Light enough to see it should be no problem anyway

Dave R · 16 Jun 2011, 13:55

Timetable:

Trollfjord: In the Raftsund. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Trollfjord

bjornkn · 16 Jun 2011, 14:20

@dave r said:

Trollfjord: In the Raftsund. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Trollfjord
That's the one!

BTW, today the Bergensbanen train caught fire up in the mountains. All 250 passengers are evacuated and safe, but they have problems extinguishing the fire due to lack of water! : http://www.aftenposten.no/nyheter/iriks/article4148978.ece
Let's hope Hurtigruten won't encounter any such dramatic events on its way up north

Dave R · 16 Jun 2011, 14:59

Wow! I see it says the line is closed indefinitely. Glad no one was hurt.

bjornkn · 17 Jun 2011, 08:03

The live stream of Hurtigruten is now on its second day.
The ship just left Ålesund, for an 8h round trip into Storfjorden and Geirangerfjorden (UNESCO world heritage), maybe some of the most spectacular parts of the entire voyage, where all the cruise ships go.
http://nrk.no/hurtigruten/
There were some startup problems with the stream (too many visitors), but now everything seems to be working just fine online, as well as on TV.
Great fun to watch

Dave R · 17 Jun 2011, 09:54

I saw them leave Bergen and happened to look in when they made their first two ports. I get a few seconds and then have to wait for data. Slow internet I guess.

Do you know if this current leg of the trip has been a standard thing? We didn't do this one on the southbound leg when we went.

bjornkn · 17 Jun 2011, 10:45

That round trip to Geiranger is only on the north-bound route afaik.
It is not a part of the original 120 years old route, but added for the tourists some years ago.

According to net news here in Norway 34% of the population in Norway was following the TV broadcast!
They don't yet know how many follows the video stream, but apparently a lot more than anticipated...
It is much smoother now than in the start. I'm running it in the background while working

bjornkn · 17 Jun 2011, 12:26

Just a little background article (in English):
http://nrkbeta.no/2011/06/16/hurtigruten-eng/