Angle of Attack now charging subscription fees to download videos

[Chris from Angle of Attack 7]

First off, I want to start off by saying that I haven't read through all the comments. I'm sure that many of the questions and comments are things I have directly answered for our customers that have reached out to us over the last week. We've gone through a lot of support tickets, a lot of comments on the blog, and a number of other sources as well. 

 

Before any of you jump to any further conclusions about the downloads, I offer you our official support article on this subject: http://support.flyaoamedia.com/customer/portal/articles/1291842-unlock-downloads-and-paying-for-downloads

 

Now that you've read that, and potentially put some of the rumors to rest, let me tell you with my own words what is going on here. 

 

We have a MASSIVE offering with our training packages. Our 737 Training is just under 35 hours (34 hours and 58 minutes, to be exact... not including LineWork). You can imagine that HD video of that size is quite a large, large set of data. Generally speaking, HD video runs about 1GB per hour. 

 

Now knowing that our product(s) are some of the largest, if not the largest, in flight simulation in relation to file size, you can see that AOA has a very unique challenge that not a lot of other companies have. 

 

We are not a large publishing house like FTX, are are not Flight 1 or Aerosoft or even a Flight Sim Store. We're a fairly small company, a niche of a niche, and costs are super, super important for us to watch. 

 

Recently I enabled a new analytics tool that showed me some shocking data- customers are coming back year after year, and taking their training again. At first my reaction was, 'This is really great! We'd love to have them back!'. But then I realized that our downloads were open, forever and for always, to our customers. 

 

My foresight at the time of offering these downloads didn't allow me to see that I'd be constantly devaluing our company, and continually running up the cost-per-unit. Already the costs for downloads were high, but we wanted to offer an experience that anyone could enjoy. So we did- without giving a second thought to the data costs. 

 

However, as time has gone on, and we've learned more about how our business runs, and how to stay profitable and survive, we have had to make some tough choices, and get real about this downloads situation. 

 

Our plan with the new website was to offer these downloads for customers that have purchased within the previous 6 months. Customers that were outside the 6 months we assumed had already downloaded their files, and wouldn't need to be downloading again anyway. 

 

Quickly we learned that wasn't the case, and customers that bought the 737 Training when it first came out still needed to finish downloading their training. Very soon after that, we contacted all past package owners, and let them in to get the downloads for free. 

 

If Angle of Attack is to stay alive and vibrant, we simply cannot run up the costs, and continually devalue our company because trainees want to take part in the training every year. Our streaming versions remain 100% open and free for always. Streaming costs, unlike downloads, are a completely different thing. 

 

We've heard people say, "these are the same videos. Why is streaming any different than downloads?" From a data delivery stand point, streaming is completely different than downloads. We pay for our streaming services on a per-view/storage size basis. We pay for downloads on a byte-for-byte basis. 

 

Streaming one of our videos is simply one less time we can serve that video, with the allotted views we have. Serving a download is byte-for-byte cost. 

 

It would be nice if we could offer downloads straight from our servers. However, this would be unrealistic because of the international nature of this hobby, and the world-wide customers we have. Not only would our servers get slammed and make the website unusable, but it would mean that people that are far away from that server location would experience painfully slow downloads. 

 

Therefore, we have to serve our downloads on a content delivery network, or CDN. A CDN is a worldwide network of servers that act as delivery points for our content. That means that when you request to download a video, you're getting it from down the street, and not from a server across the world. The speeds are much faster, and you can get to your training faster. 

 

CDN services, however, are not free. You can imagine that a company running such a large network of servers has to charge something reasonable for this service. And although the prices per GB are worth it, it's still a lot of money when added up over the course of a training package, and multiplied by the number of users taking part in that training. 

 

As far as our obligations to past customers, we have given them what they asked for. They have their downloads. Apart from a few minor issues we are chasing down with our current website (I saw some of you were complaining about them) we have given access to all of those videos. 

 

If you read the article above, you will have seen several key points. 1, the videos are available always on streaming. 2, follow files, diagrams, transcripts and other supporting documents will forever be free. 3, past customers and new customers that were promised the downloads have been offered or are getting the downloads. 

 

For those that have contacted our support, they have seen swift support regardless of the influx of tickets we've had. They have also seen a lot of the issues with some of the files to be fixed. We have a large content library to manage, and so the help from the community letting us know where things are amiss has been incredibly helpful.

 

If you have an issue with the new website, or with the downloads, or with anything else, you're welcome to write our support. We're quite helpful, reasonable, and fast to get to you. 

 

However, by complaining about it here, it does nothing. We are busy supporting people that want to be helped, and are reaching out. Our team doesn't have the time to scour the forums and make sure that everyone is getting what they need. 

 

We recognize that there have been issues getting started with the new website, and we apologize for that. We completely changed out website because it was not user friendly before, and simply caused way too many issues. Moving to a new system means users having to learn a new system too, so we thank you for your patience. 

 

At the end of the day, you're going to find your training easier than ever before to learn and take part in. This transition is a little difficult, but for those who have been able to get their issues fixed, it's the best experience they've had so far at Angle of Attack. 

 

We're excited for the up and coming 777 Training release. In the meantime, we look forward to ironing out the final wrinkles in the system so you all can get your downloads. 

 

Again, if you have anything you need, or trouble accessing the website, please come get a hold of us and we will help you. 

 

Thank you to all of you for your business, but most of all your morale support. It's awfully challenging in this market, but we feel our new way forward will be better and more rewarding for you as a customer. We can't wait for you to see that, and experience that. 

 

Until then, 

Throttle On!

[dogtrack 18]

Thanks for all the clarification, understandable and appreciated.

[AWACS 12]

Chris, one would think offering DVD's or Blu-Rays would be a cheaper option than having to pay for all of that bandwidth and capacity.

[pete_auau 1,158]

Chris, one would think offering DVD's or Blu-Rays would be a cheaper option than having to pay for all of that bandwidth and capacity.

yea   you would think so  another  option to think about

[dogtrack 18]

Would make it very expensive when sending abroad...Airmail, Duty etc. But ok for homegrown customers I guess.

[Dean33 69]

Thanks Chris

 

The website is SO much better and the streaming is excellent. For me I can never see the need to download - but I suppose I'm lucky and always on broadband or wifi.

 

Video quality even on IPhone is excellent.

 

I have one problem - I use Nexus 7 tablet and it struggles with Flash. Firefox add-in does it but can't get full screen.

 

Maybe you guys could look into it to help customers with more streaming and less downloads!

 

 

 

Dean33

[GodAtum 69]

http://www.flyaoamedia.com/777-training/

 

now out

[MindYerBeak 73]

Did any of you bite yet ? I'd be interested in your opinions. Thanks

[GodAtum 69]

Unfortunately I dont have broadband so cannot stream anyway

[Q_flyer 766]

One thing I was very surprised about was that on AoA's new website, there is not a single opportunity (that I can see) to see any example content; to see even a snippet of a video.

 

I'm not talking about a free trial, where I need to ...ahem... give you my credit card details, but just a demo video lasting even just 2 or 3 minutes, so that I can evaluate the presentational style, quality, professionalism etc, without the far far greater commitment of giving you my credit card number.

 

This seems completely counter-intuitive from a media company to not show any form of up front example of content type and style.......  it really put me off.

[thepilot 577]

 

 

I don't know why I thought a lesson from someone how doesn't fly the thing in real life would be better than a youtube video of someone that does.

 

Or a four-hour JustPlanes BluRay production.

[TheDanger 182]

So to view the trial I have to give CC info? No thanks. Big non-starter

[Nathan3219 113]

One thing I was very surprised about was that on AoA's new website, there is not a single opportunity (that I can see) to see any example content; to see even a snippet of a video.

 

I'm not talking about a free trial, where I need to ...ahem... give you my credit card details, but just a demo video lasting even just 2 or 3 minutes, so that I can evaluate the presentational style, quality, professionalism etc, without the far far greater commitment of giving you my credit card number.

 

This seems completely counter-intuitive from a media company to not show any form of up front example of content type and style.......  it really put me off.

 

Agree! No trial should require a credit card.

 

Too bad. The 777 flightwork seems reasonably priced.

[monpol 0]

AoA has just screw up his existing costumers literary and just after that they try to sell a new product to the same clients?

 

Very wise commercial decision!

 

I wonder how Many existing costumer will bite the same thing once more?

 

I am sorry but if the flight sim community bite it once more that means that this rogue developpers have every right to consider us like brainless sheeps

 

GT-I9300 cihazımdan Tapatalk 2 ile gönderildi

 

 

[signmanbob 592]

I have no problem purchasing the new 777 training seeing that, in the past, all of the AoA training has been first class premium quality at a level with real world training that is way more expensive.

We're paying close to $60 for this training, while real world pilots pay that much every month for online training, that is very similar.

I watched the first lesson on the lighting and it is on par in quality with their NGX training.

Streaming it online is not a problem for me.  If someone purchased the real world online training that is available, they would also have to have a good broadband to pick it up, so there is no difference.