AF Bostäder halves screenwidth
Since the university closed and the students started to study remotely, the traffic on AF Bostäder’s fiber-optic network has doubled. In order to handle the increased demand with retained quality, AF Bostäder will for a limited period go down to half screenwidth.
“When more and more people have to work and study at home, the burden on the broadband network increases,” says Henrik Krantz, CEO of AF Bostäder. “Streaming services such as YouTube and Netflix have solved the problem by halving the bandwidth, but that’s not enough. That’s why we are now halving the screenwidth.”
The change, which will be implemented on 1 April, means that the picture will be split vertically. Some will get the left half, while others get the right (from the viewer’s perspective). This is decided randomly and, with a little luck, it will be the other half the next day.
“We have of course prepared for the halving in focus groups”, says Henrik Krantz. “We have received a lot of questions and, of course, we realise that residents are not seeing the whole picture – in two senses – but we work according to the motto that shared joy is a double joy.”
“We deem that about half of the tenants are OK with this change,” says Henrik Krantz. “To the other half, I would like to say that it’s also a challenge for those of us working at AF Bostäder. For example, our colleagues in the finance department can only see half of the balance sheet.”
On Instagram (hashtag #splitvision), there are shared tips on films and TV series that work well in the new screenwidth. Some examples are Half Past Dead (1 & 2), Halfway to Heaven, Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince and Two and a Half Men.