The Olympic Games: Digital Media’s Coming of Age

The just-concluded Summer Olympic Games featured an unprecedented amount of coverage over an equally unprecedented number of digital video formats and distribution types.



Some of the pre-event statistics, cited publicly, were:

• A minimum of 3,600 hours of broadcast coverage
• A minimum of 2,900 hours of live programming
• A minimum of 2,200 hours of streaming coverage on NBCOlympics.com
• All footage acquired in HD; also converted to 4:3 aspect ratio consumption
• Coverage of all 302 unique Olympic events
• U.S.-based coverage on NBC, USA Network, Universal HD, Oxygen, CNBC, and Telemundo
• Supplying content to a myriad of partners like Google, which streamed content on YouTube
• Supplying content to Amazon, NBC2Go, and mobile phones
• Video on Demand (VOD) of noteworthy coverages: "Highlights," "Rewinds," and "Encores."

Just the ability to cover 302 events, all in HD, was complex enough. But adding all the different digital video formats and distribution types to the efforts required a staggering amount of work to be done to ensure that the correct content was in the proper resolution, frame rate, aspect ratio, and scan type.

Simultaneously feeding multiple distribution venues with the right content in a timely fashion was crucial. Mistakes -- like sending a full HD clip to a telecommunication provider for distribution to their mobile phone customers -- had to be avoided. That's why the content requirements for each provider had to be, and were fully specified well in advance.

To ensure that this process ran as smoothly as it actually did, the whole operation was automated as much as possible. This translated into scripting routines that moved the content from ingest, through transcode, and to distribution. Content was moved in the most efficient manner possible, utilizing the latest file transfer acceleration technologies. Also, having visibility into all transfers and being able to prioritize transfers as they were "in stream" were necessary in order to react to developing stories as they occurred.

The Olympics we just enjoyed has also proven that we now have the infrastructure and technology for Internet TV to cover global events in real time. Congratulations to IBM and its Chinese and numerous other partners for a job so well done!