Seeking to bring the Olympics “anywhere, anyplace, anytime” through multiple delivery platforms, NBC said today that it’s chosen Cisco (News - Alert) to provide IP video network infrastructure and video-encoding solutions in Beijing from Aug. 8 to 24.

 

NBC personnel in New York and Los Angeles say they’ll edit video as it is captured in Beijing and deliver it to three screens: TV, PC and smartphone with the help of Cisco’s IP video infrastructure.

 

NBC says that it can now achieve a great distinction in digital video transmission the ability to perform shot selections on low-resolution files and extract high-resolution material from those files even as they are being recorded. For NBC, Cisco is a trusted partner, and NBC says it relies on trusted relationships in the demanding IT environment of the Olympic Games. NBC has absolute deadlines for when Olympics coverage begins and end, company officials say, and can now exceed expectations and meet its timetables in an unforgiving environment with the help of Cisco technologies.

 

It is now possible to transfer gigabyte-sized files between Beijing, New York and Los Angeles with the groundbreaking trans-ocean network powered by Cisco, according to the company. In the last Olympics, the staff of NBC worked from videotapes to add graphics and captions to event shots.

 

Now, NBC says I twill present more than 3,600 hours of broadcast coverage during the 17-day event. It would be impossible to use a tape library to replicate enough video copies for use at eight different networks as well as NBCOlympics.com. The network can select shots and distribute them to affiliates even before an event is finished, with the help of a file-based workflow for shot selection, according to the company.

 

Under its partnership with Cisco, NBC can tackle technical challenges such as Creating a high-bandwidth, high-performance connection between Beijing and NBC studios in New York and Los Angeles and Providing the quality of service required to assign priority to real-time Olympic Games video footage over the trans-ocean network, according to the company.

 

“We are making broadcast history, executing the creation, management and distribution of digital video in a way that’s never been achieved before,” said Tony Bates, senior vice president and general manager, Cisco Service Provider Group. “We are entering the visual-networking era where video changes everything, especially the way people connect with the Olympic Games. The Olympics is all about the experience. The next best thing to being in Beijing is to be able to see the event coverage. This year, not only are thousands of hours of Olympic coverage being transmitted in real time, but Cisco’s IP video network and encoding technologies are also giving people the ability to access hundreds of event videos on demand using their PCs, laptops and mobile devices for an unprecedented Olympic experience anywhere, anyplace, anytime.”