NBC’s 2004 Summer Olympics broadcast was produced from the International Broadcast Center (IBC) in Athens where an EVS network was installed in edit and broadcast rooms.
NBC relied on the bays for advanced editing and quick turnaround of programming to be part of the network’s 1210 hours of Olympics coverage.
At remote venues where events were covered live, NBC created hundreds of clips of the action as it occurred. Those were sent to the IBC edit bays for final editing prior to broadcast. As a story was completed on an EVS XT, a copy was mailed to another server for backup. Finished pieces then resided on broadcast servers that eventually aired the coverage.
The NBC playback control room used the EVS SpotBox XT, which was integrated with the switcher to provide direct control of the graphics and effects. The SpotBox was tied to the SDTI network so clips could be stored and played out as required by the technical director.
The XBrowse at the IBC was linked with Gigabit connectivity to XFiles at remote sports venues, which allowed the IBC to have access to any footage archived there. That footage could be pulled to the local XBrowse storage and used on any server within the XT network, giving editors immediate access to footage without having to wait for tape dubs.
At the venues, the EVS XT servers consisted of several six-channel configurations, including Super-motion, for ingest and editing of highlight packages. The network of XT servers used the XFile Gigabit Ethernet gateway to interface with Isilon drive array clusters that provided 10TB of near-line storage to venue coverage.
The large venues also took advantage of a tapeless environment to allow instant access to media across the network. The AirBox XT servers provided editors with an easy interface to grab desired clips to edit on Avid editors. Additionally, the tape assistant director had a discreet channel to preview clips and highlights through the Airbox Control.
A SAIT tape backup system also was tied to the XFile and Isilon cluster to archive material.
For more information, visit www.evs.tv.
