Cisco collaborated with NBC to provide a media-aware IP video network infrastructure during the network's all-HD coverage of the 2010 Vancouver Olympic Winter Games. Using a file-based workflow for shot selection, the network can select shots and distribute them to post-production editing facilities even before an event is finished.
Working with NBC, Cisco engineers established an end-to-end IP video solution from video production to content management and distribution, leveraging a combination of multiple video, storage, editing and telecommunications broadcasting technology vendors.
The combined Cisco and multiple broadcast vendor solution, which includes a private network, Cisco IP video infrastructure and medianet technology, will enable real-time editing of the Winter Games content by NBC personnel in multiple international and domestic locations, and will allow gigabyte-sized files to be transmitted between locations and then delivered to TVs, PCs and mobile devices.
Cisco Flip Video cameras are also playing an important role this year for NBCOlympics.com, helping NBC's analysts and bloggers shoot on-the-fly video of the festivities. The network also tested the Cisco Media Data Center and Cisco's Unified Computing System to support mission-critical production and video-archiving functions.
Leveraging the Cisco technology, viewers of NBC’s coverage of the Olympic Winter Games are able to use their PCs and laptops to access video that they can play back on-demand and request highlights, rewinds, encores and scoring results. Individuals will also be able to watch video and view results on their mobile devices.
Additional Cisco components of the medianet deployed for NBC include a single, converged IP infrastructure for a wide spectrum of services ranging from the video delivery to data-intensive logistics applications; a high-bandwidth, high-performance connection between Vancouver and NBC studios in New York to give shot selectors and editors the ability to edit video as it is being captured; and QoS that assigns priority to real-time Olympic Games video footage over the network.
