NEW YORK—Microsoft Azure has earned a spot at the Olympics, as NBC Olympics has announced it will utilize the system to provide cloud encoding and hosting with video workflows. Azure will be tasked with providing streaming services for NBCUniversal and NBCOlympics.com for the second time, having previously done so for the 2014 Winter Olympics in Sochi, Russia.
By using the Microsoft Azure, NBC Olympics will be able to provide live and on-demand multiplatform streaming coverage to a variety of connected devices, including connected TVs, tablets, smartphones, and PCs. The streams will be available through the NBC Sports app, which can be downloaded for free via Android, iOS, Roku, Amazon, Windows 10 tablets, Xbox, Windows Phone, PC and Mac.
Microsoft has additional services that it is providing users especially for the Olympic Games. Among these are a daily schedule, athlete information and predictions from Bing and a new Interesting Outlook calendar functionality on Outlook for enabling viewers to add specific events to their schedules.
The 2016 Summer Olympics take place in Rio de Janeiro starting Friday, Aug. 5 through Aug. 21.
Read more about how broadcasters are covering the Rio Games at our Live@TheRioOlympics social media hub.
