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NBC Gets Network Help From Cisco

Olympics broadcaster NBC used IP video technology from Cisco Systems to deliver its coverage of the Games to multiple platforms.

Cisco provided its IP video network infrastructure and video-encoding systems to the broadcast network during its coverage in Beijing. The IP video infrastructure enabled NBC personnel in New York and Los Angeles to edit video as it was captured in Beijing, and deliver it to TV, PC, and smartphone screens, according to Cisco.

The trans-ocean network provided by Cisco allowed for the transfer of gigabyte-sized files between Beijing, New York, and Los Angeles. In past Olympics, NBC staff had to work from videotapes to add graphics and captions to event shots.

To transfer video between Beijing and New York, NBC deployed three 150-Mbps OC-3 connections. A Cisco router combined all three into one large virtual pipe with 450-Mbps bandwidth. Video content received priority over other types of traffic sharing the same pipe, including teleprompter content and event scoring.

For the Olympics in Beijing, NBC presented more than 3,600 hours of broadcast coverage during the 17-day event. It wouldn't have been possible to use a tape library to replicate enough video copies for use at the eight different NBC-owned networks, as well as by NBCOlympics.com, Cisco says. By using a file-based workflow for shot selection, the TV network selected shots and distributed them to its affiliates even before events were completed.

The Cisco technology gave NBC the ability to perform shot selections on low-resolution files and then extract high-resolution material from those files as they were being recorded, according to Craig Lau, VP for IT, NBC Olympics.

Viewers of NBC's coverage of the Beijing Games could use PCs, laptops and smartphones to access some 2,200 hours of video that they can play back on demand. They also can access 3,000 hours worth of highlights, rewinds, and scoring results.

"We are making broadcast history, executing the creation, management, and distribution of digital video in a way that's never been achieved before," Tony Bates, senior VP and general manager of Cisco Service Provider Group said. "We are entering the visual-networking era where video changes everything, especially the way people connect with the Olympic Games.”

NBC owns the exclusive U.S. media rights to the Olympic Games through 2012, including the Beijing Games, the Vancouver Games in 2010, and the London Games in 2012.

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