Vancouver Olympics Streaming Brings New Meaning to Live Event Viewing

Submitted by Greg on Fri, 02/12/2010 - 16:23

tickets to OlympicsIt's been a long, but worthwhile, wait since the last Olympic Winter Games.
I think this year is especially exciting due to how far we've come technologically in just the last four years, let alone since I was a kid.

I remember bending rabbit ears on my 7" TV, picking up a fuzzy CTV Broadcast of the 1988 Winter Olympics in Calgary.  Being a young hockey player and skier, I was addicted to the Winter Olympics from that moment on, and I've watched every Olympics since. 

The evolution of media delivery and consumption over that period is really remarkable, and the Vancouver games will bring more options than ever for tuning in. In the US, NBC has gone to an all-HD production for the first time.  They will be broadcasting 835 hours of content on their network.  In addition, they will be live streaming about half of that over the Internet, and providing video-on-demand replays of over 1,000 hours of events. NBC is teaming up with Microsoft to present the online streams using Smooth Streaming technology and Silverlight players, which presents an amazing step forward in video quality.

Beet.TV Interview: Sam Blackman on how online video is the new black

Submitted by Julie on Fri, 12/18/2009 - 11:19

Last month at the NewTeeVee conference, Beet.TV spoke with Sam Blackman, Elemental's CEO about the launch of Elemental Server, a new appliance for transcoding HD (and SD) video at "faster-than-real-time" rates and market implications for online video technology and products attempting to satiate the demand for video.

 

The Rising Tide of Content

Submitted by Andy on Wed, 11/04/2009 - 15:17

Matt Smith (from my old haunts at Inlet Technologies) recently wrote up an excellent overview on the rise of adaptive streaming as a disruptive technology and I couldn't agree with it more.  Adaptive bit rate architecture embodies innovation because it leverages existing infrastructure while exponentially improving the user experience.

With the adoption of Adaptive (be it HTTP adaptive for the iPhone, Smooth Streaming for Silverlight, or Dynamic Streaming for Flash), we're seeing some classic problems that have plagued online viewers—like the guesswork around plug-ins, data rates, etc...—go away.  We're also seeing improved features make an appearance, such as real-time chats and social media connections, which allow the user both a unique and collective experience. 

But all this new technology AND the growing popularity is having a tsunami effect on the amount of work content creators now have to deliver.

The disruptive technology tidal wave

Can content creators keep their heads above this rising demand?  Not with the familiar options that are handy today - the CPU-only workflows will only get you so far.  Adding more computers just gives the operators more things to keep track of and eventually efficiency just flatlines as you add more systems.  Traditional acceleration avenues exist, but have long been a pariah for being so costly and proprietary. Click through for more.

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