NBC’s presentation of more than 3,600 hours of broadcast coverage during the 17-day Summer Olympics is one of the single most ambitious media projects in history. Some tedious whiners among the punditry have, well, whined that the coverage is over saturation that nauseates them. Time will tell if there is an overkill point for covering events via multi-platform media convergence. For now, it’s exciting to see a great summer games equaled by historic firsts for media, digital new media, and digital technology.

Of particular note, Internet Protocol (IP) video network infrastructure and video-encoding is enabling NBC personnel in New York and Los Angeles to edit video as it is captured in Beijing and deliver it to three screens: TV, PC, and smartphone. In previous Olympics, NBC staff had to work from videotapes to add graphics and captions to event shots. However, it would be impossible to use a tape library to replicate enough video copies for use at NBC Universal’s eight different networks plus NBCOlympics.com. Using the digital system for shot selection, NBC can select shots for distribution to affiliates even before an event is finished.

Article Tags: Digital New media | Internet Protocol | media convergence | NBC | Olympics

Filed under: Interactive, Networks, TV, Technology, Uncategorized, Video