Based on the flood of announcements, vendors that are on board to help NBC Olympics produce and cover the Winter Games from PyeongChang have apparently been given the green light to bask in the tech-facing aspects of the glory.
Here’s a snapshot of partners that are on board to help with that coverage, which will include NBC’s 176 hours of broadcast TV coverage and 1,800 hours of live-streaming.
Watch MCN: 10 Ways NBC Is Covering the 2018 Winter Olympics
FileCatalyst said it’s been picked to transfer file footage (via a 5 Gbps link between NBC Olympics’ headquarters in Stamford, Conn., and its compound at the Intentional Broadcast Center in PyeongChang, and to facilitate remote production workflows for NBC Olympics. FileCatalyst, which also teamed with NBC for the 2016 Summer Games in Rio, said its “Direct” platform now lets partners edit transfers that are ongoing, even if there are hundreds of concurrent transfers taking place.
Cisco Systems will provide IP video contribution and distribution assistance to NBC Olympics, using several products/components, including the Cisco ASR9000 router/switcher, wireless and Ethernet-based virtual private network services, the Cisco Digital Content Manager (for broadcast transport of IP video), and collaboration products such as Cisco Telepresence, Spark and Spark Board.
Harmonic will contribute its MediaGrid shared storage systems and Spectrum MediaDeck media servers for a range of production applications, including broadcast, on-demand, digital, news operations and for the long-term archive.
Lawo is providing VSM (Virtual Studio Manager) Broadcast Control and Monitoring products, as well as IP Commentary systems for NBC’s production from the Games. Lawo said VSM will serve as the overarching control system for NBC Olympics’ core routing and tally management, connecting to multiple third-party devcies on an IP backbone.
Ericssonis proving a range of encoding and satellite receiver products for video distribution, including its AVP 2000 contribution encoders and its RX8200 Advanced Modular Receivers.
NEP will provide outside mobile broadcasting units alongside engineering and technical support for the production, noting that it has provided broadcast gear for every Olympics since the Atlanta Games in 1996.
Avid is providing MediaCentral platform to aid content creation and media management workflows for NBC’s production from the Winter Games.
NBC Olympics will also tap ChyronHego’s Lyric graphic creation and playout system, Live Compositor, as well as Prime Clips. In all, NBC Olympics will use 30 Lyric systems to cover the Games, with about half deployed at Stamford, and the balance for NBC Olympics’ production facility at the International Broadcast Center in PyeongChang.
Tektronix is supplying audio and video testing monitoring systems, as well as network monitoring for NBC’s production. Those products include the Tektronix WFM7200, WVR7200, WFM5200, and WVR5200 Waveform Monitors, SPG8000A Master Sync and Master Clock Reference Generators. NBC will also use the WFM8300 Waveform Monitors for its 4K and HDR coverage.
