By James Thompson

It’s absolutely amazing to see NBC take on the monumental task of broadcasting the 2008 Summer Olympics in high definition from Beijing, China. This is, without a doubt, the most ambitious live-event coverage in the history of broadcasting.

For those of you who tuned in over the weekend, I’m sure you were as amazed as I was to see the exceptional quality of the international athletes competing for a gold medal. I was so impressed that I actually tuned in to events that I normally would pass over, such as fencing and water polo. You could actually see and feel the rivalry. And watching it in HD made the viewing experience even more palpable. At one point during the U.S. men’s basketball game against China, an NBC cameraman captured a close-up shot of coach Mike Krzyzewski, and I could actually read the time on Krzyewski’s hand watch. And, as Michael Phelps received his third gold medal in the 200-meter freestyle swimming event, viewers were able to feel the emotion through the close up of his eyes as portrayed by the terrific camera work.

The LA Daily News reported that, during the 17 days these athletes will compete, approximately 2,900 NBC Olympics employees will record 3,600 hours of video that the company plans to deliver from China. The NBC control room in New York, based out of the “Saturday Night Live” studios at Rockefeller Center, will try to sustain over 2,200 hours of live streaming video.

Kudos to the NBC Olympics management team and their crew for their efforts. Likewise to the many companies that are providing the solid technological infrastructure necessary to capture this content.

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This entry was posted on Tuesday, August 12th, 2008 at 11:15 am and is filed under Uncategorized. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.