Category Archives: Olympics

Baptism of Fire in the Olympic Cauldron

The Olympics are upon us – again! Even though the ancient Greeks set the Olympic schedule 4 years apart (in fact, the literal definition of an Olympiad is “4 years”), the modern Olympics since 1992 have been only 2 years … Continue reading

Posted in Aventus, H.264, Olympics, Smooth Streaming, Windows Azure Media Services | 3 Comments

Now available: Expression Encoder 4, IIS Media Services 4.0 Beta, SSME 1.0, SMF 2.0 RC1, Olympics case studies

While most of the world is on a collective vacation watching the World Cup, media teams at Microsoft have been busy at work. And watching the World Cup. 🙂 Released this month: Expression Studio 4, which of course includes Expression … Continue reading

Posted in Expression Encoder, Internet Information Services, Olympics, Silverlight, Smooth Streaming | Tagged , , , , | 6 Comments

Streaming the Olympics: How We Got Here

Though it may seem like it was just yesterday, it’s now been 18 months since we delivered for NBC the Beijing 2008 Summer Olympics using Windows Media Services, Windows Media Player and Silverlight. Whereas in Beijing we experimented with HTTP adaptive streaming for on-demand … Continue reading

Posted in Internet Information Services, Olympics, Silverlight, Smooth Streaming | Tagged | 4 Comments

NBC, CTV and NRK Stream Winter Olympics in Silverlight

As you’re probably well aware, the 2010 Vancouver Winter Olympics are upon us. Just as we did 2 years ago for 2008 Beijing Summer Olympics, Microsoft has once again teamed up with NBC to bring online video coverage of the 2010 Winter Olympics … Continue reading

Posted in Linux, Olympics, Silverlight, Smooth Streaming | Tagged | Comments Off on NBC, CTV and NRK Stream Winter Olympics in Silverlight

Silverlight 3, IIS Media Services 3.0, Olympics 2010 – Wow, It Truly Is March Madness!

Though blogging in Las Vegas might sound like a party foul, this has been an amazing week for Silverlight media – so much that I feel a sudden urge to report on it right now, right here. Silverlight 3 Beta … Continue reading

Posted in H.264, Internet Information Services, Olympics, Silverlight, Smooth Streaming | Tagged , , , , , | 7 Comments

The Birth of Smooth Streaming

In my last post I talked about the history of multi-bitrate streaming and how we got from RTSP and HTTP streaming back to HTTP download as the primary media web distribution mechanism. In this post we’ll take a closer look … Continue reading

Posted in Expression Encoder, Internet Information Services, Olympics, Silverlight, Smooth Streaming | Tagged , , , , , , | 31 Comments

An inside look at NBC Olympics video player

It’s the second week of the Beijing 2008 Olympics and though the press coverage of the NBC Olympics website has been more than thorough, one thing that hasn’t been fully explained is – what exactly are you watching when exploring … Continue reading

Posted in Olympics, Silverlight | 14 Comments

Why no full screen mode in the NBC Olympics player?

A very spirited discussion of the pros and cons of the NBCO player’s (lack of) full screen mode is taking place over on the Silverlight forums: http://silverlight.net/forums/p/22318/80644.aspx Microsoft’s Tom Taylor has provided some context and explanation for the controversial design decision.

Posted in Olympics, Silverlight | Comments Off on Why no full screen mode in the NBC Olympics player?

NBC Olympics video without Silverlight?

There’s been a lot of rumor on the Internet regarding the NBC Olympics website’s plug-in requirements and OS/browser support, so I thought I’d shed some more light on exactly what is and isn’t supported. The NBCO website specifically lists the … Continue reading

Posted in Olympics, Silverlight | 8 Comments

NBC Olympics 24/7

After more than 8 months of planning and development, full NBC Olympics online video coverage is underway! Anyone living in the U.S. can watch live and archived streaming video of nearly every Olympic event for free by visiting: http://www.nbcolympics.com/video/index.html The reason … Continue reading

Posted in Olympics, Silverlight | 1 Comment