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Schematic announced its development of a Web video player
anchoring NBC’s online coverage of the 2008 Beijing Olympic Games on
NBCOlympics.com on MSN. The announcement was made by Perkins Miller, Senior
Vice President, Digital Media, NBC Sports and Olympics, and Trevor Kaufman, CEO
of Schematic. The player debuts this week with live, streaming coverage of the
Created using Microsoft Silverlight 2, the video player will deliver 2,200
hours of live, streaming coverage from NBC to millions of Americans with an
unprecedented level of picture quality, interactive features and user control. As
the largest Web event ever, the player will also allow visitors to
NBCOlympics.com on MSN to access over 3,000 hours of on-demand video, including
full-event replays, highlights and interviews.
Tapped by NBC Universal and Microsoft for its expertise in implementing the
latest technologies and success in creating user interfaces for the world’s
largest brands, Schematic’s player for NBCOlympics.com on MSN represents the
highest-profile deployment of Microsoft Silverlight 2. All of the content will
be available free-of-charge and the video player will feature more than a dozen
live video streams at peak times to ensure that fans will be able to watch
their favorite athletes go for gold in 25 Olympic sports.
"Fans are going to be truly amazed at both the quality of the live video
and the comprehensive menu of sports available for viewing," said Trevor
Kaufman, CEO of Schematic. “We believe that Silverlight’s powerful and
distinctive capabilities were critical in enabling us to build such a fluid and
satisfying user experience. At Schematic, we are very pleased to have been
entrusted by NBC and Microsoft to create this transformation of their Olympics
coverage."
The interface is designed to be simple to use and is packed with a broad range
of helpful tools. Fans can watch up to four live streams from the same event at
once. The picture-in-picture feature lets fans watch a program displayed in
inset windows while another program is displayed on the full screen. Fans can
view and navigate via and expert commentary displayed over the video. They can
also access rich meta data such as results, and athlete information while
they’re watching, plus they can receive alerts to ensure they catch their
favorite events live. Additionally, the player features multiple bit rate
(MBR), which automatically matches the quality of the video to the user’s
connection speed.
”It’s our goal to deliver the best Olympics experience to the broadest
audience,” said Perkins Miller, Senior Vice President, Digital Media, NBC
Sports and Olympics. “We turned to Microsoft and Schematic to help us design a
dynamic and rich viewing experience for NBCOlympics.com on MSN.”
“NBCOlympics.com on MSN is an unprecedented example of the power and
possibility to break out of the traditional television box,” Steve Sklepowich,
group product manager, Silverlight media, Microsoft Corp. “The team at
Schematic did an impressive job harnessing the features of Silverlight to
provide a truly interactive, hi-def experience that puts the viewer in control
of the content.”
© 2008 SYS-CON Media Inc.