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NBC Aims For Stability Through Redundancy In Athens

Posted by ryuzaki0 on from the more-feeds-please dept.

Darren writes "With the Athens Olympics just 27 days away NBC is gearing up for a massive 1210 hours of coverage (that's enough to watch TV over 50 days of Olympics 24/7). The infrastructure needed to provide such coverage is huge, and the potential for problems is significant. As a result NBC are taking all precautions possible and over the 17 days of competition they will utilize three satellite network linkups and three land-based connections to ensure they always have a connection. The mind boggles at what it is all going to cost - but I'm sure their advertising revenue will make it worth their while."

14 of 163 comments (clear)

  1. NBC has the backbone by toetagger1 · · Score: 5, Interesting

    NBC is owned by GE, which in turn owns GE Energy. With the resent history of power outages on July 13 in Grece, I wonder how they back up against that?

    --
    who | grep -i blond | date cd ~; unzip; touch; strip; finger; mount; gasp; yes; uptime; umount; sleep
  2. Advertising revenue will skyrocket... by crashnbur · · Score: 5, Interesting

    ...because everyone will be watching hoping to be glued to their TV when/if a blackout or terrorist attack hits. There's no news like bad news, and nothing can replace the ego of an American who can say he/she "saw it as it happened".

    (I don't think I will intentionally watch any of the Olympics, because I'll be out looking for a job and preparing for grad school.)

  3. Olympics not profitable for television by Jayfar · · Score: 5, Interesting
    The mind boggles at what it is all going to cost - but I'm sure their advertising revenue will make it worth their while.

    The networks generally lose millions on the olympic broadcasts - it's a prestige thing for them. Maybe they gain some small advantage in viewership for subsequent sports programming.

    1. Re:Olympics not profitable for television by DocScience4 · · Score: 4, Interesting

      It's what is known as a "loss leader" in the broadcasting industry. Not only is it (though marginally) for getting people to watch other sports, and overall "prestige", but mainly it delivers a sizeable audience to which they can promote their new and incumbent shows.

      They can also charge a premium rate for certain events on NBC (akin to the Super Bowl), and can provide more limited-appeal sports to narrowly-focused audiences in non-prime-time, as well as on their ancillary (e.g. USA) networks.

  4. Wonder why they chose the same service provider... by syrinje · · Score: 3, Interesting
    ...AT&T for all the six links. I would have thought it made sense to go with multiple service providers if I was spreading out my options for 99.9% availability.

    I just loved this gem from the link in the article "NBC will be able to send live feeds from Greece to the U.S. over all six links at once or use them for separate transmissions." Hmmm...six identical high-speed digital transmissions of Marion Jones tumbling in ignominy - yeeesh, wot a waste of bandwidth!

    Now here is an article about the design of the media center and its redundant systems that is more in tune with my ./er persona

    --
    See that long UID - that's what you get for lurking too long
  5. My How We Forget So Quickly.. by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1, Interesting

    Doesn't anyone remember the huge problems facing the Olympics this year due to extremely poor ticket sales (http://www.reuters.com/newsArticle.jhtml?type=spo rtsNews&storyID=5657784)?

    How will all of that coverage put a positive spin on the massive number of empty seats at each event?

    1. Re:My How We Forget So Quickly.. by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1, Interesting

      By not scanning the cameras across those empty stadium seats. What you don't see, doesn't exist.

  6. Yes, but will they have electricity? by ^DA · · Score: 1, Interesting

    Linking to multible sattelite networks is all well and good, but what about electricity? Just last week Athens had a blackout due to overload in the electric grid. This situation will not improve during the games!

    Guess they will have their own generators too.

  7. Answer by mattjb0010 · · Score: 2, Interesting

    Resale

  8. Redundancy in filming American competitors by synx · · Score: 4, Interesting

    So NBC will have redundancy - so you won't miss a minute of your favourite American competitor! Most people I know joke about NBC's coverage of the Olympics - its laughable. They'll show an event, then when the American loses they'll cut to a new event.

    Contrast this with CBC and BBC which cover entire events regardless of who wins or loses.

    So those who get cable, time to watch CBC for _full_ coverage of the Olympics!

  9. Does anyone pay attention to the olympics anymore? by deacon · · Score: 1, Interesting
    I mean, seriously, after all the corruption issues, does anyone take this seriously?

    Note the 48,500 links for this search!

    Seems like the Olympics has become like the UN: A good idea, which has been defiled by some of the people involved.

    Pity, really.

    I don't think i've watched since the Israeli 1972 Olympic Team was murdered in Munich

  10. No shooting sports coverage by chiph · · Score: 2, Interesting

    Now if we can get them to use all that technolgy to broadcast the shooting sports. I'm getting a little tired of watching hours of Curling or rhythmic gymnastics.

    Chip H.

  11. Re:Hang on... by bigman2003 · · Score: 2, Interesting

    The sad thing about this, is that I am sure they are preparing for the possibility of a terrorist attack.

    Let's say there is an attack, at some stadium. Well, the whole world would be watching, and they would have exclusive rights to access the area with cameras.

    Seriously, you know they thought about it, and probably put that into the contract. Exclusive rights to a track and field competition...good...but exclusive rights to the second largest terrorist event this century? Priceless.

    I'm not saying it because I want it to happen, or because I am calloused. I am saying it because it makes financial sense for them. This could be the biggest scoop ever, and they want to be prepared.

    It IS a sick world.

    --
    No reason to lie.
  12. Re:That's nice, except... by Nogami_Saeko · · Score: 2, Interesting

    I wonder how much of that coverage will be about non-american athletes...

    Maybe it's just me, but I like seeing competitors from other countries and seeing profiles on them as well...

    N.

    --
    "Nothing strengthens authority so much as silence." - Charles de Gaulle