In the approach to the Aug. 5 start of the Rio Olympics in Brazil, Ericsson announced it will work with NBC to support the network’s broadcast of the summer games.
Ericsson has provided technology support and solutions to NBC in its coverage of the 2006 Winter Olympics in Turin, Italy; the 2008 Summer Olympics in Beijing, China; the 2010 Winter Olympics in Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada; the 2012 Summer Olympics in London, U.K., and in 2014 at the Winter Olympics in Sochi, Korea.
“The Olympic Games is watched and loved the world over, and we are proud to be part of the coverage NBC Olympics will be providing. Our deep heritage in delivering next generation solutions for content acquisition, exchange and distribution will ensure that U.S. fans get to witness each thrilling sporting moment in the best possible quality,” Elisabetta Romano,VP and Head of TV and Media for Ericsson, said. “Our ongoing work with NBC Olympics is great testament to our compression solutions and services, which deliver truly immersive and seamless experiences to consumers across all devices.”
“We once again are entrusting all of our MPEG compression to the very flexible and reliable Ericsson product line,” David Mazza, SVP of Engineering, NBC Olympics, said. “When we need to balance the trade-off between bandwidth vs. high picture quality, we know Ericsson is always going to give us the best picture for the available bits.”
Ericsson will provide a range of its video processing solutions and advanced modular receivers, supporting NBC Olympics with the delivery of high quality, reliable HD broadcast to millions of viewers. Expert Ericsson engineers will also be providing 24/7 event support onsite, as well as assisting with equipment and system set up.
NBC’s broadcast is just one piece of the amazing complex ICT puzzle presented by the Rio Olympics and other events of this magnitude.
One of the sponsors, Cisco Systems, in October had completed and delivered 54% of its Rio Olympics projects, which are focused in the internal operation of the games rather than technologies set to be used by the public. The U.S.-based company said it has 80 employees focused on meeting its commitments tied to the games, which include the eventual deployment of 100,000 local area network ports, 7,000 wireless access points, 150 firewalls/IPS/IDS and 550 corporate servers.
Cisco is working in partnership with other companies, such as Embratel/Claro, which is the official telecommunication services provider for the games. In addition, Cisco is working with Samsung, the worldwide Olympic partner in the wireless communications equipment category; and Omega, the worldwide Olympic partner in the product or service category, including watches, clocks and official countdown clocks. A team of 5,400 IT professionals is expected to be on site during the games.
Projections suggest the games will include some 10,900 Olympic athletes, 4,350 Paralympic athletes and 25,100 members of the press along with thousands of fans from around the globe.
