Comments on: Microsoft Silverlight Gets a High Profile Win: 2008 Beijing Olympics

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By: Michael

Michael — Wed, 30 Jan 2008 03:47:30 +0000

I love Silverlight!!! I think it has some better things going for it than Flash, and I think this is a great way to get it out to the masses for people to try.

I hope the site functions well.

By: Non User

Non User — Tue, 08 Jan 2008 16:22:19 +0000

Silverlight who? This will most likely be a total failure. I am a PC Guy and actually like most of the Microsoft stuff. But this forced non standard platform I will not load. Guess I’ll just watch it elsewhere. This is reminiscent of the terrible Real Player that forced my machines to default to that terrible platform. I am a multimedia designer by trade and will not use Real. Flash would have been perfect for reaching a mass audience. I was luckly enough to work with the great team that produced the 2000 Sydney Olympics and they all Rocked! Too Bad NBC and the IOC screwed everything up. Oh well… maybey they will get it right for the Winter Olympics in 2010. 2008— what a mistake.

By: johnnykrisma

johnnykrisma — Tue, 08 Jan 2008 04:42:18 +0000

Once again, MS rather than supporting a perfectly good existing technology with almost ubiquitous distribution would rather screw with users and release a product that will be half as goo for the first 4 releases. They’ll pay numerous sites to use said technology, thereby forcing any competitor out of the field. Then they’ll sit on aforementioned technology until some new rebels come out with something that forces them to get off their completely unoriginal, unimaginative asses. It’s the browser wars all over again. Whatever…

By: Jamus

Jamus — Tue, 08 Jan 2008 02:49:10 +0000

Great. Blu-Ray and HD-DVD wars are just settling down and now we have to deal with Flash vs Silverlight. Meanwhile both installs will continue to get bigger and bigger and get more information from the user. Not to mention the last time I checked, Microsoft had left Mac users out in the cold for Silverlight content creation.

By: tofu

tofu — Tue, 08 Jan 2008 00:26:54 +0000

This will be a strategic win for MS in terms of adding market share and mindshare, but it will probably be a disaster for NBC, who will have to deal with a lot of public bashlash and a lot of buggy site functionality. Now that Flash supports H.264 videos and hardware-accelerated full-screen video, Silverlight doesn’t really even have a competitive advantage.

By: Mark Ashton

Mark Ashton — Mon, 07 Jan 2008 18:40:21 +0000

MSFT does not “own” NBC or any part of the company. NBC is wholly owned by General Electric. Microsoft used to have a partnership with NBC on the MSNBC network and Website. A year or two ago NBC took over full ownership of the network. The networks still provides content to the MSNBC portal but there is no equity investment between the two companies.

By: LionardoMasseratti

LionardoMasseratti — Mon, 07 Jan 2008 15:29:56 +0000

Failure!
I won’t install anything in my macbook.
I don’t trust M$ and I don’t care about all undercover M$ofties astroturfing here in TC

Leave the olympics alone!

Despicable, trying to force millions of people to use their shitty technology strongarming and bribing everybody.

Sick of M$!

By: wortwart

wortwart — Mon, 07 Jan 2008 12:34:53 +0000

So let’s hope they get their Silverlight running on Opera and on Linux by 2008. Especially their ignorance of Opera is a nuisance to me.

By: JA

JA — Mon, 07 Jan 2008 11:15:53 +0000

I’ve been using it and its rock solid, I happy to see NBC using it, more people should get a chance to try it.

By: Mark

Mark — Mon, 07 Jan 2008 09:58:19 +0000

Hey, we are talking about MS. They can easily auto install it on the users Computer if they want.

By: liquidboy

liquidboy — Mon, 07 Jan 2008 08:23:16 +0000

For the non-tech savvy people. Silverlight is an amazing technology that deserves all the exposure it gets.

Don’t judge it just because it’s an MS technology, it really is innovative in what it can do and the potential of where it can go.

Great move microsoft!

By: Divya

Divya — Mon, 07 Jan 2008 07:48:37 +0000

@Bernard Moon

Nice demo, I want one!

By: Michael Sync

Michael Sync — Mon, 07 Jan 2008 07:12:24 +0000

nice move, MS. i love that idea.. this is the way of forcing people to use Silverlight plugin.. good good..

By: Michael Arrington

Michael Arrington — Mon, 07 Jan 2008 07:11:09 +0000

typo fixed, thanks.

By: Ryan Stewart

Ryan Stewart — Mon, 07 Jan 2008 06:48:27 +0000

Sorry,

=Ryan
rstewart@adobe.com

By: Ryan Stewart

Ryan Stewart — Mon, 07 Jan 2008 06:48:04 +0000

@random_graph What?! Flash Player 9 is at around 96% (http://www.adobe.com/products/player_census/flashplayer/version_penetration.html). Silverlight doesn’t have penetration numbers out but it’s well, WELL below that. Penetration isn’t the reason NBC went with Silverlight over FMS3.

By: thinlight

thinlight — Mon, 07 Jan 2008 06:30:49 +0000

Typo in the title: Beijing, not Bejing

By: Bernard Moon

Bernard Moon — Mon, 07 Jan 2008 05:48:58 +0000

My former company, Innotive, which I still advise has built a live streaming video wall (100 video streams) with their software on top of Microsoft’s Silverlight platform. It’s pretty cool:

http://youtube.com/watch?v=ZP1-eLaGXqA

By: random_graph

random_graph — Mon, 07 Jan 2008 05:43:12 +0000

Can you clarify “20 simultaneous live video streams at peak time”?
Although I bet opening ceremonies could draw 200K, most events would not be more than 20K?

Silverlight is no surprise. Never count out MSFTs leverage to play catch-up. NBC would never use FMS2 due to cost, and Flash 9 (using FMS3) penetration is probably not much higher than Silverlight.

By: uploadchoice

uploadchoice — Mon, 07 Jan 2008 05:41:05 +0000

Microsoft has build good relationship with China and Asian countries, I hope some they will deliver some high technology in London Olympic too.

By: Technicle

Technicle — Mon, 07 Jan 2008 05:10:29 +0000

Interesting to see how the TC “editorial board” works..

In any case, people just love to hate microsoft, and hate to love google…

By: Duncan Riley

Duncan Riley — Mon, 07 Jan 2008 04:59:56 +0000

I’m surprised you found a positive from the presentation…I must have slept through that part

By: Dan Saki

Dan Saki — Mon, 07 Jan 2008 04:57:07 +0000

But still, Microsoft and NBC have had a working relationship for years, and it was out of this partnership that msnbc was born. MS working with NBC with silverlight is just a natural extension of that.