NBC is gearing up for the 2010 Winter Olympics with some changes to its mainstay site, NBCOlympics.com, scheduled to go live tomorrow. (See screenshots below). Once again, just as it did with the 2008 Summer Olympics, NBC will be using a video player based on Microsoft Silverlight technology to offer full HD videos. Except this time, the video player will have DVR-like functionality, with the ability to rewind the video, highlight clips and save them.
The video player will also incorporate Facebook Connect, to allow people to chat with their friends as they are watching the events. NBC expects the addition of Facebook chat to make the videos a more social and engaging experience, and also hopes viewing times will subsequently increase.
The site is also giving its photo slideshows an upgrade, with the ability to pan across high-res photos of all the action shots and do deep zooms on Lindsey Vonn’s boot buckle. Of course, there will also be sections of the sites devoted to TV listings, medal counts, and “Tweets and Blogs.” But the more visually appealing NBC can make the site, the more people will want to stick around.
I’m a little surprised by the exclusivity of Facebook here. To reach a much broader social audience, something like Gigya would be my vehicle of choice here (I have no affiliation with Gigya) on this site. Then again, I’m sure Facebook sweetened the deal for NBC for this exclusivity.. perhaps.
how long before the anti-ms fanboys say they dont want to donwload silverlight?
its pretty hypocritical to have flash installed but purposely avoid getting silverlight
Amazingly enough nbcolympics.com web site solution and development is powered by deltatre http://www.deltatre.com a Sport Media Services company based in Torino Italy. Very proud of what we achieved in 2008 for Beijing and thrilled for the new Silverlight Video Player for 2010. BTW i’m the deltatre CTO
Wow a CMS; ooo ahh how amazing. *yawn* pass.
Aaaandd, the video won’t play in Google Chrome, despite having the Silverlight add-in.
Nice.
good, get a better browser like ie8
Yeah ’cause IE8 is a great browser! Way to get on the standards bandwagon… IE8 is only just ACID2 compliant while all others have ACID3 and CSS3 selectors already implemented.
Get a clue genius.
chrome is a rounding error. no need to support it.
Can’t wait to watch all of the dropped frames and screen tearing.
Silverlight has turned Netflix into utter crap… can’t wait to see what it has to offer the Olympics.
Major League Baseball dropped Silverlight. Next.
FYI, Silverlight was the video platform for the 2008 Olympics and it held up really well.
silverlight ftw!
@UncleMatt What’s the alternative? Flash? Yuck.
Hopefully one day we can move beyond these silly little plugins for playing video in browsers.
http://www.universalsports.com is using the same technology – and the same platform
And here I just think it’s funny that they mockup of the website shows real people and results. I would love to see if their predictions pan out…
very interesting
We’re very excited, if not a bit tired, here at Vertigo (www.vertigo.com). My company built the video and photo gallery experience in Silverlight for the Olympics, with Microsoft. Look for more details in the days/weeks to come. BTW I’m CEO of Vertigo.
Can’t wait. Is Bode Miller going to rock out again?
We can all rejoice in the fact that there will be no beach volleyball in Vancouver.
Is Move Networks still involved with this NBC/Olympics cluster?
So I check it out and I get a (not surprising) message that in Canada, where I am at, I can’t watch live NBC coverage. (WHAT!?! Did they start the Olympics without me?) I decide to watch one of the canned clips instead (because I want to see Silverlight at work) and what I end up with is “Video Error” in soft white lettering against a pleasant blue background. I am not inclined to blame Silverlight for this but I am inclined to wonder about the performance and quality of the Internet as a network, per se.
In re UncleMatt’s comments (above) about dropped frames and screen tearing, these are actually the symptomatic results of poor network quality, and specifically, the results of network packet loss. It’s not about Silverlight or Flash or any of that, really. It’s about Internet performance and quality.
By the way, I am VP Mktg at IPeak Networks and we make a damned clever Internet packet loss solution.
How about telling them to not show the results of the competition right next to the video or on the link to be able to see the video. If you’re going to allow people to watch the event after the fact, then don’t ruin the event with the results.