Shownotes:
NBC is failing to live up to the Olympic ideal. We want what we want, where we want it, when we want it. Old media seems to behanging on. They’re using technology to inch them forward, but it’s slow going.
The PhotoFast CR-9000 offers a work-around for getting a solid state drive for under $900.
Research is getting us closer to real live invisibility cloaks. Harry Potter may be a reality soon. Okay, I’m joking…but, seriously!
Here at GBTV HQ, we’ve been tracking the Alter Ego project. It’s technology that aims to provide incredibly lifelike facial expressions by placing a bunch of dots on an actor, and those dots are interpreted by cameras. Here are several clips of their latest work.
Cali’s Shirt Courtesy of RealcookN.TV
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August 12th, 2008 at 1:00 am
In norway it’s pretty good. The national broadcasting company (NRK) is sending a lot on the net, at the moment in wmv, but they are going to switch to flash, this year (the olympics is finished by then…). One of our teleoperators allows its costumers to watch it free on the phone (over 3G, we don’t have dvb, or anything like that yet…). At least i’m satisfied :)
August 12th, 2008 at 2:27 am
Here in Denmark the broadcasting rights for the Olympics are split between the two major broadcasters: DR and TV 2. Furthermore DR has shared some of it’s rights with Sonofon/Cybercity (which is the Danish branch of Telenor – a mobile carrier and ISP), who are streaming live (free of charge), using Windows Media Stream and Silverlight. You can choose which ever you prefer. But it seems that the Silverlight implementation is just to make it available for Mac users, according to their FAQ. But because they are also providing a WM stream Linux users can actually watch it by getting their hands on the streaming URL and then using VLC. They also have some phone implementation, which means that Sonofon customers can watch for free on their phone (just on demand I think).
The Sonoon/Cybercity streaming is not exclusive though, since all the events they broadcast are also broadcast by DR on TV. And DR also streams their TV signal for free (DR is funded like the BBC (and NRK) by a license) over the web, and they have some Olympics specific on demand content. DR are using WM streaming as well, but they do have some how-tos on getting it to work on Mac and Linux.
The other major Olympics broadcaster, TV 2, is streaming online too, but since they are funded by ads you have to pay to watch their stream (which is also WMV).
August 12th, 2008 at 3:14 am
In the UK the BBC are streaming all there TV coverage online and live. You can also find it all on the BBC iPlayer within a few hours of the program ending.
August 12th, 2008 at 4:10 am
Here in The Netherlands it works pretty well. The public broadcaster NOS has the rights and is broadcasting all events through 12 separate channels, which are accessible through Silverlight and 800kbps Windows Media.
Only downside is the 10-second commercial before the stream starts.
August 12th, 2008 at 6:17 am
As Matty said the BBC is streaming all their live TV coverage using a flash player in pretty good quality. As well as uploading all of it (as far as I can see) to the BBC iPlayer, to watch later. I’m on Linux and all this works flawlessly :) I assume that people from other countries won’t be able to access the player…sorry to make you jealous :P
Sam
August 12th, 2008 at 6:44 am
CBC covers all events on thier website cbcsports.ca but unfortinatly it’s in a low quality using flash.
TSN does the same at tsn.ca in there video player using silverlight.
August 12th, 2008 at 7:50 am
Actually, this time around NBC is doing much less “holding back the good stuff”. Instead, they arranged to have traditional schedules modified so that the Big Events fall within U.S. prime time – and can be shown on NBC. It’s a 180 degree turn from Sydney and Athens when they went out of their way to avoid showing things live. And there was no internet viewing option.
Of course it’s all about getting the commercials seen, they paid billions for the broadcast rights.
August 12th, 2008 at 8:40 am
As a sport TV aficionado, I honestly cannot complain about the coverage here in Germany. The two public TV broadcasters ARD und ZDF are alternating live coverage from 3 am to 6 pm. Plus, they push a ton more live and slightly delayed coverage on 4 of their 6 digital specialty channels (ZDFdoku, ZDFinfo, Eins Plus, Eins Festival). If that’s not enough, the pan-European commercial sports channel EuroSport has dedicated their programm to the Olympics 24/7 with both live coverage and reruns.
That means at times that I can watch the Games on SIX different channels at the same time – talking about Olympic Overdose there! But that also can mean, whatever the reasons are that sometimes the same live event is shown on the same channels. Today we had the handball game game on three channels!
All coverage is also streamed online for free (with geo-blocking of course), except for EuroSport where you have to pay a subscription!
So far I’m enjoying the Olympics very much and also the TV coverage is good – even if it is a bit focused on the Germans (can’t really blame them though). And also the diversity is very good, every sport has been shown at least once – that might change though when the track and field events start later this week! I really have not tested the live streams because I watch with a TV and a P2P-TV app called Zattoo – go google it!
August 12th, 2008 at 12:44 pm
I just realized something. DR does not have the rights to stream the Olympics online, they belong to Sonofo/Cybercity (and TV 2).
August 12th, 2008 at 12:48 pm
I’m not so disappointed in (MS)NBC’s Olympic web coverage. Yeah, there’s not Silverlight for Linux (yet)…but smart geeks have been dealing with Linux lag on proprietary technology since forever, so that’s nothing new. Being able to re-watch the Opening Ceremony on demand (and the 400m mens relay, for that matter) in decent def is pretty cool.
Alter Ego: I’d love to see what The Residents could do with this kind of tech. “Bad Day on the Midway” is still one of my favorite gaming experiences.
August 12th, 2008 at 1:04 pm
Oh, and…
Hello to the world from me in the US. I love the “Parade of Nations”…seeing smiling faces from so many different countries always gives me hope.
August 12th, 2008 at 2:28 pm
Coverage on the BBC is fantastic.
Six SD streams on satellite and HD coverage from 1am to 5pm each day with a excellent highlights and features show each night at 7pm (also in HD).
Streaming via the web is reasonable quality and you can catch up with coverage using the excellent iPlayer (still can’t download content on a Mac – only stream).
With the amount of coverage and the fact that Great Britain are actually winning some medals mean I’m spoilt for choice.
The BBC are also live blogging the events (which is fantastic for dipping into whilst working).
Overall I’m very impressed – the only drawback is the swimming finals at 3-4am in the morning here. All because NBC are bankrolling and are demanding some live major events coverage in the States.
Really looking forward to the weekend for the Athletics and Rowing finals which are on at a very reasonable mid morning in the UK.
As you can see, with this amount of coverage I’m really wallowing in what is available. Brilliant!
August 12th, 2008 at 7:47 pm
I don’t think that the olympics is blocked here in Thailand, You-tube was for a time though.
August 12th, 2008 at 7:58 pm
If I had an invisibility cloak, i’d become the dark knight.
August 12th, 2008 at 8:28 pm
If I could be invisible, I *wouldn’t* keep it clean!
August 13th, 2008 at 10:09 am
Hi Cali,
Although I agree that everything should be on demand in the future, I actually side with NBC on this one.
I think it’s great that I can log on to the web and watch events that normally wouldn’t be televised in it’s entirety, or even at all! I love watching Olympic Badminton live, and because normally NBC wouldn’t air a sport like that,it totally works out for me.
In regards to only showing popular events on TV, with the amount that NBC pays for owning the rights to the Olympic games they would lose WAYYY too much advertising revenue trading in Analog dollars for Digital cents. I think for the time being Internet streaming should be used more for showing lesser televised events which will allow fans of those sports the ability to watch them + NBC can make some extra cash of the Internet Revenue.
August 13th, 2008 at 3:29 pm
In Sweden, coverage of the Olympics is provided by the public broadcasting service SVT (Swedish television), with no commercial breaks whatsoever. :-) I believe they’re showing most of the events. They don’t only talk about swedish athletes either, as I’ve heard that some other countries only cover their own athletes.
August 13th, 2008 at 5:16 pm
Certainly down the road it will be nice to have more open options to all content, but this really raises the bar from anything I’ve seen before. I’ve watched several things that I would have never got to see normally and if it means booting up a windows machine, so be it. I’m just glad that are doing it and expect the pressure for more will be there in 2 years for the winter olympics.
August 14th, 2008 at 4:32 am
I think the nbc olympics site is great and needs no inprovment
August 14th, 2008 at 7:21 am
I think the nbc olympic site is fantastic and you are so wrong, NBC pay billions to have the right for the olympic broadcast and the only way to recapture the investment is thru commerical/broadcast.
As for the site content, just because YOU think the sport you like is not live online does not necessary mean it is not interesting for the rest of us, did somebody vote you in as the queen of sport know it all?
Silverlight is just a shell same as flash, what difference does it make to you/us as long as the delivery is smooth and clear, so far they are doing a great job! Linux? I bet you that you don’t even have a Linux box in your home, the last time I check you are just a osX/Job’s fangirl.
August 14th, 2008 at 10:55 am
in El Salvador where i live the olympic experience is good, we get all the live events we want on the tv, i also have NBC so i get to watch alot of live events, a thing that i have discovered is that i get more live olympics that in NBC because i think they are sending all to the net but i cannot watch them in my pc (nbcolympics.com) because of the rights and stuff i’ve tried proxy software but it is very slow
August 16th, 2008 at 9:49 am
Cali, your complaint about NBC is incredibly naive! If they cannot recover their investment, you’d not get to see the games at all! I’ve noted that all of the commenters from outside the U.S. saying how great both their broadcast and online coverage is, are watching taxpayer supported broadcast outlets. I don’t know about you, but, I don’t want my tax dollars going to Olympics TV. I think NBC is doing just fine showing the popular events on broadcast TV and using the internet for what it is best at; narrowcasting the less popular events. If it weren’t for the online offerings, I would not get to see any of the shooting events.
August 16th, 2008 at 9:42 pm
I agree with the others, I really enjoy the coverage on NBC and their website! The time for live events is perfect and it’s great to see it online anytime as well. Sorry Cali, but I’m giving big thumbs up to NBC! No issues here.
August 17th, 2008 at 12:39 am
Once again, NBC is going for the bottom line and making sure it gets an equitable revenue for its expenditures. They have to pay their bills and offer investors a a return dividend.
I see the in future our televisions and computers being one in the same and for many of us in the geek community has already arrived. The television networks have to catch up.
August 18th, 2008 at 12:02 am
I can’t gripe too much about the NBC coverage of the Olympics. I get my TV off DirecTV, with NBC East and West coverage. No broadcast channels to speak of in the mountains of SW Montana.:)
I couldn’t watch it off the internet due to the lack of broadband out here in the boondocks. Hughes satellite (via earthlink) is certainly not broadband. I run into fair access problems watching you on GeekBrief.TV in hi def.
Ironically, I just watched the Nels Bohr lecture by Sir John Pendry (http://cast.nbi.ku.dk/lectures.xml) where he discussed the concept of the “invisibility cloak”. I am afraid that I would tend to gravitate toward the halls of power, with video and audio recording gear armed and ready…
August 18th, 2008 at 3:51 am
:-O Silverlight (@NBC) leaves out all the PowerPC Macs!! That is totally not fair :(
August 18th, 2008 at 1:21 pm
Next week Monday? What the hell?! What am I supposed to do till next week Monday? :) Ahhh make more GBTV iPhone wallpapers I hear Cali say!
So anyway, there should be a prize for the best Invisibility Cloak idea. I would sneak on an overseas flight to the next GeekBrief.TV meetup! That’s right. Lock your doors my friends! Haha.
August 30th, 2008 at 6:34 pm
What you want, where you want it, when you want it – when you PAY FOR IT!
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