ASIA-PACIFIC BROADCASTING

Pressed for time during on-air production of the Super Bowl XLIII, NBC Sports made fast transfers of HD files and audio graphics from New York to Florida using the Omneon ProCast CDN.

The technology provided by Omneon enabled NBC Sports to deliver the graphics and files in just a small fraction of the usual time needed. This was proven during the match between the Arizona Cardinals and Pittsburgh Steelers on 1 February 2009.

Omneon’s high performance content distribution platform overcame the problem of distance for NBC Sports and allowed its graphics team to accomplish its tasks in New York without the need of flying to Tampa Bay.

Before using ProCast CDN, NBC Sports carried out its Super Bowl graphics work on-site and became dependent on the less efficient and complex FTP transfers of media.

However, by using advanced WAN acceleration technology, network management and bandwidth prioritisation, ProCast CDN can derive the maximum benefit of file transfer over any IP network for the user.

Supported by a 20Mbps VPN Internet circuit with automatic failover, files can be sent and received over a DS3 network without saturating the data circuit.
Note that this was not the first time that NBC Sports benefited from the Omneon technology.

“We had a great experience using ProCast CDN to move graphics and video files the 6,000 miles from Beijing to New York for production of our Olympics coverage, so it was an obvious solution as we looked to establish a simpler, more efficient and more cost-effective model of content distribution for our Super Bowl coverage,” said Phil Paully, director of graphics at NBC Sports.

“ProCast CDN ensures fast, reliable delivery of large graphics files without jeopardising voice communications and other critical data being transferred on the same circuit. It’s essentially invisible to our graphics team, and it provides our technical staff with easy on-the-fly management of file delivery during the game,” Paully added.

For Craig Lau, vice-president of information technology for NBC Sports, the problems associated with the delivery of files and physical transfer of the graphics crew are finally over.

“ProCast CDN is the IP acceleration solution we’d been seeking for quite some time, and today it’s a critical part of our operations,” said Lau.

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