14 DAY TRIAL // Just three days are left until the opening ceremonies of the 2010 Winter Olympic Games in Vancouver are kicked off, but NBC Universal and Microsoft have already set in place the online Olympic hub designed to brings fans around the world winter games coverage. NBCOlympics.com on MSN is the result of a collaboration between NBC Universal and Microsoft, which incorporates technology from the Redmond company including Silverlight, Internet Information Services Smooth Streaming technology, MSN and Bing.
“Whether you’re at the games or watching from afar, we want you to get the most out of the 2010 Winter Olympics. Today, NBC Universal announced their collaboration with MSN and Bing to deliver exclusive digital event coverage to fans online and on-demand. This year’s Olympic coverage is going to be unlike any other year with thousands of hours of video, extensive event recaps, updated medal count info, and commentary from the games, brought to you exclusively by NBCOlypmics.com, MSN and Bing,” revealed Bing’s Kristin Meldahl.
Just as it was the case for the Beijing Olympic games, Silverlight is the heart that powers the interactive online player on NBCOlympics.com. However, this year, sport fans will also be able to enjoy high definition quality video content delivered both live and on demand with the help of the Internet Information Services (IIS) Smooth Streaming technology, in concert with Silverlight.
The promise from Microsoft is that NBCOlympics.com will offer over 400 hours of live and 1,000 of on-demand Olympic HD quality footage. In addition to the video experience complete with DVR-style controls, Silverlight will also be responsible for allowing users to view Enhanced HD photo galleries in great detail with such features as Deep Zoom.
“MSN and Bing provide exclusive content that provide consumers with a unique experience of the Winter Olympic Games:
• MSN provides fast, comprehensive results for all 86 Winter Olympics events, providing live results, statistical summaries, elimination Brackets, as well as mobile access to the Winter Games via MSN Mobile, powered by NBC Olympics.
• As the only search engine providing official video of the Winter Games, Bing allows consumers to find Instant Answers on popular athletes, sporting events and medal counts, as well as updating the homepage daily with Olympics images. Bing Maps StreetSide also allows people to visually explore the streets of Vancouver and Whistler (the first international destination on Bing Maps); and interactive mapping applications that allows fans to track medal counts and athletes by country,” a Microsoft spokesperson told Softpedia.
Silverlight 3 RTW is available for download here.