With 20 simultaneous video streams coming from NBC camera crews in Beijing, it wasn’t enough just to deliver video over the Web -- we needed to create a simple, engaging way for users to watch multiple events at once. The enhanced video player provided near HD-quality video and picture-in-picture capability, and used Silverlight’s transparency capabilities so users could navigate through menus and metadata, while watching an event, or several, onscreen.

Users could also track the action and navigate via a continuous stream of broadcasters’ live expert commentary and play-by-play links. And the standout feature was the Live Video Control Room, which allowed viewers to select videos, configure the display, and watch as many as four live video streams simultaneously. Ultimately, over 2,200 hours of live video, and 3,600 hours of were streamed via NBCOlympics.com to fans during the games.

The 2008 Olympic Games were the most-viewed Web event ever:• 1.3 billion page views• 50 million unique visitors• 70 million video streams• 10 million hours of video watched• Average viewing time of +27 minutesNBC seized this opportunity to conduct a media study (TAMI) that identified how users accessed the Olympics broadcast materials. The results indicate that TV and the Internet were not competing for viewers, and that the online component complemented the broadcast offering; people used the Web when television was unavailable and to watch less popular events that were not part of the broadcast package.