NBC sets Cisco an Olympic challenge

When you manage a corporate network and it fails you’ve got to answer to your boss and to your corporate

 partners. Imagine if you had to manage the networks at NBC during the next two weeks as all the country’s eyes will be glued to their flat-screen TVs as the Beijing Olympic Games unfolds. The network managers at NBC are betting their careers on Cisco, which is providing the IP video network infrastructure and video-encoding products. As the Cisco press release enthuses:  “… the groundbreaking trans-ocean network powered by Cisco will enable the transfer of gigabyte-sized files between Beijing, New York and Los Angeles.”

For the first time, NBC aims to present 3,600 hours of Olympic coverage during the 17-day event. Cisco adds: “In previous Olympics, NBC staff had to work from videotapes to add graphics and captions to event shots … It would be impossible to use a tape library to replicate enough video copies for use at eight different networks as well as NBCOlympics.com. Using a file-based workflow for shot selection, the network can select shots and distribute them to affiliates even before an event is finished.”

Cisco’s data center front man Doug Gourlay explains all in his blog: 

Rather than sending 400 video shot selectors and editors to Beijing, NBC will be using Cisco WAAS for WAN optimization and application acceleration between Beijing, New York and Los Angeles. By optimizing 35Mbps links into 140Mbps links, Cisco WAAS allows editors and shot selectors to access gigabyte-sized video files over the WAN with the same performance as if they were stored locally. This reduces operating costs of housing, air travel, transportation, and food. Avoiding 800 airplane trips also supports NBC’s green initiatives for the Olympic Games. 

To transmit video to its studios, NBC has deployed three 155Mbps OC-3 pipes between Beijing and New York. A Cisco 12004/4 Router collapses all three into one virtual pipe using equal cost load balancing. The types of traffic on the network range from video content and IP telephony to teleprompter content and event scoring. Cisco WAAS leverages rather than overwrites router QoS, giving NBC the confidence to dedicate 400Mbps to video, unlike tunnel-based architectures. 

Gourlay says he’ll be watching his favorite events – track and field, while his friend Feng who wrote most of his posting goes for synchronized swimming and rhythmic gymnastics. Yours truly will be glued to the cyclists – all those rippling quad muscles under those tight shorts … 

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