I can’t believe I missed this the first time around.
I was so focused on how the online Olympic video was getting through the last mile, that I completely forgot to ask: How the heck are they getting it from Beijing to the U.S.?
Douglas Gourlay at Cisco has been blogging about how NBC’s been using Cisco’s Wide Area Application Services (WAAS) for WAN optimization, so that NBC’s video editors can use three 155Mbps OC-3 pipes, combined and load-balanced (with, of course, Cisco gear) to get the files directly from Beijing. While I’m not 100% sure on “as if they were stored locally,” holds true, it’s clear that WAAS is capable of some amazing stuff – we know because NetQoS has SuperAgent integration on WAAS devices and ACE load balancers. We track stuff like that all the time.
“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.”
It also probably makes the video editors a bit grumpy that they didn’t get to go to Beijing.
What I’m curious about is what will happen after the Olympics. Just as Olympic stadiums still stand – and are used – in every host city, I’m wondering if the infrastructure that NBC has to Beijing to deliver high definition video will remain after the Olympics. As China starts to become a new superpower, more news and information is bound to come from Beijing, after all.
And if this can be done for one series of events in one major city, is it that far off from having video-heavy WANs in every city to cover every major event?
by Brian Boyko