NBC Olympics Chooses FileCatalyst for Rio 2016 Video-File Delivery

NBC Olympics, a division of the NBC Sports Group, has selected FileCatalyst to provide digital file delivery software for its production of the Games of the XXXI Olympiad, which take place in Rio de Janeiro August 5 to 21. The announcement was made by Jim Miles, Director, Digital Workflow Systems, NBC Olympics, and Chris Bailey, CEO & Co-Founder, FileCatalyst. Building on the technological leaps that were taken at the 2014 Sochi Games, NBC Olympics has again partnered with FileCatalyst to help with the movement of video files for the duration of the Rio Games.

During the Games, NBC Olympics will utilize FileCatalyst technology to move data over a 5 Gbps link between its headquarters in Stamford, Connecticut, and the NBC Olympics compound within the International Broadcast Centre in Rio de Janeiro, as well as between many other interconnected sites and event venues. The volume of concurrent file transfers at peak periods is expected to be in the hundreds, with a total data volume of approximately 10 TB per day.

The files will consist of both high and low resolution videos, many of which will be transferred while the events are still in progress and while the videos are still being encoded. Timely delivery of this content is critical to the production workflow, as it will enable remote logging and editing in near realtime. Archived footage will also be moved from Stamford back to Rio as required for editorial purposes.

FileCatalyst Central, a web based monitoring and administration tool that allows complete control over a global deployment of the FileCatalyst platform including all of the FileCatalyst Direct servers and clients, will also be deployed. Working closely with NBC Olympics over the last year on its design, this new version of FileCatalyst Central will be completely revamped. It will employ an advanced realtime statistics engine and an updated interface with an intuitive global map view of all interconnected FileCatalyst server and client applications.

NBC Olympics will also deploy the new FileCatalyst Delivery plugin for Avid Interplay Delivery. The new plugin is designed to allow seamless delivery of files across multiple distributed Avid systems over the WAN, a process that can be time consuming with other Avid Delivery plugins. Avid users can simply select a destination to send to, and the file will be sent at the maximum possible speed using the patented FileCatalyst Technology.

FileCatalyst will be showcasing the workflow at the upcoming NAB show in Las Vegas from April 18th – 21st in booth SL10716.