More content, more pixels, more copies, more channels
Gearlog reports that NBC will use a half a million gigabytes of disk storage to cover the Beijing Olympic games.
That’s right: 500 terabytes. A half petabye. For one event.
The new demands of digital video broadcasting
Why so much? Triple the hours of coverage of the 2004 Games, and many more channels (broadcast and web). I’m sure there’s a Digital HD multiplier in the equation as well.
NBC will use Omneon MediaDeck and MediaGrid servers and storage, and Seagate Barracuda ES hard drives to pull this off.
The strangest part: by the 2012 London Olympics, this solution will look quaint and seriously under-sized.
So what’s your prediction for the 2012 Games. Given the Brit’s love for advertising and sophistication with social media, I predict the 2012 Olympic games will move from the 2008 paradigm of one-way push programming to a completely interactive, user generated content. The advertising blitz for the 2012 will start as the games are ending in China and completely engross us for 4 years as we follow and participate in people’s triumphs and struggles in getting to London 2012.
I just want there to be a gold medal for Blogging. Give me something to aspire to.
I don’t believe our attention spans can handle 4 years of continous hype. Will Reality TV infect the Olympic movement?
I agree with TJ. What NBC is offering this year for Beijing will be nothing compared to how the viewer will be able to watch the games in 2012. By then everything will be HD and 500TB will be used up pretty quick. Why don’t they cut a deal with YouTube and let fans at the games use inexpensive HD Camcorders, and record and post olympic coverage to the web? One thing is for sure, in addition to video broadcast storage, video surveillance storage will explode in preparation for the 2012 games….imagine – all megapixel, high resolution cameras recording 24 x 7 with who knows what kind of analytics/intelligence will be available by then…maybe NBC should get into surveillance and kill 2 birds with one stone.
amazing! thanks for re-posting the data.