NBC Olympics selects Microsoft Azure for Cloud Encoding/Hosting

NBC Olympics will be using Microsoft Azure to provide cloud encoding and hosting with video workflows of the upcoming Olympic games in Rio.

NBCOlympics.com plans to post a record 4,500 hours of online conten from the Olympics.

This is the second Games for which NBC Olympics has chosen Microsoft Azure to assist with live and on-demand multiplatform streaming coverage. With the proliferation of connected devices, viewers this year will tune into NBC Olympics’ programming from connected TVs, tablets, smartphones, PCs and more. NBC Olympics is making it easy for viewers to access news, highlights and programming wherever they are via the NBC Sports app available free on Android, iOS, Roku, Amazon, Windows 10 tablets, Xbox, Windows Phone, PC and Mac.

“We always strive to deliver more content in real time to more channels and devices around the world,” said Scott Guthrie, executive vice president of the Cloud and Enterprise Group at Microsoft. “During the Sochi Olympic Games, NBC Olympics had more than 1 million concurrent live viewers watching a collective average of 600,000 hours of coverage per day. We are planning for even greater viewing numbers for Rio, and are excited to power the experience again using Microsoft Azure.”

“The Rio Olympics have nearly three times as many events per day as the Sochi Games,” said Rick Cordella, senior vice president and general manager, Digital Media, NBC Sports Group. “With the Azure cloud platform, Microsoft is partnering with us to deliver the secure, scalable cloud we depend on to bring the Games to millions of viewers on whichever device they prefer, via end-to-end live streaming entirely in the cloud.”

http://news.microsoft.com/

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