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A couple of late developments regarding NBC’s Olympics coverage have come to our attention.
No. 1: Limelight Networks announced that it is providing live and on-demand video streaming services from NBCOlympics.com to MSN.com.
Limelight Networks is the primary CDN (content delivery network) for all video content on the “NBCOlympics.com on MSN” Web site, which is being produced in partnership by NBC and MSN.
You will have to download Microsoft’s Silverlight video software (it’s similar to Adobe’s Flash player) as a plug-in to your browser. It’s free and takes just a few minutes to deploy, but once it’s running, you can watch up to four videos at once — if your computer has enough horsepower.
No. 2: Filtrbox has created a special news monitoring widget for professionals to use to keep track of their favorite team and sports. The Olympics widget link went live Aug. 7. Check it out here. You simply copy the code and add it to your blog. Filtrbox says it’s easier and more precise than Google Alerts.
You can read about some of the technical aspects of NBC’s coverage — which will be streamed for television, Web and handheld device screens from Aug. 8 through Aug. 24 — here at eWEEK. Check out “NBC’s Ambitious Olympics Coverage” and “NBC Broadcasts Olympics via Cisco Video Backbone.”
What are your plans for tonight, ostensibly one of the luckiest days of the year, decade and century? Today is the 20th anniversary of the day we signed final papers to purchase our house (8-8-88!). Lots of couples are getting married today — my wife Becky is a wedding hostess and has to supervise three of them herself this afternoon.
Tonight we’re going to head to the Courthouse Square in our hometown of Redwood City, Calif., and watch the opening ceremonies in Beijing on a large, inflatable screen from the courthouse steps with some other folks.
You be sure to have a great weekend — with or without the Olympics!