Schematic announced its development of a Web video player anchoring NBC’s online coverage of the 2008 Beijing Olympic Games on NBCOlympics.com on MSN. The announcement was made by Perkins Miller, Senior Vice President, Digital Media, NBC Sports and Olympics, and Trevor Kaufman, CEO of Schematic. The player debuts this week with live, streaming coverage of the U.S. Olympic trials.

Created using Microsoft Silverlight 2, the video player will deliver 2,200 hours of live, streaming coverage from NBC to millions of Americans with an unprecedented level of picture quality, interactive features and user control. As the largest Web event ever, the player will also allow visitors to NBCOlympics.com on MSN to access over 3,000 hours of on-demand video, including full-event replays, highlights and interviews.

Tapped by NBC Universal and Microsoft for its expertise in implementing the latest technologies and success in creating user interfaces for the world’s largest brands, Schematic’s player for NBCOlympics.com on MSN represents the highest-profile deployment of Microsoft Silverlight 2. All of the content will be available free-of-charge and the video player will feature more than a dozen live video streams at peak times to ensure that fans will be able to watch their favorite athletes go for gold in 25 Olympic sports.

"Fans are going to be truly amazed at both the quality of the live video and the comprehensive menu of sports available for viewing," said Trevor Kaufman, CEO of Schematic. “We believe that Silverlight’s powerful and distinctive capabilities were critical in enabling us to build such a fluid and satisfying user experience. At Schematic, we are very pleased to have been entrusted by NBC and Microsoft to create this transformation of their Olympics coverage."

The interface is designed to be simple to use and is packed with a broad range of helpful tools. Fans can watch up to four live streams from the same event at once. The picture-in-picture feature lets fans watch a program displayed in inset windows while another program is displayed on the full screen. Fans can view and navigate via and expert commentary displayed over the video. They can also access rich meta data such as results, and athlete information while they’re watching, plus they can receive alerts to ensure they catch their favorite events live. Additionally, the player features multiple bit rate (MBR), which automatically matches the quality of the video to the user’s connection speed.

”It’s our goal to deliver the best Olympics experience to the broadest audience,” said Perkins Miller, Senior Vice President, Digital Media, NBC Sports and Olympics. “We turned to Microsoft and Schematic to help us design a dynamic and rich viewing experience for NBCOlympics.com on MSN.”
 
“NBCOlympics.com on MSN is an unprecedented example of the power and possibility to break out of the traditional television box,” Steve Sklepowich, group product manager, Silverlight media, Microsoft Corp. “The team at Schematic did an impressive job harnessing the features of Silverlight to provide a truly interactive, hi-def experience that puts the viewer in control of the content.”

For more information on Schematic contact Katy Saeger, katy@saegermediagroup.com at Saeger Media Group.