NBC Olympics Opts for Spectra Logic

NBC Olympics, a division of the NBC Sports Group, has selected Spectra Logic Corporation to provide video archive and DR services for its production of the Games of the XXXI Olympiad, which will take place in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, August 5-21.

The announcement was made by Darryl Jefferson, VP, post operations and digital workflow, NBC Sports Group and Brian Grainger, CSO, Spectra Logic.

NBC Olympics will have two Spectra Logic T50e tape libraries onsite at the NBC Olympics compound within the International Broadcast Center in Rio this year to conduct data restores, and to capture and access data from NBC Olympics’ live broadcasts of the Rio Olympic Games. NBC Olympics also houses an eight-frame Spectra TFinity and T950 tape library with LTO-6 drives and media at its data center in Stamford, CT. The TFinity is used for video archive, ingesting more than 25TB of footage daily from several NBC Sports Group programs, while the T950’s primary purpose is DR. In total, NBC Olympics archives include 6PB of data, including an estimated total of 1PB of footage of Olympic Games content. Spectra Logic was chosen due to its reputation for providing scalable, high density, power-efficient data archiving solutions across the media and entertainment industry.

“Spectra Logic’s worldwide sales team is honoured and excited to preserve this monumental video archive for NBC Olympics,” said Grainger. “Spectra’s solutions will allow the NBC Olympics staff to quickly and easily retrieve clips for future productions, including event highlights and special features on medalists.”

“NBC Olympics is pleased to partner with Spectra Logic and continue our long history of working together to preserve and store our valuable digital assets,” said James Miles, director digital workflows, NBC Sports Group.  “Our multiple Spectra tape libraries preserve the many achievements of international athletes and allows quick access to our production teams around the world. In Rio, our remote deployment will allow NBC Olympics to economically protect and transport the exciting new content that will be created during the Olympic Games. Spectra solutions are backed by more than three decades of experience and emphasise ease of use, ready access to content and industry-leading density that can easily scale to millions of broadcast hours.”