The Silverlight Rough Cut Editor combines the sophistication of a powerful editing tool with the ease of deployment that comes with a Web-based tool.
REDMOND, Wash. — April 13, 2010 — The Winter Olympic Games are watched by hundreds of millions of people, tuning in around the world to see their countrymen compete for a chance at history. However, up until now viewers couldn’t always get event results or see video highlights until long after the glory had passed.
This year was different. At the Vancouver 2010 Winter Games in February, NBC Sports took advantage of Microsoft technology, using the new Silverlight Rough Cut Editor (RCE) to deliver a wealth of content to viewers nearly instantaneously. At the MIX10 conference in March, Microsoft made the RCE publicly available through a free download.
“Two critical goals for coverage of the Vancouver Olympics were speed of delivery and cost,” said Perkins Miller, senior vice president of Digital Media, NBC Sports. “The Silverlight Rough Cut Editor helped us achieve those goals by enabling editors to cut short-form highlights from long-form live coverage through a Web-based editor and have them published to the site within seconds — even while the event was still in progress. This dramatically reduced our costs and made it easier and faster to deliver video.”
The Silverlight Rough Cut Editor enables users to search and filter content, trim clips and more.
During the 2010 Winter Olympic Games in Vancouver, broadcasters using the RCE were able to create new assets such as highlight clips from real-time footage and move them to the Web in 20 percent of the time it took when using previous processes and tools.
Because the RCE is a Web-based tool, users can access it from anywhere there is an Internet connection, reducing complexities traditionally associated with editing. Employees in multiple locations can collaborate on projects easily and quickly prepare content for smooth streaming over the Web or for transferring into a full-featured editing tool.
Training time associated with the RCE is minimal, too: In preparation for the Vancouver Winter Olympic Games, 50 editors learned how to use the RCE in just three hours.
At the 2010 National Association of Broadcasters (NAB) Show in Las Vegas this week, Microsoft is demonstrating a range of other digital media and entertainment solutions that will bring innovative new experiences to the many screens in consumers’ lives. Demonstrations will highlight solutions throughout the digital media supply chain — offerings that will make it easier and more engaging for people to create and work with digital content, allowing content providers to create once and deliver anywhere, for future Olympic Games and countless other unforgettable consumer experiences.
