With the Tokyo Olympics finally a reality, though without spectators in the stands, more people than ever are viewing the games across a variety of platforms, both fixed (TVs) and mobile (smartphones, PCs). Feeding content to a multitude of device types is never easy, even in the best of circumstances. Now factor in hundreds of hours of footage, both live and canned, with complex overlays and captioning, distributed to a global audience—some in locations still significantly affected by the COVID-19 pandemic! All told, tens of thousands of individuals and hundreds of companies are working tirelessly to pull off this broadcast feat.
At MainConcept, we are doing our part to assist with the successful delivery of video across platforms. With three decades relentlessly focused on quality, performance and reliability, our codecs are now deployed by dozens of companies directly involved in the distribution of Olympics’ content. While we would love to highlight all of these amazing partners and how MainConcept codecs are involved, we’d be writing about them until well after the Olympic flame has been extinguished in Tokyo. Instead, here is what you will find from few of them.
AVID
NBC Olympics selected Avid to provide the content production and media management platform, tools and solutions for its production of the Tokyo Olympics. NBC Olympics deployed Avid’s MediaCentral solutions to drive Tokyo-based remote and on-site workflows to generate content for linear, OTT and social media platforms for audiences in the U.S. NBC Olympics is also using Avid NEXIS shared storage, Media Composer Ultimate and the Media Composer Cloud VM option to empower its team in multiple international locations.
Avid MediaCentral, NEXIS, Media Composer and other products use various MainConcept codecs.
Dalet
Dalet has been working with customers to bring sports events back live this summer. This includes France TV and SBS in Australia with Dalet Galaxy five (including Dalet Brio servers) to manage part, or all, of their content supply chain, covering major events such as the UEFA Euro 2020 and the Tour de France. The International Olympic Committee uses Dalet AmberFin transcode and standards conversion solutions, employed during the Tokyo Olympic Games. They also use Dalet AmberFin for media processing within their historical archive, la Fondation Olympique pour la Culture et le Patrimoine.
Dalet Brio and Dalet AmberFin utilize multiple MainConcept SDKs to help bring live sports entertainment to life.
MOG
For over 10 years, MOG has stood out as a crucial key-player in centralized ingest solutions for the broadcast and entertainment industry and, more recently, as a global provider of cloud media production and distribution services and appliances. This includes providing installations throughout many Olympics events, and working closely with major broadcasters such NBC, OBS and RTVE, to ensure that the video and audio signals are correctly controlled, processed, archived and distributed without any failure or delays.
MainConcept codecs are directly integrated into MOG’s MAM4PRO and mxfSPEEDRAIL software as a useful and flexible option for a wide variety of formats.
Telestream
NBC Olympics selected Telestream as their live capture and HDR processing provider, utilizing Telestream Lightspeed Live Capture and Telestream Vantage media processing to perform a unique, mixed HDR/SDR workflow.
Telestream uses MainConcept SDKs for both Lightspeed and Vantage, as well as other MainConcept codecs throughout their portfolio.
Video production tools
MainConcept technologies are used to process most of the world’s professional video. The most popular video production tools have integrated our codecs. And these tools are used in virtually all broadcast control rooms sending Olympics’ content to our screens.
Adobe uses MainConcept codecs in many of their products including Premiere Pro CC, After Effects CC and Media Encoder. Learn about our companies’ 20-year partnership.
Blackmagic Design invited MainConcept to develop the first-ever codec plugin for their ubiquitous DaVinci Resolve Studio professional editing suite. DaVinci Resolve Studio users can now gain access to the industry-leading HEVC encoder, 8K 10-bit 4:2:2 and AS-11 UK DPP format without ever leaving the application. Learn more.
MAGIX uses various MainConcept codecs in Video Deluxe, Video Pro X, Fastcut, VEGAS Pro Suite and other Magix products.