The XXI Olympic Winter Games will be held February 12-28, 2010 in the host city of Vancouver, BC, Canada

Microsoft plans to deliver consistently high quality, "smooth streaming" of the Winter Olympics no matter how fast your broadband connection is, with adaptive streaming technology, which is a system that delivers video tailored to the connection speed and CPU power of the end user.

• NBC Sports is using Microsoft's Silverlight to stream the Vancouver Games.
• Microsoft is teaming with Akamai to deliver the video files.

Earlier this week, via a Skype hook-up, Beet.TV spoke with Microsoft principal evangelist, Jason Suess. Suess stated that the system is designed to deliver high-quality video for connections from 400kbs to 3.5mbs.

Related Articles:

• Much more on Microsoft and adaptive streaming of the Olympics by Ina Fried of CNET News.com: Microsoft Aims for Smooth Streaming in Vancouver.
• Big feature about technology around NBC Sports operations by Glen Dickson at Broadcasting & Cable:  Olympics 2010: NBCU’s HD Leap Into Vancouver.

~ Andy Plesser, Executive Producer - Beet.TV