I remember the days when the only full matches we saw from the Wimbledon tennis championships were the ladies’ and men’s finals. The rest of the tournaments that we saw were a few seconds during the sport segment of the news. With the advent of cable and satellite television, every ball struck can be enjoyed from day one, once you’re at home to see it. Well, the internet has pushed the envelope even further – Live Streaming Video.
For us at our workstations who want to know what is happening in real time, we would follow the score updates on the official website. This has changed. The first week of Wimbledon 2011 was streamed live by ESPN on its broadband channel ESPN360.
NBC is also producing Live at Wimbledon powered by Microsoft’s Silverlight. The network calls it “the first time that coverage of The Championships, Wimbledon will be widely available in the U.S. via free, live online streaming.” NBC’s coverage includes:
—Live streaming of the 38-plus hours NBC Sports plans to broadcast during the tournament, starting this past Saturday and really kicking into gear Monday when the Round of 16 starts. Until then, NBC offered on-demand video after the matches.
—Live streaming of up to four concurrent matches.
—On demand replays of the “best matches,” alternate camera angles from semifinals on, highlights, archives and more.
—As was the case with NBC Sports in the 2008 Beijing Olympics and for CBS Sports with March Madness this year, Silverlight will provide HD-quality video. The bells and whistles include DVR-like controls like pausing live action.
Now that’s a far cry from when I viewed my first Wimbledon final between Bjorn Borg and Roscoe Tanner in 1979 on a black and white television.
The only downfall of this wonderful online development is that it is not available in the territory that I live in. Until then, I will continue to get my updates either on Wimbledon Radio or the official site’s live scores. That’s not too bad.
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