Adobe, Akamai Key Live Streaming of Ryder Cup

By Andrew Lippe
Turner
Sports is producing RyderCup.com, providing live streaming-video content for the 37th Ryder Cup competition
taking place at the Valhalla Golf Club in Louisville, KY.
“You
could call it our fifth major,” says Pete Scott, executive director, digital
partnerships, Turner Sports. “We will be leveraging the NBC infrastructure, and
we will have one or two unilateral cameras for ourselves.”
Hurricane
Ike, on its trek up from the Gulf Coast, directly affected the golf course.
“The course got beat up, and our hotel lost power,” says Scott. However, it
will not prevent a broadcast this weekend.
Akamai
Technologies will support Turner’s video streams and deliver live video in the
Adobe Flash Video format. The Adobe video player being used for the Ryder Cup
is the same as that used by Turner for the PGA championship.
Ryder Cup content will be displayed in a widescreen format.
“We got a lot of good feedback from using the widescreen presentation,” says
Scott.
Turner
will have its own production truck out in the field for the event, including an
EVS for the Webcast. Says Scott, “We are able to leverage
every single camera that NBC has out on the course.”
Users can choose between two live streams, which can show two different holes
simultaneously, and will have the ability to chat on message boards where they
can post messages for members of both Team USA and Team Europe.
Fans will
also be able to follow their favorite golfers through player-cams as well as watch
all the highlights from the past Ryder Cups. “I just love the event,” adds
Scott. “You get to watch the best golfers in the world play against each other.”