Olympics record set as video streamed online

Video footage of the Olympic Games will be streamed over the internet for the first time this September, thanks to a partnership between Axient and EMC.

Full-screen video content of the games will be available from NBCOlympics.com - a website created by broadcaster NBC and sports media company Quokka - via a network of ISPs using Axient's broadband media-streaming technology, Octane. The content will be delivered to users locally from their nearest ISP.

Axient has installed 66 terabytes of EMC's Clariion FC4500 storage technology across this network.

Claus Egge, research manager at IDC, said: "Storage requirements grow with applications such as streaming video because the data needs to be stored somewhere to avoid clogging the network. Systems that rely on live information have to be fool-proof."

Phil Dawson at Meta Group agreed that robust storage will be key to ensuring the success any site which could experience huge traffic flows.

"Streaming media needs big bandwidth and data storage technology is there to support the whole network and to prevent it from collapsing. Storage technology is just mature enough to cope with the demand of this kind," Dawson said.

"Large amounts of hits can potentially overload the internet and bring computer systems to halt. At this scale, the bandwidth will be pumped up to its limits, therefore every part of the system's infrastructure needs to be in place for the broadcast to be successful," he added.

According to a recent study by IDC, the worldwide storage market is expected to experience an 80 per cent increase in unit shipments up to 2003.