SGI Delivers High-Performance Broadcasting and Graphics at the 2004 Summer Games

At the 2004 Summer Games in Athens, SGI® high-performance visualization systems and SGI® InfiniteStorage systems are impacting broadcast graphics, digital broadcasting and 3D virtual environments for a variety of long-time SGI customers, including NBC, Danish Broadcasting Corporation, and the Foundation of the Hellenic World.

SGI Serves NBC at Five Games in a Row

Image of NBC control room for Athens Summer Games - click to view larger image
For more than a year and a half, 3D and graphic artists at NBC headquarters in New York have been using SGI systems to create the interstitial content, including show opens and closes, intros/outros and a huge variety of graphic treatments, including the building of massive amounts of 3D models for technical animations. NBC has used SGI® IRIX® OS-based workstations and servers for pre-build and on-site broadcast graphics creation since the 1992 Barcelona Games and on through Atlanta, Sydney, and Salt Lake City.

"We continue to use SGI hardware because it delivers the consistency and performance, the tremendous power, speed and efficiency in building our broadcast graphic elements," said Dr. Philip Paully, director of graphics, engineering and operations for NBC Olympics. "I've been working with SGI hardware since Barcelona, and there have been no failures, no downtime. If we ran these programs on other platforms, we wouldn't be finished in time. To create the complexity of the 3D modeling that we do, you need a computer as powerful as an SGI system. Another key issue: SGI equipment integrates so well with the existing graphics network for all the other devices-we do a lot of work with character generators and still stores, too-that we have no problems with file interchange between any of them."

Now operational in Athens, NBC's systems include: two 4-processor Silicon Graphics Tezro visual workstations running Discreet® flame® software, configured with SGI® VPro™ V12 graphics and SGI® DMediaPro™ DM2 and DMediaPro™ DM5 graphics options; two 2-processor Silicon Graphics® Octane2™ visual workstations, one Silicon Graphics Octane2 running Discreet flame and one running Alias® Maya® software, a 4-processor SGI® Onyx2® visualization system for rendering output from Discreet flame and Alias Maya, and four compact, 2-processor SGI® Origin 200® servers for Maya remote rendering, clustered together using SGI® NUMAlink® cables into two 4-processor systems.

Making their Summer Games debut are two 4-processor Silicon Graphics® Tezro® visual workstations running Discreet flame software, configured with SGI VPro V12 graphics and SGI® DMediaPro DM2 and DMediaPro DM5 graphics options. These options provide NBC with the highest quality, high-definition and standard-definition multi-format real-time video input and output.

Danish Broadcasting's "Digital TV Station in a Box"
Danish Broadcasting Corporation (DR), whose complete digital workflow broadcast environment was designed by SGI in 1999, again chose SGI to supply the powerful SGI components at the heart of its traveling newsroom. Nicknamed a "digital TV station in a box," the system now in Athens is based on a compact SGI Origin 300 server, two SGI Media Server for broadcast systems, and one SGI InfiniteStorage TP9300S 6TB SATA storage drive.

"While most broadcasters are bringing traditional analog equipment, we decided that since our journalists, editors and technicians were familiar with the applications they now run and they were all very happy with the ease of use and the immediate shared access of the SGI implemented digital workflow, DR would construct a smaller version of our digital broadcast operations and ship it to Athens-all connected to DR in Copenhagen," said Ivan Bang, Technical Projects Manager at DR Sporten. "It's a little thrilling to try to take this concept of an all-digital workflow from our Copenhagen studios on through to an outside broadcast environment."

One of the transported system's many benefits is that DR's three media outlets-TV, radio and Web-will all be able to interact and share content with each other. Plus, DR's team in Athens will be able to access the eight main SGI Media Server for broadcast systems, SGI Origin family servers, and the StorageTek archive in Copenhagen to add, for example, footage from the previous Summer Games in Sydney to its current newscast as it is being edited in Athens.

Image from 3D Immersive Tour of Ancient Olympia - click to view larger image
3D Immersive Tours of Ancient Olympia at FHW
The Foundation of the Hellenic World -- a not-for-profit cultural institution in Athens, Greece-has expanded its permanent virtual exhibits by opening an immersive 3D virtual reality (VR) tour, created on and powered by a selection of Silicon Graphics high-performance visualization systems. At FHW's cultural center in Athens, Hellenic Cosmos, the tour allows visitors to explore the history of 30-plus temples and secular buildings of ancient Olympia, the birthplace of the Games, as well as an in-depth virtual tour of the Temple of Zeus. Hellenic Cosmos is also an immersive pentathlon powered by SGI technology, where the public can interact virtually with ancient Olympian athletes.

Hellenic Cosmos currently uses a Silicon Graphics Onyx2 visualization system to power its REACT™ or immersive display with four SGI InfiniteReality2 graphics subsystems to power the cave-like virtual environment. A Silicon Graphics Octane visualization workstation runs Fakespace Systems Inc.'s Immersive Desk to display additional content. FHW artists and software developers use the framework of C++ to write their own software for development of the environments on Silicon Graphics O2 visual workstations and Silicon Graphic Octane systems, both running SGI OpenGL Performer , a real-time graphics programming toolkit.

"We have relied on SGI's visualization power and expertise for many years because SGI is easily upgradeable and very scalable," said Athanasios Gaitatzes, Head of the Virtual Reality Department, Foundation of the Hellenic World. "We develop our virtual environments on O2 and Octane and run them on Octane and Onyx2. Onyx2 is extremely reliable, which is a big plus, because almost every day during the winter we have about 300 children using the exhibits-we can't afford to have any down time. In terms of scalability, being able to use our applications from O2 up to Onyx2-without making any changes-is very efficient."

FHW is making a major addition to the Hellenic Cosmos cultural center that includes the development of 3D environments for a 128-seat domed theater. Construction will begin in early fall 2004, with the completion and grand opening projected for 2006.


Control room image courtesy NBC. Temple image courtesy of the Foundation of the Hellenic World.