Signal acquisition, content ingestion, transcoding, ad insertion, playback optimization, and end-to-end monitoring probably weren’t top of mind for NFL fans who watched Thursday Night Football this season on Amazon. But developing and implementing the technology required to stream live sports over the internet to millions of viewers in more than 200 countries at the same time is no easy task — and Amazon, for the most part, scored a touchdown with its first attempt at live football. The Seattle tech giant last week streamed its 10th Thursday Night Football game as part of a deal worth a reported $50 million… Read More
Ever wondered who was the best basketball player in the Pac-10 in 1982? If that trivia item has been bugging you since the Reagan administration, Google Cloud Platform and the National Collegiate Athletic Association have some good news for you. The NCAA has named Google as its “Official Cloud of the NCAA,” which mostly means you’ll see a gazillion ads for Google Cloud during the basketball tournament in March. But sports junkies could learn some interesting historical data from this partnership, as the NCAA also plans to upload more than 80 years of sports data across a number of different… Read More
To say Steve Largent has kept busy after an illustrious 14-year NFL career would be an understatement. The former Seattle Seahawks star wide receiver, one of three players to have his number retired by the franchise, was elected into Congress just five years after retiring in 1989. He spent the next eight years in office before losing the governor race in Oklahoma. That’s when Largent left politics and went tech, becoming the president and CEO of CTIA, a trade association representing the U.S. wireless communications industry. Now the 62-year-old is living the retired life in Oklahoma, spending time with his family… Read More
Embed from Getty Images Most days of the week it’s a sure bet, but on Saturday, Cloud Computing was a longshot: at the Preakness, that is. But the horse with the most technology-oriented name I think I’ve ever seen prevailed to win the 142nd Preakness Stakes. Cloud Computing, which went off as a 13-1 shot, denied Kentucky Derby winner Always Dreaming a chance at the Triple Crown and likely confused millions of viewers struggling to understand why someone would give a horse a name that nerdy. Owners William H. Lawrence and Klaravich Stables are hedge fund guys, so perhaps they… Read More
WHISTLER, B.C. — For decades, ski resorts have been behind the technology curve. Sure, there were lots of cool developments in the design of everything from skis to boards to goggles. But the business of buying a ski pass and using the lift system at your favorite mountain was pretty old-school. Skiers and snowboarders know the drill: Pay for your lift ticket and get a small metal triangle, a piece of paper with a bar code and sticky backing on it, which you use to put the ticket on your jacket or ski pants. But now, with RFID (radio-frequency identification)… Read More
