Kori Ellis
12-29-2005, 01:13 PM
NBA Digitizing Six Decades of Video
LAST UPDATE: 12/29/2005 9:29:55 AM
By Anick Jesdanun, AP Internet Writer
NEW YORK (AP) -- The National Basketball Association has embarked on a digital archival project that will eventually make nearly 60 years of game footage available for fans to watch or mix into their own highlights packages.
Since 1996, courtside statisticians have been assigning time codes to plays so they can be matched to taped broadcast footage. That coding will make it easy for computers to search for, say, all the 3-point attempts by Michael Jordan with less than 2 minutes of play in a game where a team leads by five points or less.
Only recently have prices for equipment and tapes come down enough for the NBA to turn that data into a useable archive, said Steve Hellmuth, senior vice president of operations and technology for the NBA's broadcast and licensing arm.
The archive is being built primarily for league use, such as the creation of highlights packages for the Internet or cable video-on-demand services. The NBA can save money and space by converting its bulky library of video tapes into digital format, Hellmuth said.
It'll take another six years to finish the job, but Hellmuth said computer systems will start retrieving the digital footage early next year -- pulling newer plays from giant hard drives, older and less-used footage from storage tapes that can be loaded within seconds.
The footage, which includes player interviews and in some cases alternate-angle shots that were never broadcast, will also be made available through the NBA's Web site.
"If we've got it, there's no reason why we shouldn't make it available to fans," he said.
Details are still being worked out, including whether and how the NBA will charge users. One idea is to allow fans to create highlight packages from the season's plays and post them online. Footage from older seasons -- going back to the first game in 1946 -- would eventually be added to the archive.
LAST UPDATE: 12/29/2005 9:29:55 AM
By Anick Jesdanun, AP Internet Writer
NEW YORK (AP) -- The National Basketball Association has embarked on a digital archival project that will eventually make nearly 60 years of game footage available for fans to watch or mix into their own highlights packages.
Since 1996, courtside statisticians have been assigning time codes to plays so they can be matched to taped broadcast footage. That coding will make it easy for computers to search for, say, all the 3-point attempts by Michael Jordan with less than 2 minutes of play in a game where a team leads by five points or less.
Only recently have prices for equipment and tapes come down enough for the NBA to turn that data into a useable archive, said Steve Hellmuth, senior vice president of operations and technology for the NBA's broadcast and licensing arm.
The archive is being built primarily for league use, such as the creation of highlights packages for the Internet or cable video-on-demand services. The NBA can save money and space by converting its bulky library of video tapes into digital format, Hellmuth said.
It'll take another six years to finish the job, but Hellmuth said computer systems will start retrieving the digital footage early next year -- pulling newer plays from giant hard drives, older and less-used footage from storage tapes that can be loaded within seconds.
The footage, which includes player interviews and in some cases alternate-angle shots that were never broadcast, will also be made available through the NBA's Web site.
"If we've got it, there's no reason why we shouldn't make it available to fans," he said.
Details are still being worked out, including whether and how the NBA will charge users. One idea is to allow fans to create highlight packages from the season's plays and post them online. Footage from older seasons -- going back to the first game in 1946 -- would eventually be added to the archive.