Avid is celebrating the news this week that it has been awarded a substantial contract to supply production and distribution kit and expertise to the London 2012 Olympics.

Avid Professional Services, the workflow consultancy and delivery division of Avid, will collaborate with a third-party technology supplier to provide a core broadcast service and onsite support. It was awarded the contract because of its workflow integration capability and ability to offer customers a complete ‘;managed service’;, ensuring full system uptime as well as operational assistance and support.

At the heart of the set-up is Avid Interplay Production Asset Management, which will be the largest such system Avid has delivered to date. Capable of storing up to 5000 hours of HD data online, the core system will also have the capacity to handle at least 76 incoming simultaneous HD file-based recordings, as well as contributions from remote venues. The system will provide facilities for rights holders to access all events media and operational facilities such as editing, playout and web publishing. The solution also includes Avid iNEWS Command and Avid AirSpeed Multi Stream for programme distribution.

Paul Hennessy, VP of sales EMEA, said: “We’;re extremely excited to have our solutions contribute to such a prestigious sporting event. As a preferred technology vendor, it’;s a fantastic opportunity for Avid – and will really showcase the strength and capabilities of our solutions as well as our support expertise.”