Olympic TV Using Free-Space Optical Data Link

SYDNEY, Australia, Sept. 18 -- Television signals of the Olympic Games will be broadcast over a free-space optical link this year thanks to TeraBeam Networks, a Seattle-based fiberless broadband IP services provider. Until now, worldwide broadcast networks have used fiber optics or microwave systems to transmit television signals.
TeraBeam Networks, with the help of Lucent Technologies, is providing eight broadcast channels between the International Broadcast Centre and Sydney's Olympic Aquatics Centre over a free-space optical data link. Separate signals for the UK (BBC), Canada, Japan, Mexico and Germany broadcasting teams, along with NBC, are being sent over a single low-powered light beam, said TeraBeam Networks.
We're thrilled to be helping some of the world's Olympics broadcasters, said Dan Hesse, president and CEO of TeraBeam. This is a very real way to show that fiberless optics is not just a promise for the future, but a reality now.