From the moment the Opening Ceremony began in Beijing, some of the most lasting images of the Olympics have been created with the help of sophisticated technology. The NBC production teams have paired their technical prowess with the best athletic performances in the world to showcase the defining moments of the XXIX Olympiad.

No better example of the benefits to this technology is what NBC has done at the Water Cube, where its coverage of Michael Phelps has been enhanced by cutting-edge equipment and, in particular, the Moby-Cam. The Moby Cam is an underwater camera that moves along the floor of the pool capturing the swimmers from below the surface of the water. Producer Tommy Roy and Director Drew Esocoff, who head NBC’s swimming production team, put this camera to perfect use during the most dramatic moment of the Olympic Games thus far. When Michael Phelps won his seventh gold medal by edging out Milorad Cavic by .01 seconds in the 100-meter butterfly on Friday night, the underwater shot was so clear that I was able to easily see how Phelps’ final kick drove him to victory while Cavic lost by a fingernail because he coasted to the wall.

Also effective in enhancing the swimming telecasts has been the use of the “World Record” line. Employed like the yellow “First Down” line in football, it is a computer-generated green line to show which swimmers are on pace to break a world record. After the Beijing Games, NBC might just as well rename the effect “The Michael Phelps Line,” since he was either on or ahead of it in almost every race.

There are other exceptional technical performances being showcased at the Water Cube. Diving Producer David Gibson and Director Doug Grabert have shown intelligent use of both the Stro-Motion Camera and the Dive Cam. The Stro-Motion camera uses stop-action photography to allow the viewer to see frame-by-frame action demonstrating details of a dive that would not be able to be seen in real time or even in a super slo-mo replay. It was best used to show how perfectly in sync Chinese teenage divers Lin Yue and Huo Liang were during the men’s 10-meter platform synchronized diving competition. Gibson and Grabert were able to show in a side-by-side, frame-by-frame manner how the Chinese duo pulled off their nearly perfect gold-medal-clinching dive.
The Dive Cam is the brainchild of Roy and NBC Olympics Executive Vice President David Neal, who actually drew up the concept while planning the Atlanta Games back in 1996. This is a camera that rides on wheels and a track inside a vertical tube encased in smoked glass. Once the diver leaves the platform, the camera is released and moves down the tube falling at the same rate as the athlete, thereby giving the viewer a real feel of the dive. Gibson uses the Dive Cam in replays to help the broadcasters illustrate the nuances of the techniques used by the divers. Its use has become a staple in NBC’s arsenal of technical tools used during the Games.

The Beijing Games’ biggest storylines are being written by the athletes. But the technology that is being used by NBC to televise the events is capturing the images that will remain unforgettable for years to come.