Tomorrow is the official start of the 2008 Summer Olympics and, along with it, the "big bang" moment for Silverlight.
It's really the first site with mass appeal to really show off the capability of the platform, especially in places where it excels over Flash.
Comparisons with Flash are unavoidable and expect pundits to dissect everything on the site.
For decision makers and web designers, this will be their first chance to evaluate Silverlight in a real world environment on a site with wide demographic appeal.
It's an opportunity for Silverlight to get eyeballs and downloads.
It's a risky all or nothing proposition, but it's a risk Microsoft has to take for the web world to sit up and take notice of Silverlight.
Redmond Developer News had this to say:
Beijing or Bust
With the world watching, Microsoft's fledging RIA technology must survive this qualifying round to secure a foothold in the Web technology race alongside Adobe Systems' ubiquitous Flash technology. People who access the NBC site can use the Adobe Flash Player, Windows Media Player or Silverlight 2 beta 2 to view different types of content.
A major stumble could consign Silverlight 2 to the fate of the 2008 Summer Olympics torch relay.
The project is ambitious for any RIA platform: 2200 hours of video streamed live and on demand portrayed in a way that appeals to wide array of users.
Adam Kinney has a video up on Channel9 on the design and development process for the site.
So, this is Silverlight's big bang moment and, if all goes according to plan, this will be the start of something even bigger than the Olympics.