With Panasonic's support, the Beijing Games will become the first Olympics to be entirely produced and broadcast in high-definition television.

The 17-day event is also expected to attract the largest television audience ever, with a projected cumulative total of 4 billion people likely to tune in.

In 2006, Panasonic, the international brand name of Japanese manufacturer Matsushita Electric Industrial Co Ltd, equipped the Turin Winter Games with fully digital broadcasting equipment, making it the most technologically advanced Winter Olympics to date.

The Olympic Partner (TOP), whose former chairman Yoichi Morishita, visited Beijing in early June to meet with the Games organizers, will provide a wide variety of support for broadcast coverage and give its newest high-definition (HD) broadcasting products to the Beijing Olympic Broadcasting Co Ltd (BOB), the official broadcaster of the Games.

"This will be the world's largest sporting event and the most technologically advanced in the history of the Olympic Games. BOB surveyed the market very carefully to ensure that we will be using the most sophisticated and reliable technology currently available," Manolo Romero, CEO of BOB, told Gale Group News Wire in April 2006.

"BOB has been very happy with the performance of Panasonic's digital products since we first used them in the Barcelona Olympic Games in 1992, and now the recently expanded HD portfolio - the broad range of advanced HD products - is quite impressive," he said.

Panasonic has been an Official Worldwide Olympic Partner since 1988 and has sponsored 11 Olympic Games. "We have served many Olympic Games before, but all the efforts we have paid are for this one, the Beijing Olympics," said Panasonic's chairman.

As part of the program, Panasonic's category has been extended to include Car Navigation Systems and multimedia equipment. Panasonic will further extend its first right to provide Security Systems to the Organizing Committees of the Beijing Games (BOCOG).