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From space to screen
Most importantly, the Winter Olympics increased the use of cloud technology to broadcast events globally. Traditionally, bringing the Olympics to people’s screens required large news and broadcast crews that had to be flown to the host city, along with expensive international telecommunications optical circuits. But Olympic Broadcasting Services (OBS) did things differently. For the first time, during the Winter Olympic Games, broadcasters were able to receive live footage via a public cloud, a more agile option that costs a fraction of the price of other transmission methods. Live Cloud is part of OBS Cloud, the joint broadcast solution of OBS and Alibaba, pioneered during the Tokyo 2020 Olympics and adopted as a standard service in Beijing 2022.
“Most organizations have had to run their production and distribution workflows from home and rely on cloud services to support their new remote productions during the crisis,” says Raquel Rozados, director of broadcast services at OBS. Compared to the 2018 Winter Olympics held in Pyeongchang, South Korea, the Winter Games in Beijing are a approximately 40% reduction in onsite broadcast staff.
For the first time, broadcasters were able to remotely edit footage of Olympic sports in the cloud, creating social media-friendly clips from live sessions in real time. Multi-camera replay systems were used for frozen-frame slow motion playbacks from a wide variety of angles, creating an immersive viewing experience. It says it’s built on OBS 6,000 hours of high definition content, available to more than 20 publishers worldwide. While processing such large volumes of ultra-high-resolution images was previously a major challenge for publishers, the cloud has made delivery and editing much more manageable.
Being able to download high-quality footage from the cloud meant broadcasters saved money on flying teams of journalists, producers, camera operators and equipment to Beijing to monitor the event. It was as good as covid-19 regulations complicate travel, which the International Olympic Committee has pointed out to be the biggest contributor to the event’s carbon footprint. “Moving games’ core systems to the cloud in general, and broader than just applying cloud technologies to broadcast, is a significant advance in making games more efficient and sustainable,” says Zhang.
Inclusive virtual reality
For participants who were separated by geography or pandemic movement restrictions, cloud technology ensured they were not left out. Cloud ME—a real-time communication platform—provided booths where exhibitors could project full-body images of themselves onto other booths. Athletes competing in Beijing without family members were able to use Athlete Moments, a cloud-based app, to connect with loved ones from the venue.
When Chinese fans watching the Winter Olympics fall in love with mascot Bing Dwen Dwen and want to buy plush or keychains, there’s no one better to talk to than a virtual influencer. Dong Dong, 22, from Beijing who literally lived in the cloud.
Created with Alibaba’s artificial intelligence technology to showcase human-like movements and even dance moves, Dong Dong’s job was to engage the tech-savvy younger generation of Olympic audiences, answer their questions, provide fun information about the Games, and promote official products. “Dong Dong can look, speak and act like a young girl with a lively personality and charming charm,” says Zhang. Live streams from February 4 to February 20 Viewed by over two million viewersIt has a fan base of over 100,000.
Zhang emphasizes that a virtual influencer like Dong Dong does not need to replace real-life influencers who regularly work with brands and companies. But they do give brands the option to fully customize the type of influencer they want to interact with in their market. “Many of these virtual influencers have unique personalities, charisma, and specific styles of interacting with their target audience, making them suitable for retail brands or event organizers,” he says.
A more efficient, sustainable way forward?
This look behind the curtain of the Winter Olympics points to the high stakes placed on technology to keep major events going. “One of the key challenges is that we have a secure, durable, robust and reliable cloud infrastructure that can run any workload smoothly and securely,” says Zhang. With organizers working on scheduling and scheduling, streamers waiting for footage, and fans shopping online, any downtime or downtime can be a disaster. Fortunately, this was not Alibaba’s first experience. Zhang points to the company’s experience with other major events, such as Alibaba’s Global Shopping Festival, which is held annually on November 11.
In recent years, other sporting events have moved to the cloud in one form or another. During the 2018 World Cup, 20% of the short videos at the event were produced by artificial intelligence to quickly generate match highlights using Alibaba Cloud’s intelligent video production solution. And over the past two years, the covid-19 pandemic has pushed event organizers small and large towards digital transformation and new technology-driven solutions; It is a trend that is unlikely to end even if the pandemic restrictions are lifted.
Technology companies are working on cloud applications with modeling capabilities to meet anticipated demand. One of them Alibaba Cloud’s Space Simulation Service (VSS). Although not used in the Beijing Winter Olympics, VSS integrates cloud computing, artificial intelligence and computer graphics for venue digital modeling and operations simulation. By simulating physical sports venues and the activities that will take place within them, event organizers will no longer need to be in real venues to get a good idea of the venue.
“Cloud technology can play an important role in helping event organizers with planning,” says Zhang. By leveraging cloud technology to reduce the amount of physical infrastructure needed and enable remote working with leaner teams on-site, these large events can be more inclusive, efficient and sustainable.
“We believe in the future, we will push the boundaries of technology even further to create a fascinating mixed reality,” he says. “Digital contacts or virtual influencers will find new ways to engage with their audiences through immersive experiences or metaverse-style settings. Cloud-based digital simulation of venues and operations can make planning large events a ‘green’ venture.”
This article was produced by Insights, the exclusive content arm of MIT Technology Review. It was not written by the editorial staff of MIT Technology Review.
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