“For the first time in Olympic history, cloud infrastructure will overtake satellites as the primary means of broadcast and distribution, of broadcasting the games all over the world,” Tsai said.
“Since we began our partnership back in 2018 at the Winter Olympics, we’re proud to enable the digital transformation of the world’s largest and most complex sporting event.”
A day before the Games’ opening ceremony, Alibaba Cloud and the Olympic Broadcasting Services (OBS) announced the launch of OBS Cloud 3.0, a combination of cloud technologies powered by AI.
The cloud tech also powers the multi-camera replay systems for 17 systems across 14 venues, covering 21 sports and disciplines from rugby sevens to badminton and athletics track and field to basketball and more.
Footage is sent to the cloud, where Alibaba Cloud’s AI-driven computing capabilities enable live spatial reconstruction and real-time 3D rendering, before the chosen moments are shared as a replay through live or non-live feeds.
The whole process takes a matter of seconds before it’s integrated into live coverage.
Alibaba Cloud is also revitalising historical moments from Paris 1924. Using deep learning models, selected Olympic archive footage from 100 years ago has been restored and colourised.
“Alibaba’s AI technology is being used to restore and manage historical Olympic media assets,” Tsai said.
“At the opening ceremony, everybody saw the video of the footage of the Paris Games from a hundred years ago … with our AI technology, we were able to remaster the video and bring higher resolution and also colour.”
Alibaba Cloud has also employed a data-driven sustainability solution – Energy Expert – to help measure and analyse the electricity consumption at competition venues as the Paris Olympics targets being the most efficient Games ever.
“Alibaba is proud to be a partner of the International Olympic Committee because we share the same Olympic values of excellence, respect and friendship,” Tsai said.
“Alibaba plays an essential role when it comes to supporting technology during the Olympic Games, greatly increasing the efficiency and sustainability of Olympic Games operations,” Thomas Bach, president of the International Olympic Committee, said.
“Our partnership also extends beyond the Olympic Games, with Alibaba playing a defining role in our Olympic AI Agenda, helping us harness the great potential of AI in a responsible way. All these examples highlight how Alibaba is the perfect partner when it comes to shaping our digital future.”
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