From cloud distribution to personalized experience, AI technology helps the Olympic "mirror" world take a new leap forward
2024-08-06
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As the 33rd Summer Olympic Games opens in Paris, France, an ultimate collision of technology and sports is taking place around the world. From real-time data collection and analysis of events to global simultaneous transmission of ultra-high-definition images, AI technology is driving Olympic broadcasting into a new era in an unprecedented way.
At the Paris Olympics, AI technology was used on a large scale for the first time in the field of event broadcasting, achieving a comprehensive innovation from content production to distribution. According to the International Olympic Committee, the cloud broadcasting of this Olympic Games surpassed satellite broadcasting for the first time and became the main method of Olympic signal distribution.
As the official cloud service partner of the Olympic Games, Alibaba Cloud has made a major breakthrough in cloud broadcasting technology. It has achieved remote distribution of Olympic live broadcast signals through global public cloud infrastructure, covering more than 200 countries and regions around the world. By leveraging the elasticity and scalability of cloud computing, it not only ensures high-definition, low-latency live broadcast signal transmission, but also reduces broadcasting costs and improves broadcasting efficiency.
Alibaba Cloud's AI-enhanced multi-camera replay system has become a highlight of this Olympics. The system has been deployed in 14 venues, and uses freeze-frame technology to perform slow-motion replays of 21 sports including rugby sevens, badminton, and track and field. Audiences can experience the "bullet time" special effect during the game, watching the athletes' wonderful moments from multiple angles and in all directions, as if time has stopped at this moment. The application of this technology not only enriches the audience's viewing experience, but also provides more possibilities for event commentary and data analysis.
Intel, together with the Olympic Broadcast Service (OBS) and many broadcasters around the world, has achieved a breakthrough in 8K ultra-high-definition live broadcasting. During the event, AI-optimized broadcast servers efficiently encode and compress the 8K live broadcast signals generated by OBS. These servers are equipped with fifth-generation and fourth-generation Intel Xeon Scalable processors, Intel Advanced Matrix Extension (AMX) AI Engine and deep learning acceleration technology, which can compress the original live broadcast signal of 48 gigabits per second (Gbps) to 40 to 60 megabits per second (Mbps), a compression ratio of up to one thousand times, and the entire compression process takes less than 400 milliseconds. This technological breakthrough enables audiences around the world to enjoy low-latency, high-quality live broadcasts of Olympic events at home through 8K TVs.
AI technology also plays an important role in sports commentary. The Paris Olympics introduced for the first time a large-scale model application with technical support from Alitong Yiqianwen, which was open to official commentators of the International Olympic Committee to assist in the commentary of various sports events.
At the same time, AI technology also helps with the real-time collection and visualization of event data. For example, SenseTime's "Smart Sports - AI Event Broadcast Upgrade Solution" uses non-perceptual 3D video motion capture technology to collect the landing point and trajectory data of table tennis and other games in real time, and visualize the data in various forms, allowing viewers to understand the dynamics of the game more intuitively. In addition, with Intel's computer vision AI platform, viewers can see detailed data such as athletes' acceleration, maximum speed, and stride in real time, and even enjoy personalized event highlights selected by AI. This highly personalized content push allows each viewer to enjoy the most exciting game clips based on their own interests.
As the rights-holding broadcaster, China Mobile Migu has deeply integrated the computing power network base and brought users a brand-new viewing experience through a series of innovative practices of AI technology. For example, the "AI China Moment" based on AI image processing technology can accurately locate the appearance and medal-winning events of Chinese athletes, and directly access the highlights of the game with one click; AI intelligent commentary can automatically generate commentary content based on real-time event data, enriching users' personalized viewing experience. In addition, Migu Video has also innovatively launched a multi-match multi-screen viewing function, which allows users to customize multiple Olympic events to be watched simultaneously in a fusion of real space, solving the problem of frequent channel switching when the event time overlaps.
From a technical perspective, the performance of major technology companies at the Paris Olympics fully demonstrated the potential of AI technology in sports broadcasting. The application of new technologies not only improved the viewing and fairness of the events, but also greatly enriched the audience's viewing experience, making it more personalized and immersive.
Thomas Bach, President of the International Olympic Committee, said at the Paris International Broadcasting Center that cloud broadcasting technology has surpassed traditional satellite broadcasting for the first time and has become the main broadcasting medium. This innovation has been praised by the Olympic Committee as another technological leap since satellite broadcasting in 1964. In addition, the Paris Olympics will be the first Olympics in history to widely use AI technology. AI technology has shown great potential in athlete training, performance optimization, referee fairness, and providing customized viewing experience for Olympic fans around the world.
Source: Huanqiu.com
