Chinese tech firms shine at Olympics

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Chinese athletes during the women’s synchronised 3m springboard diving final at the Paris Olympics on 27 July (LI MING / XINHUA)

Chinese tech companies have employed cutting-edge cloud computing and artificial intelligence tools to enhance live broadcast experiences and athletes’ performances at the Paris 2024 Olympic Games.

The participation of Chinese companies in the prestigious sporting event is not only revolutionising the way that audiences view the competition, but is also helping to improve the international recognition and influence of these enterprises, experts said.

More than two-thirds of the live broadcast signals are being disseminated by Chinese tech company Alibaba Group’s cloud broadcasting services.

Alibaba Cloud, the cloud computing arm of Alibaba, which is a worldwide partner of the Paris Olympics, and the Olympic Broadcasting Services have jointly launched OBS Cloud 3.0 to help media outlets get images and videos of the Games.

The OBS, a subsidiary of the International Olympic Committee, oversees the distribution of event coverage.

The Olympics content have been distributed to more than 200 countries and regions with the help of Alibaba Cloud’s global cloud infrastructure, reaching billions of viewers worldwide.

Cloud computing has become the main method of remote distribution to media rights holders for the first time in the history of the Olympic Games, taking over from satellite broadcasting, which was launched during the 1964 Olympics in Tokyo, Alibaba Cloud said in a statement.

Given its benefits of low latency and high resilience, content transmission through the cloud platform has outperformed other methods of distribution in terms of scalability, flexibility and cost, while increasing the stability and agility of broadcasting of the world’s largest sporting event, industry insiders said.

Alibaba Cloud also provided AI-enabled multicamera replay systems at the Paris Games.

These systems were deployed at 14 venues to cover events in 21 sports and disciplines such as badminton, track and field, basketball, beach volleyball and table tennis. The systems provide slow-motion replays of athletes’ performances, giving global viewers a more immersive experience by transforming live footage into precise 3D models, and allowing sports fans to access detailed information for deeper analysis of such performances.

Chinese AI company SenseTime is working with China’s basketball team to offer AI-driven sports data analysis and advice on strategies for the competition.

The company’s AI-powered platform can analyse each athlete’s state of motion and the trajectory of the basketball’s movement in real time, and give feedback to the coaching team by constructing 3D models and leveraging 3D motion capture algorithms.

Chinese tech company Baidu Inc is offering an AI auxiliary training system, which is based on its ChatGPT-like product and large language model Ernie Bot, for the China’s diving team. It can understand complex instructions from coaches, record athletes’ diving posture and actions, and score their real-time movements, to provide precise quantitative assessment and scientific guidance for training and competition, according to Baidu.

Wang Peng, a researcher at the Beijing Academy of Social Sciences, said, “The application of China’s state-of-the-art digital tech at the Paris Games has improved the viewing experience for spectators around the world.”