Alibaba Cloud, Intel Collaborate for Digital Transformation of the Olympic Games

Alibaba Cloud and Intel unveiled plans to develop technologies that will further accelerate the digital transformation of the Olympic Games, enhancing the experience for athletes, broadcasters, organizers, and fans.

Announced during Alibaba Cloud’s annual Apsara Conference 2019 in Hangzhou, the companies will further collaborate on four key technology solutions spanning 3D Athlete Tracking for the Olympic Games Tokyo 2020, as well as 360-degree 8K virtual reality, 3D digital twinning, and cloud broadcasting for both Tokyo 2020 and Beijing 2022. The strengthened partnership signals the companies’ commitment and readiness to commercialize, scale and launch these solutions ahead of the upcoming Games.

The following solutions will all leverage Alibaba Cloud’s technology and infrastructure:

• 360 8K VR: Provides an immersive 360-degree VR video experience to fans with 8K definition quality through 5G connections, eliminating dizziness for VR headset users and increasing bandwidth efficiency by more than 5 times.
• 3D Digital Twinning: Coupled with cloud-rendering technology, this solution makes it possible to simulate tracks, camera deployments, stadium seating, and in-stadium navigation services through 5G-powered VR for the benefit of athletes, broadcasters, spectators and venue owners.
• Cloud Broadcasting: As part of the OBS Cloud, launched in partnership with Olympic Broadcasting Services, the cloud broadcasting solution boosts efficiencies lost through offline and labor-based production while cutting costs.
• 3D Athlete Tracking: Adopts deep learning algorithms and analyzes and extracts data and forms of athletes in training or competition in real-time with standard cameras for the development of training or broadcasting applications.

This announcement is the latest in a string of initiatives through which Alibaba, as a TOP Partner, is working to digitize all aspects of the Olympic Games. In addition to jointly unveiling 3DAT with Intel in January 2019, Alibaba Cloud and the Olympic Broadcasting Services launched “OBS Cloud” last year, which is a broadcasting platform to support the content production and delivery workflows involved with the Olympic Games. OBS Cloud will be offered to rights-holding broadcasters as a cloud-based solution and will be in place for Tokyo 2020.